Some wannabes claim that their records are "Secret",  have been "Sanitised" or have been "Destroyed" in an attempt to further their standing in the Veteran community.   Some records are classified Secret when it becomes a matter of National security. An Able-Seaman would not fall into this category.   Sanitised is a new ‘buzz-word’ among wannabes with the implication that should you gain access to a persons file then you will not be able to see the complete file. Records are never Destroyed. Some wannabes claim this has happened and at times attempt to provide bogus proof of this.  In conjunction with this the 30 year secrecy act for Viet Nam is over.

Sadly for wannabes and Roque Charles Hammal, the truth always wins in the end.

Roque Charles "China’ Hammal was born in the British colony of Hong Kong on 23 August 1952, of mixed race parentage. He enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy [RAN] in Sydney on 18 Oct 1969, for a period of 9 years and was allocated Service Number R106976.   At that time he was 17 years and 2 months old and served continuously in the Navy for a period of 12 years and 17 days when he requested his own discharge, which was granted on 4 Nov 81, with the rank of Petty Officer.

Since that date Hammal has concocted many stories regaling his service. He carried out this litany of half truths and fabrications to such a level whereby people he has duped have come out in support of his nefarious and spurious service and stated that they had examined Hammal's service records and supposed letters from government departments, that actually support his stories. How wrong they were.  See below.

Below are a series of photo’s taken at various times at official functions and parades.



Now compare these photo’s with Hammal’s true entitlement shown here.

Hammal made application for and was issued his Service Medals in the following order:

1.      Returned From Active Service Badge in 1991,

2.      Viet Nam Logistics Service Medal in 1993,

3.      Australian Active Service Medal 1945-75 with Clasp: Viet Nam, in1997, and

4.      Australian Service Medal 1945-75 with Clasp FESR, in 1997.

These are all he is entitled to wear.

In addition to his real entitlement Hammal wears the following authorised medal without being lawfully issued it and the following "tin"/commemorative medals:

Vietnamese Campaign Medal  - Instituted by the Government of the Republic of Viet Nam and awarded to Australians with the Queen's permission, for 181 days continuous "Special Service" in Viet Nam or adjacent waters between 31 July 1962 and 27 January 1973. Service of a lesser period also qualified if brought to an end by death due to enemy action or by being wounded in action i.e. classified as a Battle Casualty. Lesser service terminated by "medical" evacuation to Australia (sickness etc.) did not qualify.  This medal is shown below.  The unlawful wearing of this medal now places him in the position of being charged under the new act and liable to a fine of $3300 and a maximum jail sentence of 6 months.

Navy Tin Medals such as the HMAS Sydney Medal -  A tin association medal which is purchased by the wearer and has no official recognition.   This medal is shown below and is not to be worn on an authorised rack of medals

The Australian Logistic Support Forces Medal - A tin commemorative medal which is purchased by the wearer and has no official recognition.   This medal is shown below and is not to be worn on an authorised rack of medals

Foreign Service Medal -  A tin  commemorative medal which is purchased by the wearer and has no official recognition.   This medal is shown below and is not to be worn on an authorised rack of medals

 

If worn at all, these tin medals should be worn on the right breast, inline with awarded medals which are worn by the recipient on the left breast.

You will see from evidence produced below that ‘China’ Hammal’s real Viet Nam Service consisted of approximately 12 hours in Vietnamese waters on the HMAS Swan, a ship that did not anchor. An extract of evidence from  an AAT hearing on the activities of HMAS Swan in Vietnamese waters is shown below.



     

                               

For this service he is entitled to wear the Australian Active Service Medal (AASM) with Clasp Viet Nam and the Viet Nam Logistics Support Medal (VLSM)."   See the real entitlement to medals for China at the beginning of this page.

Some of Hammal's claims of Navy service:

Claim 1. Hammal has stated "Prior to my transfer from the Royal Hong Kong Navy in October 69 I had a short induction period in HMAS Penguin Diving School in February 69".  See below his own words.

               

Fact 1. Hammal has made the claim of transferring to the Royal Australian Navy from the Royal Hong Kong Navy in Oct 69. His records however show that he applied for enlistment in the RAN on 6 Aug 69 in Sydney, NSW and was enlisted on 18 Oct 69, where he declared on his enlistment papers, D.R.1, 89/69  that he had no prior Military service.
 

During his childhood ( 7 & 8 yrs old) he was billeted with his parents at HMS Tamar on Stonecutters Island (1959-60) which was the Royal Navy shore base in Hong Kong. This is confirmed on his Dept of Navy Personal Particulars Form CDO 4664 dated 12 Aug 69 shown here.

              

This would be the only contact he had with the RN. Also, on form DR1 (Application Form For Males for Enlistment) at para 10, "State highest education standard attained and name of school", he has answered "Form 5, King George Fifth School, 1969, Hong Kong.". This form dated 6 Aug 69 is shown here.

