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.

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The recommended information can be viewed by clicking on the link below:

    Deceased New Zealand Vietnam veteran details.

Total served: 000

Total deceased: 48

Percentage deceased: 0.0%

Back to Index

No.	Service No.	Last Name	Init's	Year	Age	Sub-unit	Causation	Other Conditions
001	30718	Birks	A L	2002	NK	1 ATF RNZIR	Heart Attack	NK
002	30654	Cameron	D C G	1991	NK	1 ATF, RNZChD	NK	NK
003	37395	Collinson	J D	1993	NK	1 ATF, RNZIR	NK	NK
004	329183	Armstrong	A G	1986	NK	1 ALSG	NK	NK
005	80698	Byrom	J W	1987	NK	1 ALSG RNZAOC	Cancer	NK
006	A208196	Cummins	J R	1998	NK	1 ALSG RNZAMC	Heart Attack	NK
007	T34195	Hamilton	A C	1997	NK	1 ALSG	NK	NK
008	N720096	Hawkins	L R	1996	52	1 ALSG	Acute heart failure	Skin rashes
009	39159	Jobe	J N	1979	NK	1 ALSG RNZCT	Natural	NK
010	A722637	Keating	G R	1997	NK	1 ALSG RNZPro	NK	NK
011	33378	Keinzley	P T	NK	NK	1 ALSG RNZCT	NK	NK
012	305501	Kena	H J	2001	NK	1 ALSG RNZA	NK	NK
013	36259	Marchant	K G	2003	NK	1 ALSG RNZASC	NK	NK
014	205087	Mawson	J W	2001	NK	1 ALSG RNZAC	NK	NK
015	A828598	Newnham	M F	1996	NK	1 ALSG RNZAOC	Natural	NK
016	30598	Ross	M J	2003	NK	1 ALSG RNZAOC	NK	NK
017	797120	Skilton	R L	1996	NK	1 ALSG	NK	NK
018	38835	Thomason	R C	NK	NK	1 ALSG	NK	NK
019	W36245	Tyms	W S	1993	NK	1 ALSG RNZASC	NK	NK
020	33128	Burtt	P J	1984	NK	NZ Component RNZIR	NK	NK
021	71327	Fincham	E J	1975	NK	NZ Component	NK	NK
022	41101	Johnstone	N B	1997	NK	NZ Component	Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma	NK
023	206515	McKenzie	A K S	1988	NK	NZ Component RNZIR	NK	NK
024	39166	Parsons	P R	1991	NK	NZ Component	Heart Attack	NK
025	G42211	Von Rickenbach	C R	1996	NK	NZ Component	NK	NK
026	T213273	Wicksteed	R K	1993	NK	NZ Component RNZIR	NK	NK
027	33894	Roe	B G	1996	NK	Aust Trg RNZIR	Heart	NK
028	514047	Samuels	T	1975	NK	Aust TRG RNZIR	Cancer	NK
029	E469158	Bourke	P J	2000	NK	AFV Unit RNZPro	NK	NK
030	5593929	Tippett	V J	1999	NK	5 Tpt Coy RNZASC	Accident	NK
031	42785	Balance	J	1988	NK	3 CAV RAAC
032	H39498	Hudson	JJ N	1989	NK	3 CAV	Suddenly
033	A33143	Presland	J R	2003	70	NZ Component	NK	NK
034	37821	Calder	D McB	2003	NK	1 ALSG	NK	NK
035	411418	Wallace	R W	2001	NK	6 RAR, RAINF	Suicide	NK
036	30864	MacDonald	K D	2000	NK	1 Aust FD	NK	NK
037	31161	Flowerday	J D	2000	79	1 ALSG	Heart failure	Prostate cancer
038	78541	Thompson	B T	2006	NK	1 ALSG, RNZIR	NK	NK
039	304704	Catterick	L J	2007	NK	1 ALSG, RNZ Prov Corp	Cancer	NK
040	74972	McKenzie A.S.	A.S.	2007	NK	1 ATF, RNZ Chaplains Dept		NK
041	40551	Finlay	P.P.	2008	79	NZ Component, RNZIR		NK
042	212120	Diffin	D.	2008		NZ Component, RNZIR		NK
043	36419	Dawe	D. A.	2009	NL	NZ Component, RNZIR		NK
044	30688	Aldridge	T. A., CBE	2011	NK	NZ Component, RNZIR	NL	NK
45	969919	Wilson	R. S. E.	2016	82	RNZIR	NK	NK
046	623736	Whiting	L. K.	2016	NK	NZ Component, RNZIR	NK	NK
047	P655260	Rasmussen	R. L. G.	2015	NK	NZ Component, RNZIR	NK	NK
48	35341	Dixon	J. A.	<2018	83	1 ATF, RNZIR	NK	NK