Meet Ali Aindow, our new Treasurer
Lt Ali Aindow RN
15 Sep 2023 - I am delighted to announce that Alice ‘Ali’ Aindow kindly consented to supersede Peter Davis as Honorary Treasurer of the MCDOA early in the year and was confirmed in the post at our online AGM in July. Please join me in thanking Peter for all his efforts over the past few years to ensure the continuing success of our organisation.
Passing out of BRNC in 2014, Ali began her warfare career serving in HMS BULWARK and HMS DEFENDER for her specialist fleet time. During this period, she deployed to the middle east on KIPION, the far east and the Mediterranean on OP WEALD, rescuing stricken migrants. On receipt of her black book, Ali began her complementary assignment in Faslane serving with MCM1 Crew 1 as the Gunnery Officer. A deployment in the KIPION JOA concluded with the infamous ‘Sail Back’ which was easily a highlight of her career thus far.
Fortunate enough to get a place on MCDO course, the real highlight of her career began in 2018 getting very familiar with Horsea Island and the word ‘AWKWARD’. Post MWO and bombs courses, she was assigned back to Scotland to MCM1 where she would spend her Ops time deploying to KIPION twice, and then as XO deploying three more times. In September 2022, she completed her Command Qualification One (CQ1) which built the foundations for the future to fulfil her ambition of Commanding a warship, and since has been working on her exams to complete her CQ2.
Post her XO role, Ali was lucky enough to be assigned to Delta Diving Unit 1 (DDU1) as the Officer in Charge in Jan 23. The dream job for an MCDO came to fruition working within DTXG which offered the opportunity to attend IEDD course, and qualify as a maritime EOD operator. DDU1 specialises in expeditionary diving, operating globally to support the fleet in underwater force protection, in water maintenance and repair, and provide a force element against EOD/ IED threats. An extremely exciting and fulfilling role, which is an absolute privilege to lead such a driven and motivated team.
Ali lives in Southsea with her partner and their Labrador/Collie cross who keeps them on their toes and in her spare time, is a keen sportswoman getting involved in almost anything. She has represented the RN in netball, playing in Switzerland, the Channel Islands and touring in Fiji. More recently, her focus has shifted to triathlon achieving an Ironman 70.3 in 2022 with the aim of completing another one in the future. The most recent sporting achievement is being selected to take part in the 2024 ‘Worlds toughest row’ as part of the RNs first all-female team consisting of 4 women rowing the Atlantic. Estimated to take 40-50 days, rowing two hours on, two hours off, Ali is incredibly excited about the challenge and the huge campaign leading up to the row raising money for multiple charities with a focus around mental health awareness.
We wish Ali well in her future career and extramural activities and thank her for undertaking her role performing ‘hard sums’ on behalf of our Association.