Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

October 14 2021 marks 50 years since I finished my national service in South Vietnam and returned home. My key role as the US Liaison NCO was to transcribe all Australian requests for US stores into computer code and assist our trucks through the security controls at the main US Long Binh base about 12 km from Saigon. I was eventually posted to Long Binh (40,000 troops) and served mainly with African American and Puerto Rican troops. The growing radicalism of the civil rights movement spread within the US military, affecting the new recruits – many of whom opposed the war. Some were very young (18-19) and had only minimal training (6-8 weeks). 

In the early years, the Australian public fully supported our participation but as the commitment grew and the conscripts began to make up a larger percentage of those being deployed and killed, people started to lose confidence. Opposition started to grow and culminated in protests occurring in May 1970 when thousands marched in the streets of Australia's major cities protesting the Government’s commitment to the Vietnam War in general and particularly to conscription. I wanted to pay tribute to the two colleagues we lost (Captain Grant Ross and WO Terry Lyons during bomb disposal) and our medical teams who achieved an amazing 98.5% survival rate in treating our wounded.

While many of us were poorly treated on our return and reluctant to mention our service, things gradually changed with the help of people like John Schuman and the Redgum song “I was only 19”. We have lost many since the war to suicide and substance abuse and I applaud the efforts of younger veterans and the general community to offer support eg via training of dogs for those with ongoing PTSD. I usually attend the Dawn Service on ANZAC Day at the Semaphore War Memorial. Lest we forget.