With the Prime Minister's announcement that Corporal Willie Apiata
has been awarded the Victoria Cross,
the 35-year-old soldier must now face a national press conference. And he's not looking forward to it.
From where I come from, from the job I do,
even giving a little is too much.
And when you're ready, just start.
Lieutenant Colonel Mike Shatford briefs the press on the rules.
I'd like to outline the process that will happen today so we're all clear on the rules of the game.
Corporal Apiata has only just found out about this huge honour. It is quite overwhelming,
so I would ask that you go as easy as you possibly can on him.
Willie's moment of reckoning cannot be delayed any longer.
I don't think anyone could prepare themselves for what I walked into that morning.
I'm right behind you. Cheers, sir.
CAMERA SHUTTERS CLICK, APPLAUSE
Just standing there... just unreal, eh.
Just real emotional.
Willie Apiata joins yet another group of elite people.
This is the first award of the Victoria Cross for NZ.
His is the first and the only Victoria Cross to be awarded to a NZ serviceman
since the end of the Second World War.
The questioning quickly turns to that night in Afghanistan.
Hey, I was doing my job, eh, and just looking after my mates.
It was the...
What was going through your mind at that time?
TENSE SILENCE
You can sense the anticipation of the press
to get some information out of you so they can tell your story.
'Where's my buddies?'
'How can I help them?'
During this incident, did you feel fear? What was the feeling that went through you as you were doing this?
Um...
At the time, I was just... doing what I've been trained for. Doing my job.
Look out for my mates. Watch each other's back, and...
The heat of the moment. I can't really say at this time.
There was a lot of fire going on. You weren't worried about being hit?
< I think it's probably time to take the questions somewhere else.
< Willie is quite overwhelmed by the situation, and perhaps we can talk more about other things.
Do you see yourself, perhaps, as the living legend, as others might do from this day forward?
I see myself as Willie Apiata.
I'm just an ordinary person and...
this is me.
This is one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, actually.
Good one. All done. Thank you, sir.
It was a great job. Cheers, boss.
It was an enormous amount of pressure on him to present himself. I think he did a great job.
But Willie was just Willie. He was just being himself. That is him. That is Willie the man.
After facing the cameras, Willie asked for a private moment with the people who helped him through it.
I've always been a man of few words, but I need to say something.
Since 9 o'clock yesterday, it's just been an unbelievable experience.
The old 12 o'clock news today, that sort of really hit home for me.
I'd just like to thank you all for everything that you've done in the last three years,
building up to this day.
I can't believe I only just found out 9 o'clock yesterday about all of this,
but thanks very much. I... Words can't explain how much I appreciate what you fellas have done.
Thank you. Kia ora.
APPLAUSE
You're gonna get sick of us. Cheers, Willie.
Cheers.
BERNADINE OLIVER-KERBY: NZ has a new living legend - a man who displayed...
Back at the hotel, Willie watches his story lead the national news for the second time that day.
...hasn't changed me at all. I'm still one of the boys, back at work, and always will be.
Awesome. Yeah.
63 media stories about Willie. Online coverage through NZ spreading to Australia, France, the UAE.
This is just an awesome... thing that's happening.
I know. >
I didn't think it'd be that big at all. But...
it just felt like it almost went global, just like that.
Some messages of support for Corporal Willie Apiata. From Snoop in South Korea.
READS: It makes me proud to be a Maori again.
From Sunny. (READS) Salaam, peace. God bless you and your family for the ultimate good deed you did.
Dean in Queensland. (READS) 'Kia ora, Willie. Well done, from the bros in Iraq. Kia kaha, Deano.
'Nice one. If I see you in the pub, it's my shout.' (CHUCKLES) Hey, get that guy's name.
For those charged with keeping the secret,
the public announcement of Willie's Victoria Cross has gone off without a hitch.
Cheers to you and the team.
The relief it was out there.
For me, it was a great relief because I'd sat on it for some 10 months or so.
Suddenly, it wasn't a secret that had to be kept any more.
In just a few hours, Corporal Willie Apiata of the NZSAS has become an official NZ hero.
But a reluctant one.
Before they announced it, I'd finally sort of put it to rest.
But it's resting no more. It's gonna be there now for the rest of my life.
But, you know, you'll never forget that night. It'll always be there.
