Veterans slam military for brushing over the horrors of war

Given that Peter Cosgrove is Chairman of the AWM Council, the following quote from the AWM Director (in response to concern raised about a caption in the Vietnam Gallery re a RAAF Caribou crew hit by secondary shrapnel when their aircraft's windscreen was smashed by ground fire) is interesting:

'What’s happened is that the caption writer used “injured” rather than “wounded” deliberately to communicate better with visitors. It’s no big deal...the complaint just does not justify the expense of changing it. If that agitates someone; sorry. It’s trivial and I’m not wasting the money [to change the caption]'. (5 Feb 09)

The Director subsequently refused to allow veterans to raise funds to meet the cost involved in changing the caption.

Bruce

Article from: The Australian


MILITARY veterans claim politicians and the Defence Department hierarchy are using weasel words to soften the public impact of the deaths and serious wounds being suffered by Australian troops fighting in Afghanistan.

In July, the Chief of Defence, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, described an Australian soldier who had been wounded by an anti-personnel mine in Afghanistan as "seriously ill".

At the same news conference, Defence Minister John Faulkner described the man as "injured".

Brigadier Phil Davies said the once-common use of the terms killed in action (KIA), wounded in action (WIA) and died of wounds (DOW) had slipped from the Australian military vernacular.

"Defence has dropped their use," Brigadier Davies said.

"You have the CDF (Houston) getting up and saying a man was 'tragically killed'. Every death istragic. We hear someone is 'seriously ill from a roadside bomb'. This degrades the whole military aspect and the commitment these soldiers have."

Brigadier Davies said the use of euphemisms was part of a worrying trend to avoid talking about the sacrifice made by Australians at war.

"I think we should be talking about the wounded more," he said.

"It is of concern to the veteran population that we're using a language that is not different to what we talk about in ordinary society (when someone falls sick)."

John Vincent, Victorian president of the Totally and Permanently Disabled Soldiers Association, said the Australian Defence Force should reinstate the terms KIA, WIA and DOW to Australia's current forces.

"A bloke getting blown up is an ugly thing but it's a fact of life," Mr Vincent said. "You need to confront these issues. They were killed by enemy action -- they just didn't curl up and die. Houston stands up with his AC (Companion of the Order of Australia) after his name, saying a soldier is injured or has died in Afghanistan. That is an insult to the veteran community. Yes, he died, but he was killed in action.

"The people who served in Vietnam are KIA or WIA. There are many people writing (to the Defence Department) about this issue."

In fact, Air Chief Marshal Houston does refer to soldiers being "wounded" as well as "ill", although he does not use the terms KIA or WIA.

The former chief of the defence forces, Peter Cosgrove, said: "I'm not aware of any policy about euphemistic references to people who are wounded or seriously wounded or maimed. I'm absolutely clear that if people succumb to an illness, that's the case. People who are seriously wounded, or die of their wounds, there's no skating around that."