55 volunteer to fight in Vietnam

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33814, 10 April 1975, Page 14

55 volunteer to fight in Vietnam

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, April 9. Fifty-five people, including two women, had volunteered tonight, to join a group of New Zealanders.planning to travel to South Vietnam to fight alongside Government forces there.

According to the organiser of the group, Mr G. C. Titman, of Browns Bay, Auckland. at least 20 of the volunteers were former New Zealand servicemen who had served in Vietnam.

Mr Titman, who has said his object is to give moral support to the South Vietnamese people, said that the response to his plan had been so good it was “a bit of an embarrassment.” Because of the costs involved, he wanted to limit the number in the group to 20 — it cost $440 to fly from Auckland to Singapore, meaning that about $9OOO was needed in air fares.

Although many of those who had offered to go to Vietnam had also offered to pay their own air fares, Mr Titman said he hoped to raise the fares in New Zealand. Volunteers had been in touch with him from as far south as Ashburton and Kaiapoi, and a meeting of all the volunteers would be held in Auckland at the week-end. Mr Titman was a United States marine in the Second World War.