MACHINE GUNS FIRE
Following the 9/11 attacks, an international coalition was on the hunt for Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
Among those pursuing the terrorists were the NZSAS.
Renowned trackers, they're one of the world's leading Special Forces.
Highly skilled, the NZers were able to penetrate far behind enemy lines in all environments.
They were ideally suited for the rugged Afghanistan landscape.
BOOM!
Operating in small convoys of motorcycle pathfinders and armed patrol vehicles,
The NZSAS faced an elusive enemy that had used the local terrain to deadly effect
against the Russian army years before.
Among those hand-picked for this deadly mission was Corporal Willie Apiata.
You have all these things that may happen to you, but you resort to the training that you've been given.
Moving through villages, the NZ troops gathered intelligence on any suspicious movements.
We're chasing information, and information to us is currency.
Good information could lead them directly to the enemy.
BOOM!
On this occasion, a cache of guns, explosives and rocket-propelled grenades were taken from the enemy.
But Corporal Willie Apiata's patrol would not be so lucky on their next encounter.
Their time in the capital has gone to plan, and the commanding officer and his team head back to base.
But changes in Willie's life are apparent.
The first person to ask him for an autograph sort of said, 'Would you mind giving me an autograph?'
Willie said, 'Sure,' and looked at me and wasn't quite sure what to do.
I've never been asked for one, so it's new to me. I said, 'Well, just put your name.'
So he did. He wrote 'Willie' and handed it back.
I said, 'We can do it better next time.' So now he signs himself 'Willie Apiata, VC', as he should.
Corporal Willie Apiata returns to base and back to the routine of a Special Forces soldier. He hopes.
He was welcomed back, and it was business as usual, as far as the guys were concerned.
Handshakes - not too many man hugs go on around this place.
Doesn't matter if he's wearing the Victoria Cross on his chest.
If he does something wrong, he's gonna know about it.
I was coming in every morning - still do PT as usual every morning.
Get your feet back on the ground working with the lads.
Doing some shooting, just getting a bit of cordite back in the nostrils.
Getting your eye back in and making sure you're still doing it.
GUN FIRES
Despite his attempts to return to normality, everything has changed for Willie Apiata.
He's the only corporal in the NZ military with his own office.
He's only a corporal. He's got his own office, but he's gotta answer
a couple of hundred emails and letters every few days.
I don't think other corporals around here would want to do that.
Messages have flooded in from politicians, celebrities, sporting heroes, war veterans
and other proud regiments from every part of society and corner of the globe.
You get a feel of how the people are feeling out there.
The response from them was awesome. It's just overwhelming.
It's been an interesting process. A lot of people have asked for Willie to go and speak or be at events.
I think a lot of people forget that Willie's actually still a soldier and he's a soldier in the SAS.
I'm trying to keep things as normal as we can.
Trying to schedule events as best we can to... not to disrupt him.
If possible, get him out for a jump with the lads.
But Willie's newfound status is now inescapable.
Even at work, a member of the flight crew ambushes Willie for an autograph
while he prepares for a training jump with other members of the unit and the troop.
Is that you? >
ENGINE ROARS
(SHOUTS)
A few brief moments of isolation under canopy offer Willie his only relief from the attention.
But there is one set of faces that Willie is desperate to see.
My family's suffering at the moment, eh.
But I know I've just gotta be patient and I'll get that time at home.
Over the next few days, media interest intensifies on Willie Apiata
and the actions in Afghanistan that led to his Victoria Cross.
GUNS FIRE
Meanwhile, Willie learns the financial and personal pressures all VC winners must face.
I was concerned, as any commanding officer would be, when one of his subordinates is in this position.
I was concerned for him, personally.
While some recipients have succumbed to the substantial dollar value of the medals,
others have suffered a greater toll.
There are enough stories of Victoria Cross winners that have ended up destitute, or drunk and destitute.
We certainly didn't want that to occur, and there's no inclination that it's likely to, either.
After much demand, the media are granted a series of closely supervised one-on-one interviews.
All right. If you guys will follow me. Well, welcome to the unit.
But the very private soldier is still uncomfortable with his public role.
I never thought I'd ever be talking to the media about it. Yeah.
Hello.
With his famous corporal on edge, the CO lets everyone know exactly where the boundaries lie.
We're a discreet organisation. We're not comfortable in the public eye. It's not what we do naturally.
