The NZ Army School of Artillery put personnel through their paces in various live-fire scenarios. But is it enough to defend ourselves? Video / Mike Scott
Two soldiers suffered injuries during separate training exercises;
One with ‘serious lacerations’ to the face waiting two hours after a rescue helicopter mix-up;
Inquiry discovered new recruits to the NZSAS had bought their own boots.
Our elite NZSAS has suffered two serious training accidents that have exposed issues with emergency medical response and raised questions about training, military inquiry reports have revealed.
In one case, the military couldn’t guide in a rescue helicopter because it was using a different system.
In another, it was revealed newly minted elite soldiers were buying their own boots because the NZ Defence Force’s system for replacement wasn’t reliable.
The Court of Inquiry investigations into these separate incidents in 2022 and 2023 followed fatal training incidents in 2017 and 2019.
They come at a time when the NZSAS, like many other parts of the NZDF, is under pressure with high numbers of experienced staff leaving.
The first incident unfolded in November 2022 at NZDF’s Waiōuru Military Camp training area where the NZSAS was carrying out “cross-country patrolling techniques” as part of its Basic Mobility Course to develop a vehicle-focused area of specialisation.
A patrol of four vehicles, including the new Supacat vehicles bought in 2018, was brought to a halt when first one, then another and then a third Supacat vehicle became stuck when crossing a muddy creek.
The Court of Inquiry found two soldiers were injured after recovery efforts because the wrong strops were used, and a shackle not designed for the task was used to try to pull the vehicles clear.
When it came to the third vehicle, the strop snapped and, with “excessive force”, whipped across the face of one of those on the third stuck vehicle.
Lacerations to the face
The soldier whipped by the strop was left with “significant lacerations” to his face. Another also suffered a head injury, although it was unclear if it was caused by the strop or when trying to avoid being struck.
Minutes after the accident, about 11.45am, the NZSAS training group had called for helicopter evacuation for the injured operator.
Although the injured pair were cared for on site by experienced operators with emergency medical training, the inquiry report exposed a series of failures that delayed the arrival of full emergency medical assistance.
It reported that after 45 minutes waiting for the helicopter, no help had arrived so a decision was made to shift the wounded operator on a makeshift stretcher on a Supacat to the nearest road.
There the NZSAS troop met a specialist medic who had left to assist on a six-wheeled motorbike minutes after the accident happened.
The first incident occurred in November 2022, during efforts to free Supacat vehicles that had become stuck in mud.
They were also greeted with the news that an ambulance had become stuck and was no longer coming.
About 1.30pm, the rescue helicopter eventually arrived with two delays of 30 minutes each caused by a clash between civilian and military systems.
The first delay cost 30 minutes when the national emergency call centre could not find a physical address in its system for the Waiōuru Military Camp.
The second delay cost another 30 minutes with NZDF using the “military grid reference system” to identify locations while the civilian rescuers were using GPS for latitude and longitude co-ordinates. When the NZSAS training group tried to pass on its latitude and longitude data, the location wouldn’t translate into the civilian system.
The inquiry report found it took an hour and 39 minutes for the helicopter to arrive when an “optimal” response time from Whanganui Hospital would have been about 45 minutes.
It also found the briefing before the exercise had provided incorrect advice on the use of the strop and shackle — and that the strops used were aged and worn.
‘Skill gap’ identified
It described the problem as a “skill gap”, saying: “It only takes a few key personnel to move from a unit and skills fade or a knowledge gap can materialise.”
Recommendations included improving medic support when the NZSAS was training remotely and consulting with civilian agencies to ensure the NZDF could get help when needed.
The second incident happened only seven months later, in June last year during the “survival, evasion, resistance, escape” (SERE) training carried out with those who had passed the NZSAS selection course but were yet to become fully “badged” operators.
The SERE course takes place in the nine-month period after selection when those few chosen undergo a rigorous programme to learn the skills needed by a special forces soldier.
