Lieutenant Fussell was killed while on active duty in Afghanistan last November.

The Australian Defence Force has held two inquiries into his death.

They have found the army major in charge of the operation had questionable leadership abilities.

He has been stood down from his command but keeps his rank and continues to serve in the army.

Lt Fussell was just 25 when he was killed by an improvised explosive device while on a foot patrol in the early hours of November 27.

He had deviated from the track and come into contact with the device.

The reports of the two inquiries into his death were released

yesterday.

The first inquiry was into the circumstances of his death in combat.

The second inquiry examined concerns identified in the initial inquiry regarding the preparation, training and leadership of the force element of which Lieutenant Fussell was a member.

Speaking to the media yesterday Australian Defence Force head, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, said the worst thing that could happen to someone in the military was to be removed from command.

“All of us aspire to command and to be removed is indeed a drastic action and it’s a very difficult set of circumstances for the individual concerned,” he said.

The major was on the patrol with Lieutenant Fussell when he died.

The second inquiry into preparation, training, certification and leadership found that some personnel who had served with the major “expressed reservation about his command capabilities”.

He was described as a “solid if unspectacular officer” but there were “deep seated suspicions as to his command competence”.

Testing of this major, though, found that his leadership qualities were a particular strength.

The inquiry stated a Captain had asked that the major be removed from command because of concerns about the way he exercised it.

The first and second inquiries found that track discipline may have been inadequate in the minutes before Lieutenant Fussell’s death.

The second inquiry stated that he (Lt Fussell) may have been the “first person in the order of march that night to deviate away from the ... route and those personnel behind him followed in his footsteps”.

Questions were raised in the report about why no one corrected this unsafe action and why he was allowed to deviate.

A Warrant Officer raised the possibility that “Lieutenant Fussell might have diverted only slightly... because he was momentarily distracted by his duties as the joint tactical air

controller”.