Section 6A relates to overseas service during World War 1 and World War 2 and includes certain service in Northern Australia during World War 2.

Section 6B relates to Australian mariners who served outside Australia or faced actual combat within Australian waters.

Section 6C relates to members of the Defence Force who were allotted for duty in an 'operational area' in the period after World War 2 to the present day. Operational areas are listed in Schedule 2 to the Veterans' Entitlements Act 1986 and (broadly) comprise:

• Korea (27/6/50 – 19/4/56)
• Malaya and Malayan waters (29/6/50 – 30/9/67)
• Vietnam (31/7/62 – 11/1/73)
• Namibia (18/2/89 – 10/4/90)
• Gulf waters, Iraq and Kuwait (2/8/90 – 9/6/91)
• Cambodia (20/10/91 – 7/10/93)
• former Yugoslavia (12/1/92 – 24/1/97)
• Somalia (20/10/92 – 30/11/94).

Section 6D relates to certain service in Singapore, Japan, North East Thailand and with the Far East Strategic Reserve.

Section 6E relates to service in the Korean DMZ after 18 April 1956 and service on HMAS Vampire or HMAS Quickmatch in Vietnam in January 1962.

Section 6F relates to a member of the ADF rendering operational service during 'warlike service' or 'non-warlike service', which essentially is service declared as such by the Minister for Defence.

These terms are defined in VEA S5C(1):

• non-warlike service means service in the Defence Force of a kind determined in writing by the Minister for Defence to be non?warlike service.
• warlike service means service in the Defence Force of a kind determined in writing by the Minister for Defence to be warlike service.

This is a new classification introduced by the Veterans' Affairs Legislation Amendment (Budget and Compensation Measures) Act 1997 commencing on 13 May 1997 to cover operations of higher risk than normal peace-time service. The intention is to give service personnel greater certainty about their eligibility under the VEA before they commence future overseas deployments and to minimise the potential for anomalies to occur in the future.

Service will be declared as 'warlike service' when the military activities involve the authorised application of force and there is an expectation of casualties. These operations can encompass, but are not limited to:

• a state of declared war
• conventional combat against an armed adversary, and
• Peace Enforcement operations.
• A declaration of 'warlike service' has been made, in respect of service in Vietnam between 12 January 1973 and 29 April 1975 inclusive.
• Service will be declared as 'non-warlike service' where the military activities fall short of war-like operations but there is a risk associated with the assigned tasks and where the application of force is limited to self-defence. Casualties could occur but are not expected. These operations can encompass, but are not limited to:
• Peacekeeping, and
• Hazardous service, as discussed in Section 63.6 [8].

East Timor

Ministerial Determinations have been made in respect of service in East Timor and adjacent waters:

Non-warlike service:

OPERATION FABER (19/6/99 – 15/9/99)

OPERATION SLIPPER (6/9/99 – 19/9/99)

Warlike Service:

OPERATION TANAGER (from 20/2/00)

OPERATION STABILISE (16/9/99 – 23/2/00)

OPERATION FABER (16/9/99 – 23/2/00)

OPERATION WARDEN (16/9/99 – 10/4/00)

Afghanistan and the 'War on Terrorism'

The Minister made a Declaration of Warlike Service on 7 December 2001 covering members of the ADF who were allotted for service on or after 11 October 2001 with OPERATION SLIPPER in one of two Specified Areas. Specified Area 1 is a large geographical area covering Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Middle East and parts of Africa, Russia, India and the Central Asian Republics. Specified Area 2 is an area covering Diego Garcia and a radius of 250 nm out from that island.