I now have proof that the Dept of Defence routinely carries out a 'routine file survey' and a routine, 'record destruction program'. I attach a document I received from another veteran (regarding an unrelated m,after) in which a Mr Paul Galvin of Defence makes that startling revelation (which surprised none of us involved in this process). So what you might ask? Well, here's the rub.... The Dept of Veteran Affairs requires validating documentation to further any claim of any sort made by a veteran, or in relation to any contentious issue he is raising. It immediately refers to the Dept of Defence for that supporting documentation or evidence information (and/or the Australian War Memorial which also has a routine sanitisation program). Now, if one (or both) of those bureaucracies is prone to routinely deliberately destroying documents, photographs and records (as both admit) what hope has the veteran got proving his case? It's a classic Catch-22 situation. Similarly, one of the key elements of our battle to validate the 2nd D&E Platoon revolved around an enquiry supposedly held by the Army when reports of the atrocities committed on May 30 1969 reached the high command in Australia. Brigadier Pearson was ordered to immediately conduct an investigation. He, in turn, ordered Major Ron Rooks of the Armoured Corps to carry it out. All attempts to find the report of that enquiry was met with polite 'it doesn't exist' from the bureaucracies. And again, in 1987 a Major Pound was sent to interview a former member of the 2nd D&E Platoon (Robert Enright) about claims he had made in the media about the atrocities. (They had sorely afflicted him). Again- no one could find any record of that enquiry, nor any evidence that they even existed. (An interesting aside here....Major Pound's enquiry only interviewed one man in relation to those allegations- Enright. He didn't question the commanding officer of the combined force- Capt Tom Arrowsmith, nor any of his troopers, nor any of the 39 infantrymen in the 2nd D&E Platoon, nor the two engineer's present, or the Mortar detachment from the 5th Battalion that accompanied us. Some 'enquiry'!) Anyway......neither report of those 'enquiries' could be located by 'researchers' in the Australian War Memorial or the Army History Unit- or any other military bureaucracy. They simply 'didn't exist' But in 2011, enterprising journalist Frank Walker found them hidden away in the National Archives in the unlikeliest of places. And he noticed that not only had they been accessed by senior Army officers (and others) some 17 times in the past decade or so, but it was obvious to Walker that there had been serious tampering with the files (pages removed, etc etc). Ah yes, Mr Nelson. It's no wonder you find yourself in a quandary- a prisoner of the 'red hats' in a 'Kremlin of military orthodoxy' as one veteran so accurately described that institution, and with no wriggle-room lest you dare stand against the corruption.