A former sailor who was circumcised by a ship's doctor and allegedly suffered ridicule from his shipmates is seeking compensation almost 40 years after the operation.
According to evidence to a tribunal, he woke during the operation and had to be physically restrained while it was completed.
It was claimed that the attendant holding him down then joked his foreskin would make good fish bait.
The Melbourne man, 56, is seeking a $28,600 a year defence force pension because he claims his severe depression that emerged after the circumcision was caused by his defence service.
The Repatriation Commission rejected his claim, despite its own expert diagnosing the man, known only as DZLG, as suffering a "generalised anxiety disorder" because of the ridicule after the operation.
However, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal ruled the commission was wrong and recommended the man be given a pension.
The tribunal was told that the man was 19 when he was posted on HMAS Sydney in 1973 and attended sick bay with a sore penis.
He had expected to receive an antiseptic cream but instead was circumcised and he told the tribunal the operation "just happened" and he had no time to object.
A medical attendant "held the removed foreskin in tongs and joked about using it for fishing", he said.
The man fainted and spent four days in sick bay, then his shipmates started taunting him.
''Jokes were made referring to the size of his penis . . . he was called names," the tribunal found.
The tribunal found that when he transferred to another ship the taunts continued and he became depressed, alienated and lonely.
His lawyer, Greg Isolani of KCI Lawyers, said the bullying affected the sailor for the rest of his life, leaving him a "shattered man".
He said it was "extremely disappointing" that the Department of Veterans' Affairs forced him to appeal to a tribunal.