Agent Orange New Zeland: Battler for veterans denied payout

Bev Christie has been fighting Veterans' Affairs for two years for a $25,000 ex gratia payment she believes she is entitled to.

Bev Christie's husband, Sam, died in November 2009 of a combination of diseases, some of which were recognised by Veterans' Affairs as attributable to his military service in Vietnam.

Sam Christie's death certificate did not say he died of chloracne, he said. "We were not able to make a decision that she wanted on the facts of the case."

Bev Christie said there used to be the benefit of the doubt for veterans before Ottaway took over the administration of Veterans' Affairs. She had received no help from Veterans' Affairs after her husband's death, she said.

"I don't care if I don't get the money now, as long as it wakes people up to the fact of how widows are being treated.

"Until you are actually a widow yourself, you don't realise how much they are left out ... it's like we're just expected to forget and go away," she said.

The Source

New Zealand: Park named after Vietnam veteran

Park named after Vietnam veteran

Sands said that probably reflected the longstanding government and public antipathy to the Vietnam War.

However, a "healing process" had since begun and the council had relented.

Parekura received a mention in dispatches for saving the life of a fellow Kiwi soldier in Vietnam in 1971. He served there as a rifleman for most of that year.

Parekura joined the army in 1969 and retired, with the rank of warrant officer, in 1989. His death in 2004 was attributed to being soaked in Agent Orange while on jungle patrol.

Doreen Parekura said the naming of the reserve was "a privilege" for her husband and their family.