No this time its not our little Willy I’m talking about (OK stop sniggering now, you know what I mean).
Corporal Willy Apiata of the NZSAS has just been awarded the Victoria Cross for gallantry in Afganistan in 2004. Its the first time a kiwi soldire has received the award since WWII and I think a fantastic, long overdue, recognition of the work the guys in the SAS do. One of the problems with the SAS is that because they are secretive by nature you never hear about what they do, nor should you in a lot of cases. But I agree with Clark (Helen that it) that the awarding of a VC is a little bit exceptional. Even though Cpl Apiata’s name and photo have been widely published it didnt feel right for me to put his photo here, so I blanked out his face. If you want to see him I’ll let the worlds media take that responsibility. Personally as he is an active member of the NZSAS I think his face should be kept secret, but thats just my opinion.
Reports are that Willy carried a wounded mate 70 meters under heavy enemy fire, saving the mans life. There were 3 other awards made to other soldires for the same operation, but details of those are kept secret.
I notice that he started out in the territorials back in 1989, he’s from the Waikato and Eastern BOP so I wonder if he was with the 6 Hauraki? If he was he would have joined when dad was CO which is a nice little connection.
Kia kaha Cpl Apiata.
