Introduction

Since 1972, a significant number of personnel have passed away following their military service for the New Zealand Defence Force in South Vietnam during years from 1964 to 1972.

An official nominal roll was never maintained of personnel who served for New Zealand Defence Force during the Vietnam war. It was by chance a military officer intercepted pay books on their way to destruction. From those books the officer created an unofficial nominal roll listing those who served and with which sub-unit. Some names on the list are repeated within various sub-units where an individual served more than one tour of duty.

A count of all names determined that just over 3200 personnel actually served, given those with two or more tours of duty.

Purpose

The purpose of this site is to list deceased New Zealand Defence Force personnel following their service in South Vietnam in order that a pattern of causation can be determined, such as deaths from cancers.

Of significance in the early 1980's an apparent causation of death was from abnormal health diseases and disorders, especially from cancer types that were uncommon, such as soft tissue sarcoma. At that time the stastical records indicated the USA population norm for that cancer as being 4:100,000. Forty years later, in 2010, the United Kingdom had a population of 62.77 million people, of whom 3300 were reported with soft tissue sarcoma.

Another factor highlighting issues among Vietnam veterans was an apparent disparity of the abnormal health diseases and disorders within that group and those who had served only in Malaysia and Borneo and not Vietnam. Initial root cause analysis by the Korea and Southeast Asia Forces Association indicated that the abnormal health diseases and disorders were NOT evident among personnel who had served in South East Asia but not Vietnam.

The New Zealand Ministry of Health in 2013 indicated the life expectancy at birth was 73.0 years for Maori males and 77.1 years for Maori females; it was 80.3 years for non-Maori males and 83.9 years for non-Maori females.

NOTE: The author has not regularly updated the listings since 2016 due to occupational and health reasons.

The listing is on the basis of:

• Service number
• Last name
• Initials
• Age
• Sub-unit
• Reported cause of death [Causation]
• Year of death
• Other reported medical conditions

The list does include those killed in action during tour of duty in South Vietnam.

Post an email notice to advise us of a deceased New Zealand Vietnam veteran details.
The recommended information can be viewed by clicking on the link below:

    Deceased New Zealand Vietnam veteran details.

Anzac Battalions Command and Support

Total served: 000. Total deceased: 28. Percentage deceased: 0%.
Average age: 0 years. [0 less (age unknown 0 + KIA/DOW 0 + accidents 0) = 0] . Gross age Calculations 0000/27

Updated 3 June 2019

No.	Service No.	Last Name	Init's	Year	Age	Sub-unit	Causation	Other Conditions
001	818129	Jennings	B J	NK	NK	4/6 RAR Spt Coy [RNZIR]	NK	NK
002	42770	Olsson	J W		NK	6 RAR Admin Coy [RNZIR]	Accident	NK
003	841612	Parker	J R F		NK	RNZIR, NZ Component, 1 ATF	Accident	NK
004	327395	Nixey	A D		NK	RNZIR, NZ Component, 1 ATF		NK
005	37938	Booth	A J	2005	64	ANZAC Bn [1970] 1 ATF [RNZIR]	Multiple Myeloma	NK
006	38284	Fraser	P G	2006	NK	ANZAC Bn 1 ATF[RNZsigs]	Cerebral brain haemorrhage	NK
007	42278	Nichols	D W	2002	NK	ANZAC Bn	Cancer	NK
08	645208	Bettin	D J	2007	NK	ANZAC Bn	NK	NK
009	215325	Vercoe	W	2007	NK	Chaplain, ANZAC Bn	NK	NK
010	209222	Monks	R A	2007	NK	ANZAC Bn, 1969	Multiple cancers
011	215243	Shaw	H I	2009	80	Chaplain, ANZAC Bn	NK	NK
012	215243	Shaw	H I	2009	80	Chaplain, ANZAC Bn	NK	NK
013	680320	Tahi	J R	2009	NK	NZ Component	Cancer
014	37137	Taylor	B R	2010	NK	NZ Component
015	43864	Newton	A	2010	NK	ANZAC Bn Comd
016	31352	Mataira	A T A	2011	NK	ANZAC Bn Comd, 1 ATF
017	43749	McWhinnie	M G	2011	NK	NZ Component, 1 ATF	NK	NK
018	304479	Manuera	I. E.	2012	NK	ANZAC Bn Comd, 1 ATF	NK	NK
019	708189	Tripp	H.F.	2013	NK	NZ Component, 1 ATF	NK	NK
020	580612	Cooper	W.C.	2013	NK	NZ Component, 1 ATF	Cancer: Lungs, kidneys, liver	Cancer: Brain
021	818560	Smith	B	2008	NK	NZ Component, 1 ATF
022	41770	Herewini	J A	2014	67	ANZAC Battalion
023	37086	Grant	L. D. MBE	2014	NK	ANZAC Battalion Comd
024	C625029	O'Connor	L. D. MBE	2015	76	RNZEME, NZ Comp	NK	NK
025	35383	Mciver	D. S. CMG, OBE	2016	80	RNZIR	NK	NK
026	477617	McIntyre	J. D.	2018	72	RNZIR	NK	NK
027	31359	Thorpe	R. I.	2019	88	2ic 4RAR/NZ ANZAC Bn