Rank:
Able Seaman
Birth date:
28.09.1938
Service Number:
15802
Date Joined:
26.01.1956
Date Discharged:
27.09.1964
Death date:
09.05.2009
Place of death:
Auckland, New Zealand
Display No. 15G
WEAVER, David Maurice
David Weaver joined the Royal New Zealand Navy in 1956. He served in HMNZS Rotoiti, and in 1957 was present at the first three Operation Grapple nuclear tests at Malden Island in the central Pacific. Weaver served in several other RNZN vessels during his naval career including the commissioning journey of HMNZS Otago and its first deployment to sea. He was discharged from the Navy in 1964.
New Zealand Special Service Medal (Nuclear Testing), Operation Grapple Medal
Awarded medal(s)
Medal Description [Left to Right]:
New Zealand Special Service Medal (Nuclear Testing)
The New Zealand Special Service Medal (Nuclear Testing) was awarded to personnel who were part of an official New Zealand Government presence at atmospheric nuclear tests between 1956 and 1973. This includes naval personnel who served in HMNZ Ships Pukaki and Rotoiti at Operation Grapple (British nuclear weapon tests in the Pacific), in 1957-58, as well as those aboard RNZN vessels sent to protest French nuclear tests at Mururoa Atoll in July 1973. The medal is gilt. The obverse of the medal features a representation of the New Zealand Coat of Arms. The reverse features a representation of a bouquet of New Zealand flora, composed of fern fronds and sprigs of blossom of pohutukawa, manuka, kowhai and Mt Cook lilies with a scroll inscribed “For Special Service”. The ribbon is 32mm in width with an orange-yellow central stripe with Crimson, red, white and black stripes. The central stripe of the ribbon represents the core of the nuclear explosion fireball and stripes either side allude to the red luminous spherical wave formation radiating from it. The black represents the destruction caused by the explosion.
Operation Grapple Medal
Unofficial medal created by the veterans of Operation Grapple. Operation Grapple was a series of nuclear tests conducted in the mid-Pacific by the British Government from May 1957 – September 1958.