Dead Soldier Had Poor Eyesight

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32321, 12 June 1970, Page 11

Dead Soldier Had Poor Eyesight

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) CANBERRA, June 11.

An Australian soldier, whose family had pleaded that he should not be sent to Vietnam because of his extremely poor eyesight, was killed in Vietnam at the week-end.

The soldier’s father, in a letter to the Prime Minister,' Mr John Gorton—written just | after being informed of his son’s death—said that the soldier could not “see a hand held four feet away” without his glasses. The letter was read to the House by South Australian Opposition Labour member, Mr N. K. Foster, during the grievance debate.

An Army announcement on June 8 said the soldier, Private S. G. Larsson and an other soldier were killed it an enemy mine explosion on June 6 in Phuoc Tuy Province.

Mr Foster said that he had written to the Army Ministei early in January “requesting that Private Larsson not be sent into active combat in Vietnam because of extremelj poor eyesight.”. The Army Minister had re plied that pending investiga tions, Private Larsson was being transferred from the Seventh Battalion Royal Australian Regiment—due to go to Vietnam—to a component of the Fifth Battalion.

The Minister later replied that Private Larsson’s medl cal condition had been investigated and he had been found to be fully fit for service anywhere, the House was told.

The Minister had said Private Larsson’s eye condition could be corrected by spec taeles which were available almost everywhere, including Vietnam. The soldier was issued with two pairs of spectacles by the Army. 4 The Minister bad said that a soldier would not be allowed to serve if his medical condition endangered his own life and that of his colleagues. He was transferred i back to the Seventh Battalion Mr Foster called for an in quiry to find out if, in fact, Private Larsson died because of his poor vision. Mr Foster read a lettei from Private Larsson’s father, Mr Stan Larsson, of South Australia, to Mr Gorton.

In the letter Mr Larsson said that he had been informed of his son’s death “a short while ago.” After criticising the war in Vietnam, Mr Larsson said: “Into the conflagration that is Vietnam, you sent my son, a man whom you knew that without his glasses, could not see a hand held four feet away, or a car at 30ft, and whom you told could see reasonably well with glasses. “You advised him to keep them clean, yet in the torrid humidity of Vietnam, you could not tell him how.”