Department of Veterans' Affairs
Transcript
Call up and awareness of Vietnam
I was born in Geelong West and when we were five, Mum and Dad rented a commission home in Norlane in Yooringa, Avenue, number five, which is still there. I spent 20 years, basically, you know, a lot of time now. Then I got called up for national service. And when I got home, I went back home to live and got a few jobs and had a great time.
Went to Norlane High School, well Norlane State School for a start off, State School and then I went to Norlane High School for a year and a bit, and I got a job … We didn't have a TV. The media coverage was if Dad had bought the paper or something, you'd read it in there and when they got a TV, every Christmas they used to send, have a crew over there interviewing the troops, saying, wishing their family a Merry Christmas and we're fine and all and basic things like that … It was something different, join the army, it'd be something different to what I was doing and that, you know, which was dead end jobs sort of thing.
Puckapunyal
Cold in the middle of winter but it was good fun, well I wouldn't say fun, but it was good. You know, you're learning new things all the time and that. It was interesting in a way, you're learning new trades and that, what to do in the bush. There's a corporal yelling at you about that far from your face. "What are you doing?" but it never worried you.
Train trip to Melbourne
When we went to Melbourne to the recruiting office, we got the Warrnambool train and they had a special carriage for us because there was Warrnambool people, Colac people on, blokes on it, so we got talking and all that and we got to Spencer Street and they had this bus waiting right near as close to the train as we could get and about 100 police keeping all these antiwar demonstrators off, Save Our Sons demonstrators and all that and got put on a bus and escorted out of Melbourne, as if we were going to gaol or something.
Training with 8RAR
We done our, infantry training centre at Singleton and when we finished that, which we did, a lot of firefighting, there was a lot of fires around coming up to summer that year and we had three choices. We had 8RAR, the reinforcement unit or just stay in Australia and you got to do CMF and I thought, "Nah I'm here, I may as well go and do what I do".
So I put down 8RAR and I got that … Singleton was more of a infantry training centre, which was more what would happen if you went to Vietnam … and when battalion came back we done lots of exercises, more training, more on anti-mine sort of warfare and all that. It was good.
Arrival in Vietnam
When we first got there, we went over on the Sydney and sailing up to where they were anchored you could see all the bomb explosions and all that and you think, "Aw, God, look at that". But then we got on to the landing barges and they took us by truck to Nui Dat, it was an eye opener because people there, because they had no toilets, they just do it outside and all that, you know, so it was really an eye opener on how they live … Well , we got told, you know, that where we're going to Nui Dat was a protected area, so we were right.
But it was funny when he go, went down to Vung Tau on our R&C or R&R and you, probably half of them were Viet Cong, so, you know, they didn't worry you, they didn't try to shoot you or anything like that. So a lot of the people there, through daytime, they were "Oh, we're your friend" and the nighttime there they'd go out and try to kill you.
Patrolling
We never got told what the aim is, but just sort of patrol and secure the area so there was no Viet Cong. They reckon there was a few Viet Cong battalions around but we never seen any, but just keep them away … if you're leaving out of Nui Dat by, say, chopper, you get your pack on, your webbing and all that, grab your weapon and you go down to where the choppers are going to pick you up from and then there was a couple of gunships always blasting the area where you're gonna land.
You get out, run about a dozen steps, hit the ground so the chopper can take off again, then you get up and form up again and then your sergeant or whoever was in charge would take you, tell us we're patrolling this area and all this so, that's what we're going to maybe find or something … you didn't know if you're gonna step on a mine or trip wires or anything like that … the chap in front of you or behind you, if he looks that way, you look that way so your whole area was covered if anyone was around … we got briefed on where we were, roughly where we were going which, when we were in Nui Dat, we didn't know where it was anyway, say a rubber plantation or a bush, some bush sort of thing, basically that was it …
Sometimes it was platoon level, sometimes it was a company level. There was one operation we had, I think it might have been the Long Hai Hills or something, we had all the companies there, one in different sections of it, sometimes we might have been out for three or four days depending on what they wanted us to do and that you know how far we wanted to go … Sometimes we might have been out for three or four days depending on what they wanted us to do and that you know how far we wanted to go …
Usually the sergeant or whoever was in charge of us, generally a sergeant and he would find a spot where we can harbour down and he sort, because there was three machine guns one there. one there. one there, wherever, and then the rest of us would only outskirts of the harbour trying to sleep a bit … you had to get up go and do the gun machine gun picket it so and wake up the next week bloke to do it and there was a lot of non-sleep too … one of our contacts was, we were in harbour, night harbour and they sent the corporal in charge of that sort of section, take a person out as a security so we could see if anyone was coming and he came back in and then he'd take someone else out there to relieve him and when that happened there was two Viet Cong walking up and they had an RPG and they just let it off, rocket propelled grenade …
I wasn't scared. But you sort of think, "Shit, what's that", you know, "What's that?" Because you've never heard it before. No, let's, you know. So everyone is saying "Get down, keep down, keep down" which you did. It was a wake up, thinking, "Oh we're in a war zone now". The training kicked in very quickly. I was okay, yeah, I was sort of okay with what happened. And, sort of, that's what we were there for, I suppose.
Getting on and off choppers
We done pre training, they got Air Force in and told us how to get on and we practiced how we got on and got off the choppers and flew around Brisbane and back down again at Enoggera. And so we had a bit of experience, not a lot. But yes, we did, knew how to get on and off the choppers … it's quite different because there's no doors on it. And that was good, really. Only when the chopper went like that ,you'd be, "Oh, there's the ground down" and that. But it was good. Thoroughly enjoyed that.
Return home
I came home and I had a week's annual leave. Flew into Melbourne but I wasn't allowed to wear a uniform had to wear my civvies and there were still protesters there and all that. And I got discharged in Watsonia. It was still, it was easy but hard, if you know what I mean. It was easy to get back to my friends, if they wanted to talk to me. And it was hard because there was so many people against us, you know.
So, I remember marching in Melbourne one ANZAC Day and I got covered in paint, and all things like that. So there was still a lot of don't welcome home sort of, you're not welcome here anymore and all that feeling in Australia … I used to work at International Harvester and that had closed down by then so I had to get another job went to Alcoa for a while. There was one in Geelong, the tractor, built tractors and headers and then I went to Alcoa but they were a seven-day roster.
You worked a straight seven days and then you might have two days off and another seven days on afternoon shift and two days off but I just couldn't handle that. So I left there and I went to Birmids which used to be a casting plant. And I was having trouble there too, just the way they treated you sort of thing. And then I went to Fords and got a job there and I was there for 20 years and I was still having trouble there.
I couldn't, me boss would sort of a blame you for everything. I was a forklift driver and you had an area and there was more bosses there and they're now telling you are off and I couldn't handle really. It's a wonder I never had a breakdown … had a family and kids and all that. So I had to do all that, bring money in and bought a house.
