Just after 12.30pm on August 3, 1962, the plane carrying the first Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV) touched down in Saigon. Ossie was a bugler and his bugle also played at the first ANZAC Day dawn service at West Minster Abbey […], EVENTS & EXHIBITIONS | VETERAN STORIES | MERCHANDISING | MY ACCOUNT | CONTACT US. Glen Mylne, a Vietnam Veteran served as a Medic and witnessed some pretty horrific things both during his service and after he returned home to Australia. The first volume was a cancer incidence study of Vietnam veterans. The children of Vietnamese people who'd been through the war were in our school system. This seemed logical, as Mr Spock might say, because there was genuine hope for lasting peace, especially when the 1980s ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall. Veterans' Stories. Forty-three years ago, Peter Safe and Rod Harlor would have shot Vo Xuan Thu on sight, deep in the Vietnamese jungle. (1999) The Battle After the War: The story of Australia's Vietnam Veterans, St. Leonards, NSW, Allen & Unwin. Australia sent 61,000 servicemen and women to Vietnam, a number more of less matched by the 60,395 men and women who have served in war or in peacekeeping operations since 1999. Willem Dafoe as Sergeant Elias in Oliver Stone's 'Platoon'. Editing and the majority of filming undertaken by Chai Time Productions. The Vietnam War on film portrayed diversity. Glen is candid and honest in his interview at Currumbin RSL Gold Coast. ISBN: 064410709X 9780644107099: OCLC Number: 24955752 This is an edited 25 minute film using excerpts from these interviews. A website for providing information and sharing stories of service. Build me a son whose wishes will […]. He was riding down a river in a patrol boat, just talking to one of his friends on the boat, when he bent down to pick something up. The The NVVM is exploring an oral history project to record Veteran stories. Together these names comprise one of … The Vietnam War and portrayals of its veterans were everywhere on screen, especially in US TV series and movies like Tour of Duty, China Beach, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, Hamburger Hill, Rambo… okay, even Air Wolf and The A-Team. We thought we had some idea of what they'd all been through. You can also catch Oliver Stone’s Platoon, this Friday December 8 at 8:30pm on SBS. Nevertheless, as the tour of duty of each soldier during the Vietnam War was limited to one y… Interviews also courtesy of Kym Melzer’s ‘Coming Home’ series. From 1962 to 1972, Australia, with the United States, was involved in a war in Vietnam. In some of those, my male peers and I found role models, principles, and ways to be around friends. Australian Vietnam veterans were honoured at a "Welcome Home" parade in Sydney on 3 October 1987, and it was then that a campaign for the construction of the Vietnam War Memorial began. The complexities in the story of how Australian treated its Vietnam veterans were spelled out in Honest Honest History’s collection of materials last year entitled ‘Mythbusting about Vietnam: highlights reel‘. "I'd been in an infantry battalion and we'd had a lot of people killed and wounded and so on. For three years Currumbin RSL has interviewed veterans, service people and their families to get a personal insight into war and its aftermath. The veterans had returned. The Medical Journal of Australia, 2:331 We watched and listened as those who had lived it told their stories through cinema, TV and music. He discusses his feelings on seeing the devastation in Berlin and how the German people were just as much victims of the war as the rest of the world. During the investigative stage this study was known as ‘The Ethnographic Study’. “People were starving, really starving; a cigarette would’ve bought you the world. (1968) Caduceus in Saigon. American sociologist and Vietnam veteran Jerry Lembcke published The Spitting Image … Not my story, but a man that is like family to me told this story of his time in Vietnam. One of the possible factors to this under-representation of their stories in the Vietnamese or other Australian communities is that the soldiers still feel trapped from their painful past and loss of their homeland. All subscriptions include exclusive subscriber offers, events and giveaways with West Rewards, our subscriber rewards program. The 1980s was a time to tell the stories of the Vietnam War. Somebody had a guitar and sang a song he wrote. In the years following the war, some Vietnam veterans experienced social exclusion and problems readjusting to