In a rare display of openness, the media has been invited for the first time inside the Auckland base of the New Zealand Special Air Service.
ONE News cameras were allowed in to the Papakura base to witness members of the SAS receiving a special citation on behalf of the President of the United States in recognition of their role in the war in Afghanistan.
A camera crew was allowed to film around 200 men and women receiving the citation under the condition that the faces of serving members were not shown.
The move comes after the New Zealand government attracted criticism for being overly secretive about the SAS.
"There is always a balance between the public's right to know and the need to keep our people in difficult operations in as secure a position as we can," says Defence Minister Phil Goff.
The New Zealanders were part of Task Force K-Bar that took the city of Kandahar and destroyed al Qaeda bases in southern afghanistan after September 11.
No New Zealanders were killed in the deployment but two were injured fighting an enemy believed to comprise Taleban and al Qaeda forces.
Following controversy over the US treatment of detainees captured in Afghanistan Goff says: "None of those captured by our SAS are currently at Guantanamo Bay."
The US defence attache Captain Rick Martinez wouldn't be drawn on whether the war in Afghanistan can be considered a success.
"Well, I'm not in Afghanistan at the moment so I can't answer those questions," says Martinez. "But as far as the mission at hand and what these guys did it was very successful."
But Goff, who has just returned from Afghanistan, admits unrest there is concerning and New Zealand troops are committed until 2008.
