KEY POINTS:
Denny Lawton is not afraid to speak her mind about her son's death.
This week, in front of Australian Defence Force heads opening a base named after the New Zealand-born soldier, she called him a "sacrificial lamb".
Captain Paul Lawton was in the Australian Army for 16 years
before he died in August on a freighter carrying a consignment of tanks from the United States to Melbourne.
The 36-year-old was head of a security detail guarding the coveted Abrams tanks despite having a serious heart condition that classified him as fit for desk duties only.
A military board of inquiry is investigating his death.
His mother blames the Army, saying it wrongly cleared him for the operation and then failed to evacuate him from the freighter after he fell ill in Baltimore and rapidly deteriorated on the journey back to Australia.
"The Army are responsible for Paul's death," Mrs Lawton, originally from Napier, told the Weekend Herald.
"They had plenty of windows of opportunity to evacuate him out of there."
She attended the opening of the Army's Paul Lawton Memorial Tank Instructional Facility in Bandiana, Victoria, on Monday but, despite kissing her hand to a plague honouring her son and accepting a hug from Australian Defence Minister Brendan Nelson, she had mixed emotions.
"I feel it's the Army making themselves feel good, but I also feel at least it's some recognition for Paul."
Confidential transcripts from the military investigation show Captain Lawton made repeated satellite phone calls to his superiors and asked for medical assistance while the freighter was anchored for four days off Panama - the last port where he would have been able to seek help before Tahiti.
The transcripts also suggest he downplayed his condition, and Mrs Lawton admits he wanted to be part of the operation despite being classified as unfit for deployment.
"He wanted to go because at the time when he was leaving he was fit, fine and healthy."
He had been diagnosed with the heart condition, cardiomyopathy, in 2003, and eventually died, she was told, with his hands clenched, gasping, and with froth coming out his mouth.
Mrs Lawton had nothing but praise for two young troopers who, with the freighter's civilian captain, followed instructions from a doctor over the satellite phone to try to treat her son.
"They should stand tall and be proud," she said. "Their efforts were gallant."
The eldest of four siblings and a father of one, Paul Lawton moved to Australia with his family as a teenager but still called New Zealand home, his mother said.
He was in a class for gifted students at high school and after a stint labouring, joined the Army at 19.
He earned a degree in electrical and mechanical engineering, and was proud of his career.
"He was a dedicated and committed soldier," Mrs Lawton said.
Now, she hopes the investigation will find someone accountable for her son's death.
"I want to embarrass the Army, embarrass the Government, and hope the next time somebody calls for help they will take notice."
