Hanrahan and Repatriation Commission

[2008] AATA 369

Administrative Appeals Tribunal

DECISION AND REASONS FOR DECISION [2008] AATA 369

ADMINISTRATIVE APPEALS TRIBUNAL      )

)          No A2006/244

VETERANS' AFFAIRS  DIVISION		)
Re		PETER HANRAHAN

Applicant

And REPATRIATION COMMISSION

Respondent

DECISION

Tribunal Mr S. Webb, Member
Dr P. Wilkins, Member

Date7 May 2008

PlaceCanberra

Decision The Tribunal affirms that part of the Veterans' Review Board decision concerning operational service: Mr Hanrahan rendered operational service from 29 September 1970 to 3 October 1970.

.............signed................................

Mr S. Webb, Presiding Member

CATCHWORDS

VETERANS' ENTITLEMENTS - operational service - Vietnam - supernumerary flight crew on flights from Australia - Veteran's memory imprecise - absence of official records - evidence concerning dates of departure and return of single flight - no probative evidence concerning other alleged flights - operational service decision affirmed

Veterans' Entitlements Act 1986 ss 5B, 6C, 119, 120

Briginshaw v Briginshaw (1938) 60 CLR 336

Repatriation Commission v Smith (1987) 74 ALR 537

Bater v Bater [1950] 2 All ER 458

Jakab v Repatriation Commission [2007] FCA 898

Mason v Repatriation Commission 10 October 2000 [2000] FCA 1409

Repatriation Commission v Bey (1997) 79 FCR 364

Fenner v Repatriation Commission 2 February 2005 [2005] FCA 27

REASONS FOR DECISION

7 May 2008 Mr S. Webb, Member
Dr P. Wilkins, Member       

1.      Peter Hanrahan served in the Royal Australian Air Force from 20 July 1966 to 19 July 1972.  He was mustered as a General Hand and was posted to the Richmond Air Force Base.  He was allotted duty as supernumerary flight crew on a flight to Vietnam.  Mr Hanrahan asserts that he was allotted such duty on more than one occasion.  In the period from 13 November 2002 to 10 September 2004, Mr Hanrahan lodged three claims for disability pension in relation to various conditions.[1]  Those claims were rejected by the Repatriation Commission[2] and the Veterans’ Review Board,[3] and related proceedings are presently on foot in this Tribunal.

[1] T4, T10 and T22.

[2] T2.

[3] T27.

2.      The purpose of the present hearing is to determine the period of Mr Hanrahan’s operational service.  The substantive matters of his claims will be dealt with in due course.

3.      Mr Hanrahan asserts that he was posted to 37 Squadron from 17 October 1966 to 18 July 1972[4]  and he was allotted duty as supernumerary flight crew on six flights in C130E Hercules aircraft to bases in Vietnam.  He gave evidence about the duration of such flights and the flight paths taken and described his duties and recollections of what occurred.[5]  He also gave evidence about personnel on such flights.[6]  Mr Hanrahan described his recollection of the administrative arrangements relating to such flights, especially in relation to his passport and ‘needle book’.  In Mr Hanrahan’s submission, the dates of each flight are recorded on a loose sheet in his passport.[7]  He says that these dates were verified by the Department of Defence[8]  and he was awarded the Australian Active Service Medal 1945-1975 with Clasp Vietnam and the Vietnam Logistic and Support…