NAVY medic Petty Officer Stephen Slattery, part of the medical team sent to the Indonesian island of Nias to help victims of the Easter Monday earthquake, was told of his deployment only on Wednesday of last week.

Petty Officer Slattery, 38, met his wife in the early 1990s at the former HMAS Nirimba naval base at Quakers Hill in Sydney’s northwest where she was employed as a domestic and he worked in the medical centre.

[Noelene] said he had been devoted to his work at the naval medical centre at HMAS Kuttabul, on Sydney’s Garden Island, never complaining about the long hours.

NAVY medic Petty Officer Stephen Slattery, part of the medical team sent to the Indonesian island of Nias to help victims of the Easter Monday earthquake, was told of his deployment only on Wednesday of last week.

By Thursday he was on the way. By Saturday he was dead, one of the nine Australian defence force personnel killed when the Sea King helicopter they were travelling in crashed on Nias while coming in to land on a soccer field.

His death has left behind his heartbroken wife Noelene and her two children he raised as his own — Tracy, 32, and Shaun, 29.

Petty Officer Slattery, 38, met his wife in the early 1990s at the former HMAS Nirimba naval base at Quakers Hill in Sydney’s northwest where she was employed as a domestic and he worked in the medical centre.

Friends and family who gathered at the family home at Cranebrook in Sydney’s west to support Noelene yesterday described their relationship as “a real love match” and his death as “the worst tragedy”.

“He can’t be replaced,” said Noelene. “He was completely devoted to me.” Laughing briefly through her tears, she suggested to her women friends, who were sticking close by her side, that they were jealous.

“He liked to take me away on romantic weekends,” she said. “I will never find another one like him. He was just wonderful, he truly was, and he just loved the kids. He never said, `These are my step-children’. He said, `These are my daughter and my son’. He was a good man.”

Until yesterday, when the family broke its silence, few personal details had emerged about the ninth victim of the Sea King crash.

He was remembered as a good-hearted man with a fun-loving personality and a unique sense of humour. He loved fishing, golf and a good gossip over the back fence, but, above all, he loved his family.

Noelene said he had been devoted to his work at the naval medical centre at HMAS Kuttabul, on Sydney’s Garden Island, never complaining about the long hours.

“He loved his work,” she said. “He wasn’t worried about going (to Nias). That was part of his job.”

While Shaun was too upset to speak, Tracy spoke highly of a man who never let the children down.

“He was like a brother, he was our dad,” Tracy said.

“I have known him for half my life. There was nothing he wouldn’t do for us kids. He went out of his way for us. We were always clowning around together. He was exceptionally supportive. There were things going on with me, and he would never hesitate to step out and help.”

Petty Officer Slattery also leaves two grandchildren, Joelene, 7, and Thomas, 5.