KEY POINTS:
In 1970, a young New Zealand soldier, known for his offbeat humour and generosity of spirit returned home after serving time as a gunner in Vietnam.
Just 24 years old, little did Alistair Ross know that his tour of duty had left his body poisoned, through exposure to toxic chemicals such as Agent Orange.
However, blissful ignorance did not last long. Mr Ross soon experienced the onset of illness that would blight the remainder of his life.
Mr Ross battled cancer, and the failure of most of his major organs, for the following three decades until he failed to awake from a pain-wracked coma in 2004, aged 58.
Before he died, believing he had weeks left to live, Mr Ross called on friend and fellow Vietnam veteran Chris Mullane to make a video recording to be played at his funeral.
However, the next day, when Mr Mullane arrived at his house, he was hastened to his old friend's deathbed, told by his son he had only hours left.
"He lived for another five hours and I got to spend that time with him which was a real privilege," Mr Mullane said.
Drifting in and out of a coma, during one of his lucid moments, Mr Ross grabbed Mr Mullane by the shirt - "one last big effort on his part.
"He just said `Chris you have to do something about this for our mates and for their families'."
The deathbed wish had a life-changing impact on Mr Mullane.
"That's what drives me. In the deepest darkest moments and the deepest darkest hours when I think we're not getting anywhere, I might as well get on with my life, that image of him admonishing me to do something spurs me on."
He volunteered for the Ex-Vietnam Services Association (EVSA) and became involved in the campaign to raise awareness of the devastating effects of the defoliants used by the United States military in Vietnam.
That campaign reaches a critical point tomorrow, when New Zealand's Vietnam veterans receive formal acknowledgement from the Crown of the ill treatment they received.
On the eve of the apology, Mr Mullane credited the many people who fought the fight before him.
"Thirty years before I got involved, there's been people who have been devoting their lives to this."
People such as John Moller, the last president of the Vietnam Veterans Association, had campaigned for awareness of the issues without support even from other veterans.
Mr Mullane said it was not until Parade 98, a public commemoration organised by veterans, that the tide really turned in terms of awareness within the veteran community.
"When people got together and talked and realised how many veterans had died, or had cancer, it immediately started to raise the awareness.
"A lot of good things came out of that.
"The team who organised that needs to be applauded."
Mr Mullane said the New Zealand Defence Force had been advised the defoliants caused cancer as early as 1980.
"So how come it took until 2003 for that information to be made public?"
It was either gross incompetence, or a cover-up, he said.
"I can understand how veterans or families who have lost their loved ones early in life believe it was a cover-up."
Mr Mullane said hard evidence in the form of the John Masters map, which showed heavy spraying in Phuoc Tuy province, where most of the New Zealand soldiers spent time in Vietnam, was the final straw that forced the parliamentary select committee's hand in 2004.
The committee concluded there was direct proof New Zealand soldiers had been exposed to toxic, cancer-causing chemicals. This was in direct contradiction to two previous reports, the Reeves inquiry and the McLeod Report, both of which had concluded otherwise.
Mr Mullane said veterans and their families had been badly treated by protesters while opposition raged over the war in the 1960s and 1970s. Some of their actions had been unbelievably cruel.
Protest letters outlining outrage at the war were sent to families of young soldiers serving in Vietnam. After the publication of death notices in newspapers, some grieving widows or parents received letters saying "he got what he deserved", Mr Mullane said.
Others received letters drafted to look like official correspondence, advising them their loved one had died. They would subsequently find out the letter was fake, but often only after considerable delay.
"That was their way of protesting," Mr Mullane said.
"It was scandalous."
Furthermore, many veterans looking for support and understanding at their local Returned and Services Association (RSA) had been given the cold shoulder.
Mr Mullane said the impression was the revered veterans of the earlier wars were embarrassed by these younger veterans of an unpopular war, largely disliked by the general public.
They did not want to be tarred with the same brush as the polarising Vietnam veterans. Some branches banned Vietnam veterans from joining.
However, more recently, the RSA had backed the EVSA in its battle to have health issues experienced by the veterans acknowledged.
Mr Mullane said the veterans were expecting an apology from the RSA to be made over Queen's Birthday Weekend, when a three-day commemoration, called Tribute08, will be held.
Preceding the weekend would be the Crown apology, to be delivered by Prime Minister Helen Clark, in Parliament.
Mr Mullane said veterans hoped the apology would address the main issues they faced; that it would acknowledge the denials and mistreatment experienced by veterans; and that it would also recognise the veterans were doing their duty when they served in Vietnam.
The EVSA had pushed to have the apology read in Parliament - a first for a formal crown apology - because the organisation wanted it on the Hansard record.
"The reason for that, is there has just been so much untruth in Hansard about this issue, we want it in the record of the nation."
The EVSA wanted it on record that the Reeves report, and its "nonsensical result," and the McLeod report were wrong.
Mr Mullane said it was important the apology was given that gravitas, that "standing and mana".
The focal point of Tribute08 would be the whakanoa, or tapu-lifting ceremony, to be held at Parliament following an honour march from Civic Square starting at 10am.
The ceremony would be held to cleanse the spirits of the 37 New Zealanders who died in Vietnam, and all those veterans who had died since.
Mr Mullane said he expected it to be a poignant, moving ceremony.
Of the men he served with in Vietnam - Mr Mullane was in company Victor 6, the last combat troops to be sent to Vietnam, in 1971 - about a third were now deceased. Most had died of cancer-related illness, some had taken their own lives, unable to cope.
"I'm 60 now, and some of these guys were younger than me. Most were in their 40s and 50s.
"It's too early to be dying."
He said 2500 people were expected to attend Tribute08.
"My biggest expectation is by coming together again, showing solidarity, that in itself will contribute to the healing process."
- NZPA
