SAS soldier determined to battle on
Ex-trooper says his pain is worth a pension, writes Simon Maude.
A former New Zealand-based athlete turned elite soldier is vowing to fight on after being knocked back for a special war pension.
SAS trooper Paul Richwood is taking Australia’s Repatriation Commission to court over its refusal to grant him a pension he says he qualifies for as a result of debilitating injuries.
He has been rejected three times by the Veterans’ Review Board and now the Administrative Appeals Tribunal of Australia.
Richwood suffers from 20 medical conditions, but at the core are injuries suffered when he served in the SAS, slowly crippling him over the ensuing years, he believes. He says he also faces going without food just to make ends meet.
Now, he says he is making his ‘‘last roll of the dice’’.
Over the telephone from his Perth pensioner unit, Richwood, 67, recounts how he came to be living in hardship while other veterans ‘‘in the same boat live comfortably’’.
Fijian-born Richwood, previously known as Seru Gukilau, spent six years in New Zealand including representing Fiji in the 400m hurdles at the 1974 Commonwealth Games, where he reached the final.
Leading up to 1976’s Montreal Olympics, he took a break from training and holidayed in Melbourne but decided to stay, never returning to athletics.
He landed a job as a hotel manager before joining the Australian Army, anglicising his name to Paul Richwood.
In 1980 he was shoulder-tapped by an SAS major and invited to try out for the Australian SAS.
Richwood was one of 11 out of 200 hopefuls chosen to join ‘‘The Regiment’’ that year.
He says he took some knocks during SAS service.
Long training marches terrifying pitch-black night jumps took their toll.
‘‘The worst [parachute jump] was jumping in the countryside, no street lights, I landed smack in the middle of a field and was knocked out, as I came to the wind dragged me off the road and I just missed getting pulled under a passing truck.’’
Richwood and his SAS comrades just shrugged off the pain and kept going. They were also afraid of getting invalidated out.
Then, in 1984, Richwood lost a leg in a hit-and-run car accident.
In 2013, 29 years after he left the SAS, constant, debilitating pain forced him out of his job and on to a pension.
Since then, he’s been unable to pay the bills.
‘‘They’ve knocked me back three times now, my only option is to go to the High Court. I’ve already made up my mind, I’m going to take it to the end.’’
He has waged a three-year legal battle for a special war pension, worth nearly $1400 a fortnight and designed to help veterans incapable of working more than eight hours a week solely because of injuries caused during service.
In its September 2016 ruling, the appeals tribunal said round after round of expert medical assessments couldn’t show that his service injuries ‘‘alone’’ made him unable to work.
Richwood’s lawyer, Robert Grayden, is preparing another legal challenge.
The court had taken a ‘‘very harsh interpretation’’, he said.
‘‘All these things mounted up which meant he couldn’t satisfy this criteria. It’s very unfortunate.’’ I’ve already made up my mind, I’m going to take it to the end. savage hand parachute