Letters of Appreciation ....

Letters of Appreciation The Australian Navy in Vietnam veterans' Welfare Association of Western Australia (Inc.) prints letters of appreciation received from those who have had assistance through the Advocacy Office in HMAS Leeuwin and now extended to Orange in New South Wales. The Association newsletter print letters received from veterans who have had successful claims. Hopefully these letters will encourage other veterans and their families to make claims to the Department.           

(To our team at Leeuwin Advocacy Services) "2004"  Advocates:  China Hammal; Allen Ellis; Ian McCutcheon; Trevor Robbins; Ross Gibb; Tony Hughes; Sally Low; Tid Carter; Kevin Gleeson; Ian Dunn; John Berghuis; Les DeBlonde and special thanks for the volunteers staffing the phone and doing a great job as a "T.O.W."; Val Gleeson; Bob Lindsay; Keri Larson; Judy DeBlonde; Alan & Elaine Rodgers; Barry Low; Aussie Lawrence; Jack Dunn; George Forbes; Gary Clark; John & Barbara Arnott; Carole & Barry Matthews; Ron Howe; John Keating, Dennis O'Brien, Tom Hankin and Gareth Watts.

Also we must thank ADF (Leeuwin Barracks and HMAS Stirling) for their support.

Dear Trevor,
Please find enclosed a cheque for $ 100.00 as a donation ANVVWA to assist in helping other members.Although we are not voting members we will try and attend the next meeting on November 8. Unfortunately Gerry is in and out of hospital. Please accept our apologies if we are not at the meeting. 

Regards
Karen L

ATT: CHINA HAMMEL

Sir,
Thankyou for your help and assistance with my Veteran Affairs, and your Advocacy. As I am relocating interstate I am and need to change my Advocate and am informing you and Vet Affairs of this. My Knew Advocate will arrange to receive my Documents and again Thankyou for your help and appreciate everything you have achieved for me, 

Yours Sincerely
J.P.H.

Dear Sir 

Please find enclosed a cheque as a donation for services rendered re: pension. 

Yours faithfully
W.J.F.             

Thank you and your team for your support in my claim with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. I greatly appreciated your support and have enclosed a donation.

Regards David 0.

Would you please accept the attached small donation in regards to helping out an old Second World War Veteran who is in need of help.

Jennie and I appreciate your sincere support.

Yours Sincerely, Jeff W

I am writing to thank you sincerely and in particular your team who provided me with professional support in my successful claim with DVA a few months back at HMAS Leeuwin. Your dedication in providing help to all veterans and their families cannot be measured, and for your hard work time and effort is really appreciated. Please accept this small token as it may help with some of the endeavours that are encountered. Many thanks and kind regards.

Tony B (Ex CPOQMG)

Just a note to thank you and your helpers for taking up my case against the Veterans’ Review Board and then with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. I felt I was getting a green rub from them and to have a successful claim was great. Please find enclosed a cheque to the Welfare Association with thanks for all you have done.

Colin P.

Thank you for your assistance in my successful claim for an increase in my disability pension, your time & expertise were greatly appreciated. I enclose a cheque for the Association.

Ron A.

I wish to say thank you for all the help you gave me in achieving a positive result with my claim. As you are aware in March 2002 I suffered two strokes and I was finding it very difficult in coping with every day life let alone trying to continue working, specially in my line of work. In March 2003 I made an appointment at HMAS Leeuwin Advocacy services in an attempt to find out if my military service would at least give me a pension at sixty hoping I could keep going till then (it didn’t), after talking to you regarding my service and illness we put a claim in and thanks to you and your effort it was successful. I cannot explain the relief that the acceptance of the claim has made to myself and family. So once again thank you and if I can in any way repay the kind work please feel free to contact me.

Yours truly, Peter F.

Dear China,

May I take the opportunity of saying a very special Thankyou for the effort of obtaining a pension for me.
The professional way in which the claim was made by you was so gratefully received by myself
Please accept a small donation to the Welfare Association of WA.

Thankyou

Dear China,

It was with sadness that I read of your leaving of WA at the end of the month. You have done such a mind-blowing amount of good for so many people!
I thank you for making me and the American Veterans so welcome at your Memorial Dedication Services, and the memorial Service last year, also for inviting us to your dinner last year and for presenting the North American Veterans' Unit with that beautiful plaque, which we will always treasure. I felt very honoured to have been presented with it, for our Unit.
It is hard to imagine the Australian Navy In Vietnam Veterans' Welfare Association without you, indeed, Western Australia without you.
NAVU's Senior Officer, and my husband Barry and I, and I'm sure all the members of our Unit when they find out, wish you and Helen all the very best with your new path of life.

Yours sincerely 
Joan  G

Dear China 

I am writing to say thankyou for the very professional and helpful way in which my recent claim was handled and successful outcome was achieved.
It is with much gratitude that I acknowledge Trevor Robbins for his tireless efforts and for not giving up on my case when it was rejected by DVA.
China ‑ your intervention and persistence in following through to the Appeals Tribunal is far more than I could ever have envisaged ‑ many thanks.
Please find donation of $750 in much appreciation for the efforts you and your organization in achieving a successful outcome on my behalf. Keep up the good work. 

