Veteran campaigns for overdue honour

CLIFTON SPRINGS Navy veteran Derek Haayema is renewing a 25-year campaign for the Australian government to award military medals to personnel of a courageous border protection medal.

A legislative loophole has left Mr Haayema and dozens more Australian sailors without due recognition for their feats in the freezing and treacherous Southern Ocean in the late 1990s.

Mr Haayema will meet with Corangamite MP Libby Coker next week and hopes to escalate the issue to new Defence Minister Richard Marles .

The former sailor said the omission has caused significant anger and anguish among his comrades, many of whom have suffered from conditions including post traumatic stress disorder in its aftermath.

“You would think this is really simple. We could all go away and feel good about ourselves if we were acknowledged properly,” Mr Haaymea said.

“It’s about respect and honour. It’s one of the virtues of the Navy.

“These are the sorts of things that drag down those that really did dig deep through these sorts of operations.”

Mr Haayema’s call relates to a 1997 Royal Australian Navy mission called Operation Dirk, to prevent illegal ocean harvests of the deep-dwelling pantagonian toothfish and protect the important fishing industries of Mr Haayema’s hometown of Albany, Western Australia.

The mission involved travelling thousands of kilometres offshore towards Antarctic waters, where the HMAS Westralian and HMAS ANZAC would detect, follow and board hostile international fishing ships.

Notoriously dangerous conditions in the rough Southern Ocean tested even the hardest of Navy sailors, who endured waves peaking at 35 metres, freezing temperatures and pelting winds.

While the mission has earned commendation as worthy of a border protection medal, a host of sailors have missed out on the honour.

The Westralia’s crew is ineligible for the Australian Operational Service Medal (AOSM) because it finished its mission seven days earlier than the required 30-day stint for the border protection medal.

The exclusion has outraged Operation Dirk veterans who say the timeframe fails to account for training and preparation for the specialist mission, which required them to pack the maximum amount of food and supplies for a lengthy stint at sea.

“This is a specific mission that they’ve named, but just because we were too good at our job… you may as well forget about our mission,” Mr Haayema said.

The veteran said he hoped the new federal government would consider correcting the omission and award personnel an AOSM.

Mr Haayema will meet with Ms Coker next week and will also lobby Mr Marles, who has ministerial powers to overturn the anomaly.