Todd and Repatriation Commission

[2004] AATA 81

Administrative

Appeals

Tribunal

 

DECISION AND REASONS FOR DECISION [2004] AATA 81

ADMINISTRATIVE APPEALS TRIBUNAL      )

)          No Q2003/11

VETERANS' APPEALS  DIVISION		)
Re		GORDON ALBERT DAVID TODD

Applicant

And REPATRIATION COMMISSION

Respondent

DECISION

Tribunal Deputy President Don Muller

Date30 January 2004

PlaceBrisbane

Decision The Tribunal affirms the decision to refuse a claim for disability pension to Gordon Albert David Todd for alcohol abuse and post traumatic stress disorder.

................SIGNED...............................

D.W. MULLER

DEPUTY PRESIDENT

CATCHWORDS

VETERANS’ AFFAIRS – disability pension – post traumatic stress disorder and alcohol abuse – Tribunal satisfied beyond reasonable doubt applicant did not experience claimed stressor – decision affirmed

Veterans’ Entitlements Act 1986: s9

REASONS FOR DECISION

30 January 2004 Deputy President Don Muller       

1.      Gordon Albert David Todd, the Applicant, claims that he suffers from the war-caused disabilities of post traumatic stress disorder and alcohol abuse.

2.      The Applicant made his claim pursuant to the provisions of the Veterans’ Entitlements Act 1986 (the Act) on 20 May 1998.  He claimed disability pension for “nerves”.  In that claim he said that the stressors which he believed caused his “nerves” were “service life down in the bowels of ships all of the time general.  Navy”.

3.      The Applicant joined the Royal Australian Navy on 14 January 1966.  He served until 13 January 1975 when he was discharged with the rank of Petty Officer.  He has eligible operational service for the purposes of the Act due to the fact that:

(a)the ship he was serving on, HMAS Vampire, on escort duty for the HMAS Sydney, entered Vung Tau Harbour on 19 May 1969, where it remained for 4 hours 15 minutes, from 6.45am to 11.00am; and

(b)he was serving on the HMAS Sydney when it spent two days in Vung Tau Harbour in February 1972.

4.      The Applicant came off duty at 8.00am on the morning of 19 May 1969.  He claims that between 6.45am and 8.00am, he heard an exceptionally loud scare charge explode against the hull of the ship.  In his statement dated 15 May 2001 he described the experience as follows:

“I was given the forenoon watch in ‘A’ boiler room on the steam turbine alternator which was situated on the port side next to the Hull.  During the course of my four hour watch, scare charges were dropped next to the hull and would detonate approximately 5 metres below the surface and the noise inside the hull was considerable and very frightening.  On one occasion, one was very loud and the noise seemed different from the others.  I took off and headed up the ladder when the Petty Officer of the watch stopped me.  I had visions of the side caving in followed by a wall of water and being trapped in the boiler room.  Prior to going on watch and during the course of the day, I was told that a Sampan carrying Vietcong was ambushed near Vung Tau and the occupants were killed and also just prior to our…