society. In the meantime, the Department of Planning and Community Development website features Vietnam Veterans Digital stories from John Vincent, George Logan, Maurice Benson, Kevin Brady, Paul Penno, David Catterall, Jeff Jackson, … The veterans had returned. Australian entertainer and Vietnam Veteran Normie Rowe gives us an insight into his personal struggles with life after war, returning home and PTSD. 555 likes. It insults worthy Vietnam veterans and gets the story oh so wrong. She also speaks about her feeling on days of remembrance and what they mean to her. Currumbin RSL President Ron Workman OAM, joined the air force at 15 and served in Vietnam. The refugees had reached Australia. Possible war crimes. I read some of my writing aloud. This report is the second of four volumes to be published in this series on Vietnam veterans. WWII Veteran Bill Freeman talks about his experiences as a Fighter Pilot. It was horrible […], Polly Sides talks about her father’s service in the Boer War. Ehrhart, left, in October 1967 near Quang Tri, Vietnam, and today. Three Vietnam War Veterans Share Their Stories W.D. Grove, G. (1967) Background to the Australian Surgical Teams in South Vietnam. Napalm and agent orange. It’s a tradition that began almost a decade ago when Phil Pauley, a member of our Royal Australian Navy, had his ashes scattered at sea as part of the Currumbin RSL Anzac Day Dawn Service. We looked up to him. ... who led the Vietnam Veterans Association campaign, said this week. China Beach showed women at war, more than men. • Part 4, ‘Intergenerational Effects of Service in the Vietnam War: the stories of six families’. NewSouth, $32.99. We couldn’t help it; we were being the guys on Tour of Duty, sitting in our base camp, making the most of the peace. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial includes more than 58,000 names of men and women killed or missing in action during the Vietnam War. It is the account of the Agent Orange controversy in Australia’s Official War History. More than 200 Australian civilian nurses, 100 Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and 43 nurses from the Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps (RAANC), served during the Vietnam War. ... videos and stories to 9News contact@9news.com.au. Behind the Wire: Images and Stories of Australian Vietnam Veterans. Her Father Oswald ‘Ossie’ James served at Gallipoli and made it home to tell the tales. Glen is candid and honest in his interview at Currumbin RSL Gold Coast. My gym lessons in Sydney were run by a US Vietnam veteran with a limp. The legacy of the Vietnam War shaped many young Australians growing up in the 1980s. It was as John Lennon had sung: “war is over, if you want it”. There is a wound from that war still unhealed. Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube. 1800 811 855. SBS acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout Australia. (SBS Movies). Australia’s Vietnam: Myth vs History. Also on TV was Star Trek: The Next Generation, science fiction in which humans had overcome war and sought to boldly go in peace among the stars. But we should start from the beginning. Unlike the UK and Argentina in the Falklands, Australia went a decade without an odd angry shot. “Bill” Ehrhart joined the U.S. Marines when he was 17. The refugees had reached Australia. Locally, the soundtrack was Redgum’s tragic “I Was Only Nineteen” and Cold Chisel singing about “no D-Day heroes in 1973”. Melbourne, Hutchinson Publishing Group. From the Korean War of the 1950s came the bittersweet M*A*S*H. Those were still on TV, but the stories that came to us from Vietnam were more current, bleaker and more desperate. The first, to provide information of special or current interest to Australian Vietnam veterans. This memorial, known as the Vietnam Forces National Memorial , was established on Anzac Parade in Canberra , and was dedicated on 3 October 1992. Document Type: Book: All Authors / Contributors: Australia. Mark Dapin. The stepson of an Australian Vietnam veteran gives an insight into what it’s like to live with war-induced PTSD. Crowe, A. His account of Vietnam veterans' experiences is based on the statistics provided from the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) Report presented to National Parliament in December 1992, which suggests that some 25 percent of Vietnam veterans are currently in receipt of a disability pension for either medical or psychological reasons. I remember sitting in a friend’s backyard in 1989, drinking bottles of beer around a fire pit and playing