NZ Officer Injured In Baghdad To Return To New Zealand
NZ Army officer, Major Todd Hart, who was injured in the explosion at the UN building in Baghdad early Wednesday morning
(NZ time) will return to New Zealand on a Royal New Zealand Air Force aircraft on Monday, September 1, 2003.
Major Hart’s wife, Penny, will travel to the Middle East on the Air Force B757 leaving Christchurch on Monday morning,
August 25, with the NZDF personnel of the Provincial Reconstruction Team deploying to Afghanistan.
Travelling with Mrs Hart will be an Army nursing officer who will provide medical support for Major Hart for the return
journey. Major Hart’s injuries have been confirmed as lacerations to his face and right arm, and a deep cut to his left
arm. An earlier assessment that he had a broken arm was unfounded.
It is intended that Major Hart be moved from Kuwait on Sunday, August 24, to the care of NZDF personnel already in the
Middle East operating the P3K Orion in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Mrs Hart will meet him at that location.
Media contact with Major Hart will not be facilitated for the time being but is being considered for his arrival in New
Zealand, or soon after.