Wednesday, 3 April 2024, 8:56 am Press Release: NZ Post
NZ Post is honoured to feature six Kiwi veterans who served New Zealand on overseas deployments in the armed forces from the mid 1990s.
All six profiled in the stamp series have been awarded theNew Zealand Operational Service Medal. The medal is given for service that exceeds the normal requirements of peacetime service and involves a credible military threat from the enemy’s military, insurgents, or other hostile forces.
Rebecca Brierton, Ben Peckham, Kelley Waite, Vance Leach, Ange Coyle and David Bennett represent over 42,000 living veterans who have been involved in active service and made personal sacrifices while serving in either the New Zealand Army, the Royal New Zealand Navy or the Royal New Zealand Air Force.
Released today (3 April 2024), NZ Post Head of Collectables Antony Harris says the story behind the stamps is to show that veterans are not just ‘elderly men’.
“They are young, have served in recent conflicts, can be men or women, and come from all walks of life. They could be your neighbour, people you work with, or someone you see in the street,” Harris said.
“They may march in the Anzac Day parades with the older veterans of previous conflicts, but these veterans haven’t retired; though they have left the New Zealand Defence Force, they are now living, studying, and working alongside us, in our communities.”
Harris said NZ Post worked closely with Veterans’ Affairs and the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services’ Association in developing the stamps.
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