             

Claim 2. Also in the statement below he claims, "When HMAS Perth had her major refits in Sydney, I served in HMAS Parramatta during the fall of Saigon".

                                                 

Fact 2. From a search of posting records it is revealed that Hammal was posted to HMAS Parramatta on 17 Oct 73 until 5 May 74. The last time HMAS Parramatta was in Vung Tau harbour was on 22 May 71(for a period of 4 hrs 30mins). Saigon fell to North Viet Nam 4 years later on 30 Apr 75. This is another ridiculous and laughable claim.

Claim 3. Another from the same statement below by Hammal  is, "During my RAN service, my records show 3088 days at sea serving as a bubblie and stoker". (The term "bubblie" is RAN parlance for a Clearance Diver as opposed to a ships diver) 

                                                  

Fact 3. Hammal’s records show that he commenced an ABCD (Able Seaman Clearance Diver) course at HMAS Penguin, a shore based facility at Pittwater in Sydney, on 3 Jan 71. He remained at HMAS Penguin until 1 March 71, a period of 8 weeks, then he was transferred to HMAS Cerberus, another shore based facility. The length of time required to successfully complete the ABCD course was 8 months for the 1971 course so one can see that Hammal failed the course and could never have served as a Clearance Diver (CD) in Viet Nam.

Claim 4. Further to the rest of Hammal's entertaining claims as shown below, comes the one where he states," After a short introduction to the RAN in HMAS Cerberus I had various duties and served in numerous ships including a period in HMS Danae during the Viet Nam campaign".

Fact 4. A search of HMS Danae’s (Royal Navy) crew listing (1967-71) does not show any person named Hammal. Another absurd claim easily disproved because the full crew listing may be found at [bookmark us first....this will take you away from the site] http://www.fullspeed.to/hmsdanae and Hammal’s naval records do not show any posting or attachments to not only the RN but to HMS Danae from the RAN.

Claim 5. In Claim 3 above it can be seen that Hammal has stated that, "During my RAN service, my records show 3088 days at sea serving as a bubblie and stoker".

Fact 5.  Notice that Hammal has stated "3,088 days at sea" not in sea going ships but, days at sea. The claim of serving "3,088 days at sea" is simply another ludicrous claim. 3,088 days is 8 yrs and 5 mths out of a total of 12 yrs 17 days service.

This is a list of Hammal’s postings to sea going ships as copied from his official Navy records.

HMAS Anzac: 20 Apr 70 to 3 Jan 71 = 258 days.

HMAS Swan: 13 Aug 71 to 21 Jan 73 = 557 days.* #

HMAS Perth: 22 Jan 73 to 16 Oct 73 = 266 days.

HMAS Parramatta: 17 Oct 73 to 04 May 74 = 198 days.

HMAS Perth: 05 May 74 to 08 Feb 76 = 643 days.

HMAS Perth: 10 Jun 77 to 02 Dec 79 = 905 days.

Total = 2827 days on sea going ships.

* While posted to HMAS Swan, Hammal had, according to his leave record, a total of 90 days leave. Also during this period, according to the ships movements logs, the Swan spent 180 days in different ports. This means that out of 557 days on this sea going ship Hammal actually spent 287 days at sea.

# Also, it was in this period that Hammal did his one and only visit to Viet Nam.   HMAS Swan was allocated for service from 4 Oct 71 to 14 Oct 71 and accordingly departed Singapore on 4 Oct, met up with HMAS Sydney on 5 Oct, arrived and left Vung Tau on 6 Oct and arrived Manila on 14 Oct.

On both of HMAS Swan’s visits to Vung Tau, ships records indicate that the ship never anchored at any time thus making diving operations impossible. Evidence from an AAT hearing confirms this as shown below.

 

Claim 6. From Hammal’s local community newspaper, the Cockburn Gazette, dated  June 11 -  June 17, 2002 in an interview given, Hammal states, "China served in the Hong Kong Navy and the Australian Navy for more than 12 years which involved three years in the Viet Nam war."
 

 

Nowhere can it be found that Hammal refuted the above claims.


Fact 6. Claims of serving in Viet Nam for 3 years are simply ludicrous. The last RAN Escort ship in Vietnamese waters was the HMAS Vampire which departed the port of Vung Tau for Palau Tioman on 24 Nov 72.   Three years before this date ( 24 Nov 69) Hammal had just enlisted in the RAN.

Claim 7. From The West Australian newspaper dated 10 June 2002 in an article written by reporter Ben Ruse, Hammal made the statement that he, "trained as a diver in Hong Kong and went to Viet Nam with the Royal Australian Navy in 1969 at the age of 17."
 

Nowhere can it be found that Hammal has refuted this statement.

