More on medals

There has been much happening on the medal front over the last two months. With The Queen’s consent, a further new medal has been instituted, the New Zealand Special Service Medal (NZSSM), the first recipients of which will be New Zealand personnel who witnessed atmospheric nuclear tests in the 1950s and 1970s.

Minister of Veterans’ Affairs, Mark Burton says the new medal will recognise service to New Zealand in very difficult, adverse, extreme or hazardous circumstances. "Such service," he says, "often involves risk – whether physical, environmental or psychological – similar to operational service, without fitting the criteria of operational service."

Mr Burton says the medal will initially be awarded to New Zealand Service personnel and civilians who were part of an official New Zealand presence at an atmospheric nuclear test including the British tests at Christmas and Malden Islands (Operation Grapple) and in Australia 1956-57, the American tests in Nevada in 1957 and Eniwetok Atoll in 1958. Also eligible are those observing the French testing at Mururoa Atoll in 1973. Approximately 1100 people will qualify for the NZSSM which will also be available to the families of eligible deceased personnel.

	New Zealand Special Service Medal

The New Zealand Special Service Medal is gold plated and bears on the obverse the New Zealand Coat of Arms and on the reverse a representation of a bouquet of New Zealand flora. It is inscribed "For Special Service. Its ribbon has an orange-yellow centre with crimson, red, white and black stripes on either side.

The New Zealand Operational Service Medal (NZOSM), the institution of which was announced last June is currently being manufactured and will be available for distribution in July.

The 1948-49 Berlin Airlift is just one of a number of operations that had not had previous medallic acknowledgement but has now been recognised by the award of the NZOSM.

New Zealand Operational Service Medal

Silver-plated, it bears the New Zealand Coat of Arms on the obverse and a kiwi facing right on the reverse and is inscribed "For Operational Service". The medal is suspended from a black and white ribbon. It is estimated that some 50,000 personnel, both retired and serving will be eligible for the NZOSM.

Both medals were shown for the first time, by the Prime Minister at the recent function onboard HMNZS Te Kaha launching the ANZAC biscuit partnership between RNZRSA and Unibic Pty, Ltd.

In February, Defence Minister Mark Burton announced that New Zealand has accepted the Australian International Force East Timor (INTERFET) Medal for qualified personnel. He said approximately 1300 NZDF personnel served with INTERFET, 900 of whom would be eligible to receive and wear the medal.

At a special ceremony at Parliament House, Australian Army Chief, Lieutenant General Peter Cosgrove presented the first INTERFET Medals to six members of NZDF.

Last month, also at Parliament, Prime Minister Helen Clark and Veterans’ Affairs Minister Mark Burton presented the first medals to veterans for service in five separate operations between 1946 and 1994 which had not previously received medallic recognition.

The ceremony launched the distribution of the New Zealand Service Medal 1946-49 to crew members of HMNZ Ships Achilles and Gambia in Japan, the NZ General Service Medal "Near East" to HMNZS Royalist at Suez, General Service Medal "Malay Peninsula" for HMNZ Ships Royalist (1965) and Otago (1966) during Confrontation, NZ General Service Medal "Vietnam" for persons who served in Vietnam without qualifying for the Vietnam Medal and NZ General Service Medal "Rwanda" for RNZAF peace support operations 1994.

Veterans who consider they may be eligible for any of these medals should write to: Staff Officer Medals, HQ New Zealand Defence Force, Private Bag 905, Upper Hutt, enclosing as much detail of service as possible.