music. The veterans had returned. Instead, as Australia and its allies continued to wage the Cold War – in the shadow of potential nuclear conflict – we lucky few looked back and took stock. Need Help? He said it … The 1980s was a time to tell the stories of the Vietnam War. . Mervyn is a Currumbin RSL Sub Branch member who served in WWII. The "Vietnam Veterans' Association of Australia Inc" website has been designed with two purposes in mind. Of course, we had no idea. Learn about Australia's military and service history through the experiences of Australian veterans and their families during wartime and peace Welcome to the Anzac Portal. It would take nearly 20 years after the end of the war for America to get right with its Vietnam veterans. Broken: Vietnam vets’ long struggle with PTSD. That was how Australia went to war 50 years ago yesterday. Conscripts going home in body bags. Now, the three men are drinking together in what was once an Australian war base. We were just kids. Although initially there was considerable support for Australia's involvement in Vietnam, as opposition to the war increased service in Vietnam came to be seen by sections of the Australian community in less than sympathetic terms and opposition to it generated negative views of veterans in some quarters. By all accounts it’s a harrowing watch, but a necessary and brilliant one, which critics have consistently reviewed at 9/10. Get unlimited access to award-winning journalism from Western Australia's biggest newsroom with your subscription. Many major characters were black. In 1981, Graham met Phil Thompson, the president of the Vietnam Veterans' Association of Australia. Evans, B. It was the first full decade since 1939 that young Australians weren’t sent off en masse to fight on foreign soil. daily life as a son or daughter of a Vietnam veteran or Vietnam-era member of the Australian Defence Force. Seventy-eight years to the day after his heroic actions in World War II, Ordinary Seaman Edward 'Teddy' Sheean becomes the first Navy crew member to be awarded Australia's highest military honour, the Victoria Cross. This study extends the previous mortality study of Vietnam veterans which was published in 1997. military Vietnam veterans from the end of their service to 31 December 2001. Glen Mylne, a Vietnam Veteran served as a Medic and witnessed some pretty horrific things both during his service and after he returned home to Australia. Ken Burns’ series The Vietnam War, which begins this Saturday on SBS, is the Vietnam story we needed to see back then. It was a war that came to be despised by the public in Australia, and the veterans bore the brunt of it. The refugees had reached Australia. Since their resettlement in Australia, the Vietnamese veterans’ stories have largely been silent in Australian communities. Polly is looking forward to taking part in the ANZAC Day centenary at Elephant Rock run by Currumbin RSL Gold Coast, Audrey Finch recalls stories of her father during World War I as they were told to her as a child. 6 Australian Vietnam veterans reflect on their experiences during the Vietnam War and how their tours affected them. So, I was affected and it took me quite a long time to settle down." Ron talks candidly of his time in service and the issues he faced when returning home. Read an overview of the Vietnam War from the AWM, here and more detail from the DVA here. Graham Walker was a company commander in Vietnam. Heroes were flawed, major characters were lost and the tragedy was palpable, for the Vietnamese people as well as the US-led forces. Coffins of 33 Australian Vietnam War soldiers to return home today. From WWII sprang Hogan’s Heroes and everything from A Bridge Too Far to Where Eagles Dare. Mr Freeman’s family have a long history on the Gold Coast and are long time members or Currumbin RSL. Explore the grit, heroism and heart of America’s soldiers and wartime workers, from World War One to the Iraq War We were the lucky ones, living in fortunate times, before Australians were again sent off to the Gulf War, East Timor, Afghanistan and Iraq. Australians now mark Vietnam Veterans Day on Aug. 18, the day of the Battle of Long Tan. Returned veterans were among our teachers. Since then, the Ashes to Sea ceremony has continued to grow in reputation as a heartfelt and memorable occasion for […], A Prayer For My Son Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid; one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory. Vietnam Veterans Counselling Service. When he looked back up, half of his friend was missing.