Vietnam Duty Tours Watched By Army

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31006, 11 March 1966, Page 10

Vietnam Duty Tours Watched By Army

If the New Zealand Army considered it necessary and practicable to reduce the tour of duty for single soldiers serving in Vietnam it would do so, said the Chief of the General Staff (Major-General W. S. McKinnon) in Christchurch yesterday.

Asked to comment on a remark made by an Army officer who said that the single New Zealand soldier, with 18 months, served the longest of all allied troops in Vietnam. General McKinnon said he did not have details of the allied troops’ tours of duty there. “1 do, know, however, that several of the married soldiers in the allied forces serve there for a longer period than our married men do,” he said. (The New Zealand soldier who is married serves in Vietnam for about nine months.) General McKinnon said the Army was watching the matter of Vietnam tours of duty very closely. “If it is considered necessary and practical to reduce the time of single men, then we will do this." Asked how long it would be before the Army decided one way or the other. General McKinnon said he thought a month should be sufficient time. 100 Officers Attending The General was at Burnham Camp yesterday preparing the ground, with his directing staff, for “Army

Exercise 66.” which is to take i place at the end of the month.' With its accommodation and facilities Burnham was the best suited camp for the exercise. It will be attended (by more than 100 officers. Also attending will be two Ministers of the Crown, a number of members of Parliament, the Commissioner of Police, the president of the Returned Services’ Association, allied military and diplomatic representatives from Wellington, and the heads of the other two services. Visitors to the exercise will include Major-General J. H. S. Bowring, Engineer -in - Chief for the Minister of Defence, London, who will be in the Dominion during phase one (March 26 and 27), and Major-General T. J. Daly, the general officer commanding the Australian Eastern Command.

"Army Exercise 66” will set the training pattern throughout the service for the ensuing year. It will culminate in a brigade-scale exercise involving about 6000 troops at Waiouru, and another logistic exercise in which 2000 troops will take part.