Retrospective Reclassification of Service and the Recognition of Service.

Introduction

On 16 July 2024, the Australian Peacekeeper and Peacemaker Veterans’ Association, facilitated two working groups focusing on the retrospective reclassification of service and the recognition of service. The article highlights key discussions and outcomes acknowledging the efforts of various individuals in advocating for the recognition of warlike service and the need for transparent explanations in cases of disallowance and provides our thoughts on the way ahead.

We emphasise the intrinsic danger of all service and the similarity in physical and emotional impact whether an injury or loss of life occurs during training or in a warlike environment. If after transitioning you look down and see one leg and not two, then you have lost a leg, and at that time it does not matter then what the conditions of service were. At the end of the day you have lost a leg because you took an oath to serve the country.?

Likewise at the extreme when a veteran is killed during training or killed during another service activity then the veteran is dead.?? It is the same type of “deadness” in both situations, and loved ones grieve in pretty much the same way.? Is the operational need to identify in an area of operations as Warlike or Non-Warlike is truly related to its application on a veteran post transition, or are the two issues mutually exclusive post transition?

What had piqued my interest was the unbelievable effort that people went to such as Ray Fulcherr, Ted Chitham , and Russell Linwood, ASM , to name a few of the veterans I was aware of in the Rifle Company Butterworth Review Group.

The Working Group

Thank you to Paul Copeland and others who are representing various groups for bring this up. At the working group we had two options to approach this at the outset and a simplification of it is to say that we could prepare to draft volumes of documents with the high chance of being told "no" with very little transparency behind that decision, or we could approach it differently.

During the retrospective classification working group we asked all, "what is it that they are seeking at the end of the day if they removed all the emotion and complexities."? While there are more considerations, for brevity's sake, the focus was clearly on timely medical care post-transition. This was important because you do not receive the following without war service:

• The War Service Pension,
• Gold Card eligibility at age 70,
• A beneficial approach for automatic acceptance of claims of Mental Illnesses,
• Benefits for the family of a loved one killed, and
• A beneficial approach for basis of evidence as the Reasonable Hypothesis, with the Statement of Principles (SOP) and we will stop there because that is entering the complex nature of things.

Recognition of service had the same ultimate end state, and also had to the veterans and their groups, a need to be recognised for the service they undertook and medallic recognition is very important, however before that even gets underway it is the classification of the operation that determines what the veteran gets in terms of health care after transition.

Your Focus While Serving

While in service, the emphasis on classifying an operation in which you are involved may seem trivial. However, ensuring proper classification becomes imperative to guarantee consistent care for veterans post transition. Reflecting on this, we questioned whether the consideration given to classifying an operation encompasses the holistic well-being of veterans for whole of veteran life. Is there a potential bias towards military operational needs over veteran welfare considerations?

Post-Transition Mutual Exclusivity

Upon transition, it appears that the focus may be predominantly on operational aspects rather than anticipating the challenges veterans may encounter post-transition. If anyone possesses insights into how operation classifications are determined within NOSB and whether there is a comprehensive consideration for veterans' well-being post-transition, please contact me.

Options

We have outlined three potential strategies, with the first two running concurrently:

• Option 1: Engage with the Office of the Vice Chief of the Defence Force, who appears responsible for the recommendation of service classification, and to advocate for comprehensive support encompassing veterans' well-being.
• Option 2: Prepare submissions for the Inquiry into Defence Honours and Awards system by the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Reference Committee, due by 30 August 2024.
• Option 3: Continue pursuing approaches that have yielded varied results over time.

We will be progressing down these shortly.

Membership to the Working Groups

Reclassification of Service Working Group (most attended yesterday)

• Working Group Co-Chair.?? Ian Lindgren, Chairperson Australian Peacekeeper and Peacemaker Veterans’ Association.
• Working Group Co-Chair.? Paul Copeland Project Manager.
• Public Information.? LTCOL Phil Pyke, OAM (Retired).
• Veteran Subject Matter Expert: Paul Copeland (Lead Advocate).
• Veteran and POC Commonwealth Monitoring Force - Rhodesia: Dick Clark.
• Veteran and POC UNTSO Veterans1: BRIG Allan Murray (Retried).
• Veteran and POC UNTSO Veterans 2: MAJ Ray Williams, OAM (Retired).
• Veteran and POC ASCH Iraq Veterans 1:? COL David Ross, CSC (Retired).
• Veteran and POC ASCH Iraq Veterans 2:? MAJ Mark Little (Retired).
• Veteran and POC HMAS SUPPLY (I) Nuclear Testing (Mururoa Atoll):? LEUT Harry Noe, RAN (Retired).
• Veteran Group POC:? As the Working Group develops, there may be additional individuals or groups who may wish to participate in this Working Group.
• Co-Opted Members.? As needed.
• Total: 10 permanent members.

??Membership to the Working Group

Recognition of Service Working Group (most attended yesterday)

• Co-Chair. Ian Lindgren, Chairperson Australian Peacekeeper and Peacemaker Veterans’ Association.
• Co-Chair. Paul Copeland OAM JP (Project Manager)
• Public Information. LTCOL Phil Pyke, OAM, (Retired)
• Veteran Recognition subject Mater Expert: Paul Copeland (Lead Advocate)
• Veteran Group Point of Contact (POC) UNTSO: BRIG Allan Murray (Retired)
• Veteran Group POC CMF-R: Dick Clark.
• Veteran Group POC HMAS SUPPLY (I): LEUT Harry Noe, RAN (Retired).
• Veteran Group POC ADF HADR 1: LTCOL David Wilson.
• Veteran Group POC ADF HADR 2: WGCDR Paul Bowler.
• Veteran Group POC SIGINT SCO: BRIG Peter Lambert (Retired).
• Veteran Group POC Commando: Jeremy Stredwick.
• Co-Opted Members. As needed.
• Total: 10 permanent members.

Outcomes

The outcomes will be written up tomoorw and circulated and then placed on the Australian Peacekeeper and Peacemaker Veterans’ Association website and extranet for all to see.

Next Meeting

The next meeting will be 7 Aug 24.