Lieutenant Alastair MacKenzie
Alastair Ronald Forrest MacKenzie.42219. Lieutenant. Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment. Victor Five Company.
New Zealand Gazette Number 81 dated 29 October 1971
Lieutenant MacKenzie graduated from the Officer Cadet School Portsea on 9 December 1967. He was allotted to the Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment and posted to Victor Company in Malaysia in December 1969. He arrived in Vietnam with Victor Five Company on 8 May 1970.
Throughout the year of his active service in Vietnam Lieutenant MacKenzie has shown outstanding leadership, aggressiveness, determination and good tactical sense, and in consequence his platoon has been most effective and successful on operations.
On 25 July 1970 Lieutenant MacKenzie showed his qualities of leadership when, after a heavy contact with the enemy, he coolly arranged and controlled the evacuation of nine of his soldiers and a member of 4 Troop NZSAS who was acting as a scout for the platoon who had earlier been wounded in a series of mine explosions. This task was successfully completed under difficult conditions and in close proximity to the enemy.
The success of Lieutenant MacKenzie’s platoon is directly attributable to the bold handling of this most competent platoon leader. His professional competence, personal standards and leadership reflect great credit upon himself, his Regiment and the New Zealand Army.