Yesterday was Anzac Day. A wonderful day where we as a nation remember the soldiers (including
sailors and airmen) fallen or who are no longer with us who fought to make our nation safe. Special
services allow us to remember them. We hear the Last Post, see the flags at half-mast, recite the
Ode of Remembrance. And with it being a hundred years since the folly that was the Gallipoli
campaign, we hear a lot about what our men endured during the horrendous campaign. And rightly
so. After all, it was a key time in our history as a nation. But, with such an emphasis on those who
have passed, we run the danger of neglecting those who are still with us and the suffering they are
enduring currently.
There have been many conflicts and war zones that our servicemen and women have entered that we know little or nothing about. Examples of those include the Malay Peninsula, Mururoa, East Timor, the first Gulf War, the second Gulf War, Afghanistan. What is life like for those men and women and their families? Are they suffering in silence? How has their service for country affected them and their lives?
Recently we had two challenging news reports on these oft forgotten veterans. Newshub reported on young veterans and the mental illness they deal with as they return from conflict zones. Stuff reported on the increased number of former military personnel who are now living on the streets. Both were good reminders that we would do well to remember and appreciate our silent veterans - those still with us who are suffering. Not just that, but also offer help where and when appropriate.
But there is one group that is silently suffering and dying who most of us give no regard to whatsoever. They are the Navy veterans who we as a nation sent to Mururoa in 1973. We sent them there as a visible force officially “protesting” the French testing of nuclear bombs on that remote Pacific atoll. Up until that time, despite small protests from concerned citizens, the world didn’t listen until HMNZS Otago and then her sister ship Canterbury with the support of HMAS Supply went to Mururoa. It went hand in hand with a international court case that the New Zealand government took against France regarding the nuclear tests. The 500 odd men on those frigates did their duty and despite Prime Minister of the time, Norman Kirk swearing to the men that the nation would never forget them, we turned around and did just that. We forgot them.
Now, 43 years on, many of those sailors have passed, often suffering from rare forms of cancer and leukemia. Their families suffer in silence along with their men. The men are now entitled to their own medal but how many of us know their stories? Sadly all too few. These men, who were involved in the foundation of this country’s nuclear free stance have been forgotten and marginalised for too long. This needs to end. We need to remember them and offer them our heartfelt thanks. We need to support their families who have had to watch those veterans slowly lose their fight with cancer or leukemia and have now passed away leaving a vacuum in their family’s lives.
Yes we need to remember those who fought and died for us in years gone by but we also need to remember those who served and who are now suffering. After all, Anzac Day is not just about Gallipoli, it is our day to remember all of our military personnel, past and present, who gave their lives that we may live in relative peace and safety.
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DISCLAIMER: I am part of the Junior Executive for the Mururoa Nuclear Veterans Group Inc, a group set up to raise awareness of what the veterans went through, support Mururoa veterans and to call the government to recognise the veterans as nuclear testing victims. My father served on HMNZS Otago when it was sent to Mururoa.
There have been many conflicts and war zones that our servicemen and women have entered that we know little or nothing about. Examples of those include the Malay Peninsula, Mururoa, East Timor, the first Gulf War, the second Gulf War, Afghanistan. What is life like for those men and women and their families? Are they suffering in silence? How has their service for country affected them and their lives?
Recently we had two challenging news reports on these oft forgotten veterans. Newshub reported on young veterans and the mental illness they deal with as they return from conflict zones. Stuff reported on the increased number of former military personnel who are now living on the streets. Both were good reminders that we would do well to remember and appreciate our silent veterans - those still with us who are suffering. Not just that, but also offer help where and when appropriate.
But there is one group that is silently suffering and dying who most of us give no regard to whatsoever. They are the Navy veterans who we as a nation sent to Mururoa in 1973. We sent them there as a visible force officially “protesting” the French testing of nuclear bombs on that remote Pacific atoll. Up until that time, despite small protests from concerned citizens, the world didn’t listen until HMNZS Otago and then her sister ship Canterbury with the support of HMAS Supply went to Mururoa. It went hand in hand with a international court case that the New Zealand government took against France regarding the nuclear tests. The 500 odd men on those frigates did their duty and despite Prime Minister of the time, Norman Kirk swearing to the men that the nation would never forget them, we turned around and did just that. We forgot them.
Now, 43 years on, many of those sailors have passed, often suffering from rare forms of cancer and leukemia. Their families suffer in silence along with their men. The men are now entitled to their own medal but how many of us know their stories? Sadly all too few. These men, who were involved in the foundation of this country’s nuclear free stance have been forgotten and marginalised for too long. This needs to end. We need to remember them and offer them our heartfelt thanks. We need to support their families who have had to watch those veterans slowly lose their fight with cancer or leukemia and have now passed away leaving a vacuum in their family’s lives.
Yes we need to remember those who fought and died for us in years gone by but we also need to remember those who served and who are now suffering. After all, Anzac Day is not just about Gallipoli, it is our day to remember all of our military personnel, past and present, who gave their lives that we may live in relative peace and safety.
********************
DISCLAIMER: I am part of the Junior Executive for the Mururoa Nuclear Veterans Group Inc, a group set up to raise awareness of what the veterans went through, support Mururoa veterans and to call the government to recognise the veterans as nuclear testing victims. My father served on HMNZS Otago when it was sent to Mururoa.
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