Daryl Bristowe - Call up

Transcript

I was living in Kallista. Perrins Creek Road, Kallista. I was with a company called Smith and Nephew. I started there when I was probably about 17, a pharmaceutical company. They were very, very good to me. And of course, by law, they had to keep my job open when I came back from Vietnam and sure enough, they did, but because of mum's background, I remember when I got a phone call from work and I came home and my little card, call up card, was...not destroyed, but mum had a few words to say about it. Dad was pleased.

I'm sure the local police, 'cause us yahoos, the policeman in Olinda was probably happy in one of his, you know, hoons had gone off to do military service. You know, dad of course, as we spoke before, had served in New Guinea and his two brothers were there. The third brother, he was in the air force, never went past that line so he could never get the gold card. But, and my grandfather being a Gallipoli veteran, even though he only lasted 10 days at Gallipoli, he, of all things, Service Corps, carrying ammunition boxes to the front, he did a hernia. Not really good on your military record.

So he was whipped off to one of the Greek islands and then later went to England and he only joined the army because it was a chance of seeing his grandparents. Cause we, the Bristowes came to Australia in 1901. And this was his chance of going back to see his grandparents with the Australian government paying for it. He didn't know he'd end up in the Middle East and he didn't know he'd end up at Gallipoli but as I said, I just took it as the norm because those people before me volunteered, I didn't volunteer. I was called up because my birthday was on the 11th of July.