We're just trying to balance what NZ needs from Willie and what Willie needs.
Given that the SAS, you know, builds its reputation on anonymity, isn't that shot for him now?
No, not at all. He still has anonymity with a gas mask on, doesn't he?
The media are no longer covering the story for just NZ but for news agencies around the globe.
Last week, Willie Apiata was this anonymous bloke...
...and now you're having to do all these horrible interviews with us. (LAUGHS) >
The public and NZ wanna know who I am. It's a soldier in the NZSAS, and that's who I am.
We've been receiving messages on our website by the hundreds.
They generally wanted to know who I was and how I was feeling.
Yeah, it's still quite an overwhelming thing that I'm going through.
And, you know, I'm taking it one day at a time.
You've said you'd rather face the Taliban than the media.
There's a couple of them, actually, that were right up in your face, but...
we all know they just want a piece of Willie Apiata, so we had to give them a little bit.
Put you in front of that and take a photo as an honour.
They're big words you don't really like. You were just doing your job. (LAUGHS) OK, mate.
Um, so,... uh...
Some journalists go fishing for more details about Afghanistan.
Now, Afghanistan. How long had you been in Afghanistan when this particular action happened?
Probably no questions in terms of the specifics, sir.> OK, then.
So, you were up against a group of Taliban?
No specifics on that. >
(SIGHS) So, there's really no more that you'd tell us about Afghanistan?
Not the specifics. There's reasons for that. We're not being defensive or trying to hide anything.
In the hunt for Al Qaeda, Corporal Willie Apiata's patrol travelled to the remotest regions of Afghanistan.
We would go to villages to talk to the locals.
In some places we'd go to, they haven't seen soldiers since the Russian days.
Biblical is the only thing that springs to mind.
Donkeys, people carrying piles of wood, mud huts. Very biblical.
There were occasions we'd get flowers thrown on to our vehicle cos they were happy to see us.
We're a different bunch, eh, as Kiwis. We pretty much get on with just about everybody.
But greetings weren't always so enthusiastic.
We approached this village before last light and thought, 'We'll visit and let people know we're there.'
The welcoming we got from that village was quite hostile - just in the way that they looked at us.
We had been told, previously, that the village was sympathetic to Taliban.
With the meeting set up for the next day, the patrol moved away from the village to make camp for the night.
Some form of dominating ground that we can fight from, that you feel secure in,
that have got eyes on, basically, all around the fence.
But the landscape failed to offer an ideal location to lay up.
There was still a lot of ground that we couldn't see into.
Hiding in the shadows, a hostile army was amassing.
At the end of this first week, Willie gets a much-needed short break.
No media, celebrity snapshots or personal minders.
I really needed it. Just to clear my head.
Get my head around it and get some closure with my family.
They hadn't seen me since this thing started,
and they were starting to tear the TV apart every time I was on.
Willie heads south to see his partner and son and his biggest follower.
Only my mum really understood what it was about.
Once it had come out on the TV, basically, the rest of my family finally realised.
You know life's not the same any more on the home front, don't you?
My mum's followed me through my career ever since the first day
when I went away to do my first weekend of army training.
Jeepers. I didn't know you had all these.
Oh, that was when I came back from Afghan, eh. Mm.
After a few years in the Territorial Army,
his mother would also see Willie's disappointment after an unsuccessful first attempt to join the NZSAS,
an old injury denying his chance of selection.
I was pretty gutted about that, but I had a good unit that I was with at the time,
put me back into work and says, 'Hey, there will always be another opportunity', and I knew that.
After serving in East Timor, Willie tried for the NZSAS selection again in 2001.
This time, he made the grade.
Holy Father, bless this food we're about to devour. Bless this house. Bless our journey. Amen.
As a combat trooper, Willie is away on training and operations much of the year,
so he spends all his remaining time with his partner and son,
as they come to terms with the changes in Willie's life.
Nowadays, no matter how tired I am or how drained I feel, I'll always make time to spend with my boy.
I know that's all he wants - to be with Dad. He's away so much.
POIGNANT MUSIC
(LAUGHS)
Ah... we missed it.
That's the one. You're reeling it up a little bit.
All too soon, Willie's weekend with loved ones is over. Their next meeting will be in Wellington,
where the Governor-General will present Willie Apiata with the Victoria Cross in a public ceremony.
POIGNANT MUSIC CONTINUES