ROYAL COMMISSION INTO VETERANS SUICIDE – DEFENCE & VETERAN LEGAL SERVICE

The Defence and Veteran Legal Service was set up specifically to assist veterans and their families make submissions to the Royal Commission into Veteran Suicides.

They are showing the film ‘Living’ at various locations around the state, the first showing being:
Cinema Nova Carlton, Sunday February 26, 4.15pm

Other Victorian viewings are:
Regent Cinema Ballarat, Sunday March 5 4.30
Wallis Cinema Mildura, Sunday March 12 4.15
Astor Cinema Ararat, Tuesday March 21 6.30
Horsham Centre Cinema, Wednesday March 22 6.30
Capitol Cinema Warrnambool, Sunday March 26 4.15
Star Cinema Eaglehawk, Wednesday 5 April 7 pm.

The event will begin with a presentation and panel discussion about the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide.

Many of Defence and Veteran Legal Service clients leave the ADF and find it difficult to live in the civilian world, cut off from their network and suffering PTSD and other injury and illness. This is compounded by the fact that to get their entitlements they are often required to live in a negative space where they have to prove that they have PTSD, prove that they are injured and, in some cases, even prove that they are dying. When they are trying to find a way to be living, society often wants them to live in a space where they are dying.

The film ‘Living’ was selected because the subject matter relates well to the work Defence and Veteran Legal Service are doing. In the film a public servant who has lived a cloistered life gets a diagnosis of terminal illness. Rather than going to a dying frame of mind that society expects he starts truly living for the first time in his life.

Defence and Veteran Legal Service believe a good outcome of the Royal Commission will be finding a way to help veterans and their families to be living.

Dear Scheyvillians, Received from Les Boag 4/68

I am sad to be sharing news of another OTU Scheyville classmate passing.  Dennis Jeffery Mattiske 4/68 lost his battle with mesothelioma.   Dennis advised his classmates late last year that he had been diagnosed with mesothelioma from unfortunate exposure to asbestos, thought to be nearly 40 years ago. Dennis passed peacefully on Fri 3 Feb 23.

Dennis was one of the few married when we started at OTU and is survived by his wife Margaret and family.  Dennis was born in WA in Oct 46 and was employed as a chartered accountant before National Service (NS).  Dennis graduated to Royal Australian Army Ordnance Corps and posted as Adjutant/ Quartermaster Fourth Central Ammunition Depot.   After he completed his NS, Dennis returned to accounting and set up an accounting business and for decades lived at Newport NSW.  Dennis is remembered by his classmates as very smart, always calm and always a very nice person who could be relied upon.

A few years back, Dennis retired from his accounting business.  He and Margaret moved from Newport to live on the NSW mid north coast at Tallwoods Village, which is between Black Head and the Pacific Highway about 20 kilometres North of Forster/Tuncurry.

Margaret has advised that the family are having a small private cremation this Tuesday (tomorrow). The family decided not to do live streaming. On Friday they are having a celebration of Dennis’s life at home.

For those who knew Dennis and would like to send condolences to Margaret, her email is:

margaretmattiske@bigpond.com

Margaret’s postal address is:

P.O. Box 45

Tuncurry 2428

RIP Dennis.

Les

Les Boag 4/68

Mobile: 0418 210 348

Email: les@boag.biz

Gdday All,
Our next lunch is scheduled for next Wed 8 Feb at 12.30 in the Bistro RACV Club 501 Bourke St Melbourne.
While costs have gone up a little we should still be able to achieve less than $50 per head.
Smart casual, good humour and fine camaraderie are on the cards.
The National Exec meeting will be held afterwards in the Carbine Club downstairs and thru Zoom.
Please advise of your attendance by COB Mon 6 Feb.
Cheers
Brian

Brian Cooper
bctcooper@gmail.com
0418373874