"Ray Murphy" wrote in message
news:482c8fb4@news.comindico.com.au...
>
> "fasgnadh" wrote in message
> news:482bfa89$0$13946$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au...
>>
>> Over the last few years we have grown accustomed to
>> tory Governments acting more like Soviet apparatchiks,
>> detaining and even deporting Australian citizens on entirely
>> spurious grounds, but those human rights abuses pall into
>> insignificance compared to the conspiracy to assassinate Normie
>> Row by falsely drafting him and sending him into a war zone
>> where he faced death.
>>
>> The last time I can recall someone attempting this was in the
>> biblical story of King David, who, coveting the wife of
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> "HE was Australia's most famous Vietnam conscript
>> but it can now be revealed that pop idol Normie
>> Rowe was falsely drafted into the army.
>>
>> And he should never have been sent to war."
>> - Herald Sun 15/5/2008
>>
>> "The Department of Veterans' Affairs has this week
>> confirmed that Rowe's birth date - February 1, 1947
>> - was never raised in the controversial ballot of
>> dates that selected which 20-year-old men would be
>> called up to serve.
>
> [.....]
>
> The way I understand it from reading Wikipedia and the official
> rules, is this:
>
>
> XX.08.1966 - Normie went to the UK to work.
> XX.01.1967 - Normie was required to register for National service if
> he was ordinarily resident in Australia.
> 10.03.1967 - Fifth ballot was held on 10th March and Nornie's B/date
> of 1st Feb was selected.
> XX.07.1967 - Returned to Australia for a working visit then back to
> the UK.
> XX.08.1967 - He returned from the UK (and presumably registered
> within the required 14 days for men overseas)
> 08.09.1967 - Sixth ballot held for men born after 1st July 47 AND
> men who were born before 1st July who had been overseas. Normie's
> B/date of 1st Feb 47 came up.
> X.02.1968 - Inducted into National Service.
> 15.03.1968 - Seventh ballot held. If Normie missed the 8th Sept
> deadline with a good reason, then he should have been put in this
> ballot where his B/date didn't come up.
>
> AFTERWARDS: A separate ballot was supposedly held for men who had
> been overseas. Normie was supposedly included in that ballot and his
> birth date supposedly came up. (This extra ballot was unnecessary
> when the rules already provided for inclusion in ordinary ballots if
> men were born before the current date-range and were overseas).
>
> It sounds like Normie didn't register before 8th September. If he
> had, then because registrations were accepted up until the date of
> the ballot, he would have been in that 8th September ballot and
> WOULD have had his birth date drawn.
>
> If he didn't register by 8th Sept AND was in in country, which he
> apparently was, then he was liable under the rules to be called up
> as a penalty unless a good reason was provided.. If taht happened
> then he should have been in the Seventh ballot where his date didn't
> come up.
>
> * I didn't check the rules to see if the special ballots for
> overseas men were actually a part of the rules or not.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normie_Rowe
> http://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/viet_app.asp
>
[Extra]
(1) Above I misinterpreted the meaning of "ordinarily resident in
Australia".
That refers to Australian citizens who normally lived here being
required to be in the ballot for National Service. If they didn't
normally live here they didn't have to be in the ballot. So Normie
was NOT required to register in the 2-week period in Jan 1967
even though he was "ordinarily resident in Australia". He was
exempt from registration (and most Australian law) while he was
not on Australian soil.
(2) Normie was required to register "within 14 days" of returning
from overseas. He apparently returned some time in August 1967
so if he returned before about 20th August he was required to
register and be in the ballot of 8th September. If he returned
after 20th, he could have legitimately waited 13 days and registered
after 8th September and been in the following ballot of 15th March
1968.
(3) If the "sooper-secret ballot" for men who had been overseas
was not a part of the rules, and was held in direct contradiction of
the rules, then it may have been a complete fraud. It would be
important to hear about others who had been overseas and who
were supposedly in those strange and unnecessary extra ballots.
---------
Unrelated comment:
In 1971 while conscription and service in Vietnam was still very
much a hot issue I asked a friendly Army staff sergeant from
Watsonia who was waiting for a train on a railway station about
conscripts going to Vietnam against their will.
He seemed genuinely astonished by the concept and said "Mate,
that's the LAST thing we need in Vietnam - blokes who don't want
to be there!" He went on to explain the situation and said
"You've got to understand that these blokes train together every
day and they make good friends, and by the time it comes to move
out they want to be here to keep their mates alive". He added
"If THEY don't want to be there WE don't want them there either,
because they'd only bugger us up!".
Ray
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