Defence Minister Richard Marles accused of stalling on Richard Norden’s Victoria Cross honour ‘for political gain’

Defence Minister Richard Marles has been sitting for nearly two years on a Victoria Cross recommendation for a soldier who served in Vietnam.

Private Richard Norden.

Defence Minister Richard Marles has been sitting for nearly two years on a Victoria Cross recommendation for a soldier who served in Vietnam, sparking concerns the award is being delayed to “sugar-coat” the stripping of medals for command failures in Afghanistan.

The Defence Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal ­recommended in July 2022 that Private Richard Leslie Norden be posthumously awarded the ­nation’s top military honour for “pre-eminent acts of valour and self-sacrifice” during the May 1968 Battle of Fire Support Base Coral. But Mr Marles has since been silent on the ­matter, passing up an opportunity to make the award last year as the nation marked 50 years since the end of Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War.

Mr Marles has also had recommendations sitting on his desk for at least 11 months on the removal of honours and awards for army commanders who failed to prevent war crimes identified in the Brereton Report.

The minister’s office said there was no link between that matter and the proposed VC. “Due to the status of this award, recommendations relating to eligibility are handled with the utmost sensitivity, care and consultation,” a spokeswoman for Mr Marles said. But Vietnam veterans believe the VC decision has become entangled in the fallout from the Afghanistan inquiry and public pressure for commanders to be held accountable for war crimes that occurred on their watch.

NSW governor Sir Roden Cutler, third left, congratulates Kevin Wickerson, left, Norden and William Young.

Lieutenant Colonel (retired) George Hulse, who fought in the same battle as Norden and was principal advocate in the tribunal process, said he believed the government was preparing to use the VC award as political cover “for the nasty stuff about stripping medals from other people”.

“A Victoria Cross for Dick Norden would be a nationally popular thing to do, and would go down with loud applause, without any doubt,” he told The Australian. “Stripping people of awards for Afghanistan will be met with huge controversy. So, you know, you get a good cop, bad cop thing happening. I just think they’ll use it for political gain, to sugar-coat something that’s going to be nasty for them. And in an election year, they want to be seen as being the good guys.”

Colonel Hulse said he had repeatedly approached Mr Marles and Veterans’ Affairs Minister Matt Keogh seeking answers over the delay to the VC decision, but had been rebuffed.

Another veteran of the same action, Medal for Gallantry recipient Alan “Jack” Parr, said he couldn’t understand the delay and believed “the Brereton bloody report is tied up with it somehow”.

“I think it’s obviously political, why it’s being held up,” he said.

Norden returned from the war to join the Australian Federal Police in Canberra, but died on duty in a 1972 motorcycle accident.

The 1st Battalion Royal Australian Regiment rifleman from Gundagai received a Distinguished Conduct Medal for his bravery at Fire Support Base Coral. But veterans believed his commander, Lieutenant Colonel Phillip Bennett, should have recommended him for the VC.

Colonel Hulse said he took up Norden’s case after reading the official account of his bravery, which he believed was “right up there with the very top citations that describe the Victoria Cross”.

Norden joined the Australian Federal Police in Canberra. Picture: National Police Memorial

Norden and his platoon were positioned about a kilometre forward of Fire Support Base Coral, in Binh Duong province, when it was attacked by a large force of North Vietnamese Army regulars on May 14, 1968. His unit became pinned down by the enemy, with two wounded members lying more than 20 metres away.

According to his proposed VC citation, Norden asked for covering fire and ran to assist his wounded section commander “across ground that provided him little or no effective cover, under heavy enemy fire”.

“He killed one NVA soldier whilst moving forward and, having expended his ammunition, recovered that enemy’s automatic weapon, which he used against further NVA soldiers,” the account says.

He “half-carried, half-dragged the severely wounded section commander” back to his platoon, saving his life. Norden then advanced to try to retrieve the other wounded Australian, who was one of the unit’s scouts.

Norden (back, left) and company.

“He was fired on by an enemy soldier but pressed forward and reached the scout, killing the NVA soldier who had been using the scout as a shield,” the citation says. “Private Norden, having determined that the scout was dead, then returned to the section, collected grenades and, moving forward for a third time, cleared the area so that the body of the scout could be recovered.”

Norden, who killed at least three NVA soldiers in the action, showed “complete disregard for his own personal safety” to save a severely wounded Australian and allow the recovery of the body.

Vietnam Veterans’ Association president Max Ball said the organisation was concerned at the government’s failure to respond to the tribunal’s recommendation in the 22 months since it was handed down.

“These matters are not matters that should be delayed because of other considerations, whatever they may be,” Mr Ball said.

“The veterans’ community has a high degree of confidence in the Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal. But their confidence in the final outcome of the process is clearly weakened when the recommendation of the tribunal is held up in the political arena.

“This is something that veterans can’t fathom.”

Norden’s brother, Roger Norden, said he had been kept in the dark on the progress of the VC recommendation, and hoped a decision would be made soon.

“It’d mean a great deal to the family,” Mr Norden said. “It’s been a long time coming.”

Archival footage of the Battle of Coral-Balmoral in May 1968, during the Vietnam War.

Mr Norden said his brother never spoke in detail about the Battle of Fire Support Base Coral, mentioning it only in passing before he received the Distinguished Conduct Medal.

“He came home one day and said ‘I think they’re going to give me a medal’. That’s all he said,” Mr Norden said.

“I’ve gotten more information off his mates when I go to the reunions.”

The last VC awarded to an Australian was for naval seaman Edward “Teddy” Sheean, for heroic conduct when HMAS Armidale was sunk by Japanese bombers in the Timor Sea in 1942.

Former prime minister Scott Morrison gave the green light for the posthumous award, overruling his defence minister, Linda Reynolds, who rejected a Defence Honours and Awards Appeal Tribunal recommendation that Sheean receive the VC.

Mr Marles vowed last June to hold ADF commanders accountable for war crimes committed by their subordinates, and he was considering recommendations on the matter from Chief of the Defence Force Angus Campbell.

“Our government will ensure we make this right,” he said.

An independent panel warned the government in a recently released report that the refusal of military leaders to accept responsibility for war crimes in Afghanistan had generated “anger and bitter resentment” among serving personnel and veterans.