SAS spouses go to war with Australian Defence Force, ABC

The wives of our Special Force soldiers have declared war on Defence chiefs and public broadcaster the ABC for perceived bias.

Exclusive: The wives of our elite troops have fired an extraordinary broadside at ADF command and public broadcaster the ABC for perceived relentless prejudicial attacks on their spouses.

SAS Regiment members are legally bound to not speak but in a historical first, the spouses are breaking ranks with a very public campaign appealing for support over perceived bias by both publicly-funded institutions and in the wake of the Brereton report.

On the eve of the SAS Regiment birthday this weekend, spouses have sent open letters to MPs across Australia detailing the immense stress they are suffering along with their husbands, maligned indirectly by misconstrued facts and agenda setting.

Their husbands were not implicated in the Brereton war crimes investigation but had been made to feel guilty by association as serving or former members of the SAS and other ADF Special Forces.

Dr Kay Danes OAM and Kerry Danes CSM. Picture: Supplied

One mass mailed letter slammed the ABC for its recent coverage where it portrayed a 2001 song “Getting Away With It (All Messed Up)” by British band James and played at the SAS barracks bar, as a cultural attitude to how they perform in the battlefield.

They say the song had nothing to do with that.

“The mental impact that these (ABC News) articles, along with the Brereton Report and the way in which the ADF and the Government have dealt with this, has caused good men, who already suffer the scars from battle and the impacts of PTSD and losing their mates, to relive this pain, along with feeling that their country and fellow countrymen, are dishonouring the sacrifices they made in Afghanistan,” one wife wrote.

Dr Kay Danes OAM in Jalalabad.

An Australian soldier is Air Medically Evacuated (AME) from Combat Out Post Mashal at the western end of the Chora Valley in Afghanistan. Picture: Supplied

Another letter written by an SAS spouse said: “Like so many wives and partners of current and forming serving SAS operators, we feel like our voice has not been heard and so many inaccuracies and lies are being shared across our mainstream media, with few media outlets showing any type of unbiased or even reporting on this issue.”

The identity of the letter writers has been verified.

Dr Kay Danes whose husband Kerry retired from ADF SAS Regiment and was a former warrant officer (WO1) said spouses were saying “enough is enough”.

THE Second Special Air Service Squadron, disbanded in the wake of the damning war crimes report.

Dr Danes said the planned flag lowering of the SAS 2 Squadron — disbanded by ADF chief Angus Campbell — that was to take place on Friday but aborted after intervention by Defence Minister Peter Dutton, was a catalyst.

She received more than 18,000 messages of support in a single day when she wrote an online letter this week that the 57-year-old squad disbanding as a consequence of the Brereton war crimes probe, maligned all those innocently attached to it over the decades.

She said a code of secrecy had been instilled into Special Forces members but partners were now feeling emboldened.

“We the SAS partners are asked a lot of, we are asked to be silent and not show emotion, just be the support person but we are the ones seeing the moral trauma first hand, holding the family together … the (ADF) leadership has failed.”

Australian Special Forces soldiers from the Special Operations Task Group based in Oruzgan Province in Afghanistan. Picture: Supplied

An Australian Special Operations Task Group Soldier waits to move towards a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter as part of the Shah Wali Kot Offensive against the Taliban. Picture: Corporal Raymond Vance

Dr Danes said SAS 2Sqn had a proud history and appealed to Mr Dutton for it not to be disbanded as the Brereton claims were against a very small number of members and most had since been dropped.

“The spouses who are not technically subject to restrictions are now pushing back and doing the unthinkable and saying ‘hey you can’t push our members into this dark space and expect us to just pick up the pieces and accept it’,” she said.

“There is a lot of anger out there with members and the partners disgusted by the current leadership and what they are doing.”

Defence declined to comment the ABC stood by its journalism.

Originally published as SAS spouses go to war with Australian Defence Force, ABC