New Zealand's largest presentation ceremony of the NZSSM (Erebus) is scheduled for Monday, May 28, at the Concert Chamber of the Auckland Town Hall. About 320 people, including 90 recipients, have confirmed their attendance at the fourth of four ceremonies to be held in the country.
Dignitaries will be piped into the Town Hall concert chamber by a member of the New Zealand Police Pipe Band at 10am.
The medals will be presented by Auckland City Mayor Dick Hubbard, along with New Zealand Police representatives, Acting Assistant Commissioner Gavin Jones and Superintendent Steve Shortland.
The medals commemorate the work done by a range of professions in response to the crash of Flight TE 901 into Mt Erebus in the Antarctic on November 28, 1979.
Service at one or more of the following locations, with regard to Operation Overdue from November 1979 to February 1980, qualifies people for the award of the New Zealand Special Service Medal (Erebus):
„X Crash Site, Mount Erebus;
„X On supply or support flights to and from the crash site;
„X At Williams Field, McMurdo Station; or
„X The Mortuary, Auckland University School of Medicine.
Medal recipients on Monday come from New Zealand Police, Air New Zealand, New Zealand Army, Radio New Zealand, Auckland Hospital Mortuary Staff, a jeweller, the New Zealand Dental Association, New Zealand Embalmers Association, New Zealand National Film Unit and Forensic Pathology.
An overview of the roles performed at each of the above locations is:
„X Crash Site Recipients who were at the Crash Site will have been involved in some or all of the following;
the establishment of a base camp on Mt Erebus; construction of a helicopter landing pad; placing flags to mark both crevasses and human remains; carrying out disaster identification procedures and removing bodies; construction of body loading facilities for airlift to the Auckland mortuary; construction of search grids; recovery of personal property.
„X Williams Field, McMurdo Station Recipients who were located at Williams Field, McMurdo Station, were involved in;
processing and packing of victims' remains and personal effects for transport to the Auckland mortuary; location and recovery of the flight data recorder from the wreckage; radio reports and interviews to convey the full scale and scope of the disaster to the New Zealand and international publics.
„X Auckland Mortuary Recipients based at the Auckland Mortuary were involved with the identification of 214 of the 257 victims by New Zealand Police, Auckland mortuary staff, forensic pathologists and dentists, mortuary technicians, Air New Zealand staff and a jeweller; work by embalmers and funeral directors; production of a training film on victim identification procedures, repatriation of remains within New Zealand and overseas.
ENDS
Issued by Noreen Hegarty
Auckland City Police Communications Manager
Ph 09 302 6947 or 0274-951-589
Website: www.police.govt.nz
Media note:
Please advise me by 3.30pm Friday, May 25 if you intend to attend the ceremony. All attending media will need to report to me at the Town Hall by 9.15 on Monday morning.