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English: Royal New Zealand Chef Petty Officer Paul 'Tug' Wilson uses his vast skills and experience to produce delicious nutritional food for the Littoral Warfare Unit during Rim of the Pacific 2016.Tug deployed with the team as their chef, where the unit lives and works under field conditions right beside a small harbor by the end of an airport runway.

He produces three meals a day sourcing ingredients from local stores and suppliers, makes up packed meals when crews are away on assignment and makes sure they have re-hydration packs to help with the Hawaii heat. He like to be creative, and cooked fresh tuna one evening.

"Ice cream has been a favorite, but I make sure they also get lots of fresh fruit too".

Other services at RIMPAC have also been following how successful having their own chef on the team, and are considering doing adopting the same idea for future exercises.

"I like to make 'Tent Life' as comfortable as possible, and it's great to be able to contribute. I really love my job, and hope to be doing this in the Royal New Zealand Navy for another 10 years to come!"

Twenty-six nations, more than 40 ships and submarines, more than 200 aircraft and 25,000 personnel are participating in RIMPAC from June 30 to Aug. 4, in and around the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California. The world's largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity that helps participants foster and sustain the cooperative relationships that are critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security on the world's oceans. RIMPAC 2016 is the 25th exercise in the series that began in 1971. (Photo by New Zealand Defence Force - Defence Public Affairs Photographer Petty Officer Chris Weissenborn).

Unit: Commander, U.S. 3rd Fleet