Fact 7. As can be seen in Fact 1 above, Hammal never enlisted in the RAN until 18 Oct 69. Taking into account the time required for him to complete his "rookies" course at HMAS Cerberus it is just farcical to claim he went to Viet Nam in 1969.

It is indeed a sad day when a sailor who has done so much for the Veteran community has to enhance his service far beyond what he infact did during service, as this now tarnishes everything he has done for that Veteran community and has also caused those within this community to rise against him and have the Order of Australia Medal that he was offered, quashed. Further to this Hammal had a sob story for the WA Sunday Times, dated 14th September 2003,  in which he continues to tell his lies in an endeavour to convince the public that he was worthy of the award.    See below,  you make the judgement.
 

To be a recipient of this medal, you must have a good standing in the community and a flawless record.   Non-disclosure of discrepancies can and does see the award rescinded.   This is unfortunate due to the outstanding work that Hammal has done within the community, but lies and deceit are not tolerated and the reward for this is removal of the medal as has been the case here.  Veterans were outraged at this award and took appropriate action to have it rescinded.   This is now going to create further expense for the Veteran community as this plaque below displaying OAM after Hammal’s name will have to be recast to reflect the truth. This is in Fremantle, Western Australia.

                                            

It has been alleged that  he didn’t fully understand the form and failed to disclose a matter of convictions from his past.  It is also alleged that because of his mixed race background he didn’t understand the wording of the applicable form for acceptance of the OAM.   This is refuted as he is a British subject who’s primary language is English and was at birth and has been the primary language used for approximately 34 years since arriving in Australia in 1969.

Over the past few years Veterans began to become aware of the tall stories that have emanated from Hammal and they began to check into his service record to obtain the truth.   Many Navy personnel approached CPMH for assistance here and we have worked quietly with the growing number of these Veterans who sought the truth.   It has taken a number of  years and with the assistance of all the Veterans involved we now have the truth as you see it here on these pages.

Hard copies of these records are now in our possession and these are what have been used to reflect the truth shown on these pages.

CPMH makes no apology for this entry on our pages and does not intend to pursue this into the depths of the welfare organisation that Hammal created in Western Australia, unless it is revealed that there are more untruths reported by Veterans that can do damage to the Veteran Community as a whole. This would then become a matter for other government departments and we would hand over any information that we uncovered and proved,  to the relevant authority for appropriate action.

China Hammal is a Veteran in his own right.  He has been awarded the medals as we stated above.  He has no entitlement to wear any other awards on his rack other than those we have indicated.  The Veteran Community of Western Australia should now make him aware of this and ensure that the “tin”and other illegal medals  that he wears are removed as they are an embarrassment to all genuine Veterans.   If Hammal is that gullible that he has to wear tin then they should be racked separately and worn on the right breast, well away from his awarded medals, so that the genuine people can have a quiet chuckle as he proudly displays them.

This applies to anyone who feels they have a need to wear tin.

If after being advised the protocol for wearing medals and awards he is still unsure then he should be directed to Ex Service Organisation sites where he can read the correct protocol for wearing medals after discharge………All people who wear tin would be well advised to do this as these “tin” medals are becoming an embarrassment to us all.

The Viet Nam Campaign Medal,  for 181 days "continuous Special Service" in Viet Nam or adjacent waters,  worn by Hammal has not been awarded to him.   The fines and punishments for fraudulently wearing decorations has just been amended in Parliament and penalties increased quite considerably.  Removal of this award is strongly recommended or appropriate action from the relevant authorities will be sought in the near future.
 

              
This photo is the latest taken -  30 Nov 2003

and so endeth the myth of the legendary service of this sailor. We can only hope that he wakes up to reality now, removes the un-awarded and tin medals he wears and continues his life as it should be, for it is these lies and his undeclared past, that has seen the awarding of the Order of Australia Medal rescinded.  A further conviction will be sought if the illegal medal is not removed.

Cheers China.........the beers are on us. 

There will no doubt be many comments passed on this site entry.  Please come back and visit again as we will post them all here for you to see......good and bad.  Your details will be recorded by CPMH but not displayed.  This section is to  allow you to  make your judgement on if we have been fair in exposing the truth.  This is the area where you can have your say......not our guest book.

THE CHINA HAMMAL COMMENTS SECTION
The comments below will only show which Military Service the person belonged to.

-----Original Message-----
From: Navy
  Sent: Friday, 26 December 2003 6:43 AM
To:  file@cpmh.net
Subject: Re: China & PERTH launch
G'day CPMH,
An excellent article on CPMH.  I noted that you have concentrated on the facts and have not bought up any information which could be labelled as "putting the knife in"  -  well done.

Once again, well done on an article which should not draw too many "brickbats" for being demeaning.  It is pure fact and that should be quite obvious to readers.

Regards and Happy New Year,
Navy