Yours gratefully, Alan D

 Hi China,

I read about your leaving in the newsletter last night.
You have begun something that has helped myself and many others - thank you.
I believe the Association is in good hands with people like Tid Carter and the others you have drawn about you over the years.
Best wishes to you and Helen in your life together in NSW.

"Discharge to Shore, engagement expired. Bravo Zulu China"  Peter B

 Dear China

Since the court hearing I have been ill with some sort of virus quite ill.
I have only just got out of my bed.
Sorry to have taken so long in writing this.
I have great difficulty in writing since my stroke, so please excuse in me.

All the very best to you all, Alice C

Mr. China Hammal 

My heartfelt, sincere thanks go to Mr. China Hammal of Leeuwin, for the work in helping Veterans with what they seek.
The staff, with their great knowledge of the rules and regulations, soon have you believing in your request.
My health is not the best, and I found myself pulling back, but China was there encouraging me, how could I not go through with it.
Then it was all over, and another success story was made.

Thankyou China, Alice C

G'Day China, 

Just a short note to let you know that the TPI came through today, backdated to 05 August.
My head is still reeling a bit but I need to thank you very very much for your help and advice, without it I would never have been successful I am sure.
A copy of the decision has been sent to you as well.
China, you can be sure I won't forget your help and I will do the right thing by the RAN in Vietnam group.
We are doing a trip next year and if / when we go through Orange I would love to buy you a beer, if you’re thirsty!!! 

Thanks again China
Regards
Pee Wee E

Dear China, I received you note and documents relating to my claim today, thank you and thank you again for your help with my claim. I am sad to hear things aren't going well with donations, maybe things are a bit 'tight' with funds for some people I know they are with us be we do what we can.
I hope the small cheque can help a little I would like to give some more further down the track as things get back on line for us. 
As I said, I will catch up in Orange when we pass through 'MY SHOUT"!

Once again, thank you. A grateful Veteran.

Dear China, Firstly, thank you for the effort you have put into to complete our Disability claim with the Department of Veteran Affairs. We appreciate the time you have given us, preparing the documents and following up with the Department on our behalf. Your service to Veterans has been well documented and we can see how this recognition was obtained, especially as you have given your time and effort to so many Veterans before us. We are very pleased that you have moved to Orange and that we had the opportunity to meet you and have your help to guide us through this process.

Once again, thank you for what you have done for us and we enclose a donation to help towards your helping others.

Yours Sincerely, John & Elaine C.

Dear China, I received all the data you helped me with re my claim with DVA yesterday, plus your personal letter re my future action etc. I would like to have a talk to you re myself and my future action when you're over here in Perth in November.
Please find attached a donation cheque of $100.00 for the Welfare Association. We are looking forward to seeing you again. If I have mates who require help in making a claim do I refer them to you?

Love to Helen and God Bless you both.

Regards, Kev G

Dear China, 

I would just like to say thankyou for your support with my MCRS claim at the AAT does not seem enough. I embarked on this claim in 1996 and have had never ending run around due to Beaurocratic bungling within the MCRS system. I sought legal advice but quickly realised that there is only one winner in these cases, the Lawyers. I was advised by my husband to seek your advice as you had previously assisted him in a DVA claim. I was worried when you transferred to Orange but we have been able to continue with the case via phone and email. As we wait for the outcome of this fiasco from the AAT, I would like to applaud you for passion and assistance which is all for the love of your ex service buddies, be it that I am a female ex army.

Cheers and thanks.

A grateful ex army Sig.

P.S. The amount of taxpayers' money MCRS spent on defending this matter would keep you in beer for the rest of your life!

Dear China am writing to say how pleased I am because, with all your hard work and effort in helping me, I have been granted an EDA pension. I was previously only on a 30% disability pension and the service pension, and at 82 I was concerned for my wife's welfare should anything happen to me. I thought that my hearing was the only disability that was war service related, but now after 3 heart attacks, osteoarthritis in both knees, a knee replacement and bowel cancer, I realize that these things were also as a result of things that happened during my            service. Had it not been for meeting China at a DVA information day in Orange, I might still have been struggling on the 30% pension, but now it has made life more comfortable, and given me peace of mind that my wife will be looked after when I've gone. China sorted through the medical records and navigated us through the application, which would have been a major headache for us, but he knew all the ins and outs of it, then followed up with the DVA on our behalf. The whole process was completed in a very short time, the application received by the DVA on 30^th June, and the 100% pension granted 13th October, the EDA granted on 18th November 2004

Once again, my thanks to China for all his understanding and sincerity, and for giving up his free time in his quest to help others. We are very pleased that China has chosen to live in Orange, and we are even more pleased that our paths crossed and cannot say enough about how it has made our life a little easier.

Yours sincerely, John C

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