VANZ News Issue 3
![VANZ News Issue 1 [pdf, 684kb]](images/minister.jpg)
Minister's Message
On 4 August New Zealand awoke to the terrible news that it had lost its first serviceman in Afghanistan.
Lieutenant Timothy O’Donnell, from Feilding, was the first New Zealand combat soldier to be killed in a decade when his patrol was ambushed in Bamiyan Province. Two of his fellow soldiers and a local interpreter with the patrol were also injured in the attack.
It is often easy to forget that New Zealand has service personnel on active duty in trouble spots around the world.
At any time there are approximately 600 New Zealand Defence Force staff deployed on peacekeeping operations and UN missions in places such as Afghanistan, Timor-Leste, the Solomon Islands, the Middle East, Korea and Sudan.
Their efforts remind us that we continue to live
in a world of uncertainty and danger. As a good international citizen, New Zealand willingly plays its
part in the restoration and maintenance of peace.
It also reminds us that today’s serving Defence Force personnel are tomorrow’s veterans. LT O’Donnell was a veteran at 28. In the 2008 New Year honours list he was awarded the Distinguished Service Decoration in recognition of his leadership in Timor-Leste.
When I have welcomed other servicemen and women home from Afghanistan, I am reminded that while they are young, they too are veterans. I’m enormously proud of the work done by VANZ in meeting the needs of veterans of past conflicts. However, it is just as important that it continues to actively look at ways to remain relevant to our new veterans, such as those serving with such courage in the treacherous provinces of Afghanistan, and to meet their needs in the future.