It’s an infamous exercise described in the new book, Serviceman J, by former NZSAS operator Jamie Pennell, as requiring recruits to travel undetected on foot from Tūrangi to Waiōuru in the “frigidly cold” winter while being pursued by soldiers, police with dogs and helicopters with special imaging equipment.
Ex-SAS trooper Jamie Pennell who has released a new book, Serviceman J, on his time in the SAS.
The inquiry report says the training element was called Exercise Great Escape, which was commonly known as “the run”.
In last year’s exercise, one of those on the exercise needed urgent medical help after developing frostbite.
The inquiry report identified the cause of the issue was the soldier wearing boots that were too small, constricting blood circulation and contributing to frostbite.
However, it raised questions, including the reduction in training time for some NZSAS programmes and why the elite unit’s soldier had bought his own “extreme cold weather” boots.
The report says training time had been halved for the first part of the SERE course that was carried out in summer.
While it taught “cold weather survival, predicting weather and introduction to river crossings”, it says “the staff did not have the appropriate amount of time to deliver this training”. It expressed doubts those approaching the second phase of the training were as well prepared as in previous years.
The boots worn by all those on the exercise came under scrutiny when it emerged they had bought them privately. The injured soldier with frostbite had done so with the others, but was sent a boot one size smaller than ordered.
The injured man was also not wearing special cold-weather socks distributed to the recruits, probably because they would have required a boot with more space.
When unpicking the reason the soldiers bought their own boots, the inquiry discovered it was because they had yet to be formally accepted into the NZSAS after passing selection, during which their existing boots were ruined.
For replacement boots, they were obliged to source them from their original units rather than the NZSAS.
The soldier was found to have frostbite about 10 o’clock on a night when temperatures were believed to have dropped below zero. At the time, he and others on the exercise were sheltering in the wild about 500m from a remote hut more than 30km from Waiōuru.
The inquiry report says the soldier raised concerns about the injury, leading to a decision to seek help.
He was met at the remote hut by a medic and another soldier who had driven 75 minutes from Waiōuru, towing a trailer with a quad bike used to navigate the final stretch to the hut.
The quad bike was intended to be used to bring the injured soldier out. He was put on it about 1.30am and was carried about 2km along a rugged former tank track before it broke down.
The inquiry recommended the NZSAS provide successful selection candidates with proper boots.
That left a kilometre to be covered on foot, with soldiers carrying the injured man at times, to reach the vehicle brought from Waiōuru.
The injured soldier arrived at Palmerston North Hospital about 5am, with the entire evacuation taking six hours and 35 minutes — a time judged “timely and appropriate” given the isolation and the failure of the quad bike.
The inquiry also found it was difficult to understand what outcome was sought in running the SERE course with training documentation giving conflicting positions. Other recommendations included considering restoring the full training module and that the NZSAS provide successful selection candidates with proper boots.
In 2017, Sergeant Wayne Taylor died after falling from a ladder being used to board a ship, knocking his head on the boat that had carried him there, before slipping unconscious into the sea. The inquiry into his death recommended researching automatically inflating lifejackets.
In 2019, Lance Corporal Nicholas Kahotea became the 10th training fatality since the regiment formed in the 1950s. His death came during an exercise with a United States special forces helicopter unit and led to WorkSafe prosecuting NZDF for health and safety breaches. The prosecution was quashed after the High Court ruled NZDF was exempt from health and safety laws in some circumstances.
Justice Tim Brewer said: “As should be obvious, a safety-focused statute such as the HSWA cannot apply entirely to the armed forces. They exist to do dangerous things in dangerous environments, in New Zealand and overseas. They need to train to do those dangerous things.”
David Fisher is based in Northland and has worked as a journalist for more than 30 years, winning multiple journalism awards including being twice named Reporter of the Year and being selected as one of a small number of Wolfson Press Fellows to Wolfson College, Cambridge. He joined the Herald in 2004.
