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<\/a><\/center><\/p>\nSomeone sends us a link to the story of Tony Flaherty. It seems that Mr Flaherty was in the Australian Army and served in Vietnam as a cook with the 5th Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment. Now that he’s running for political officer, his biography says that he was a platoon commander. A real platoon commander, Michael von Berg, has called out Flaherty by turning him into our friends at the Australia and New Zealand Military Imposters<\/a> group, and Flaherty has responded by suing von Berg. From The Australian<\/a>;<\/p>\n In his candidate profile, Mr \u00adFlaherty wrote that he had served in a \u201cplatoon commander role 8 Platoon, C Company\u201d.<\/p>\n Mr von Berg and other Vietnam veterans say that claim is false \u2014 Mr Flaherty was the company\u2019s cook, not a platoon commander. \u201cHis claims of being a platoon commander \u2026 this really irks me because I know what I and every other platoon commandeer in the RAR had to endure,\u201d Mr von Berg told The Australian.<\/p>\n \u201cFor Flaherty to have the temerity to portray himself as an \u00adacting platoon commander is an insult to me and every other \u00adplatoon commander.\u201d<\/p>\n He wrote a letter of complaint to the RSL SA on behalf of \u00adaggrieved members of 8RAR in his capacity as president of the SA branch of the RAR Association. The former infantry, SAS and commando officer was motivated to speak out after Mr Flaherty\u2019s side of the story was aired on the ABC\u2019s PM last month.<\/p>\n Vietnam veterans from across Australia have stepped forward to back Mr von Berg\u2019s defence.<\/p>\n At least eight have signed statutory declarations disputing Mr Flaherty\u2019s biography.<\/p>\n His company commander in Vietnam, Major David Rankine MC, wrote that in his time in charge of C Company, \u201cTony Flaherty never commanded anything other than a stove in the kitchen\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n According to Flaherty, in an interview with ABC<\/a>, since he can’t identify any of the folks at ANZMI, he’s going to sue his former Army mates for turning him in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"