By JONATHON HOWARD
A VIETNAM Veterans’ Day ceremony took place at Leslie Park on Sunday with more than 60 ex-servicemen and their families in attendance.
The service on 18 August marked Vietnam Veterans’ Day and the 47th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan, in which 18 Australians died. Two dozen were also wounded during a fire-fight with a regular North Vietnamese Regiment supported by the Viet Cong.
In total, 521 Australians were killed during the Vietnam conflict, which ran from the early 1960s to the mid-1970s.
The Warwick branch of the Veteran’s Support and Advocacy Service Australia hosted the local ceremony led by Warwick’s John Skinner.
Mr Skinner, who was a regular soldier in the Australian Army and later deployed to battlefields throughout Vietnam including the battle of Binh Ba, said Vietnam War veterans spent decades running from memories of the battlefield.
Mr Skinner said for many Vietnam War veterans, working through and dealing with emotions stemming from one of the most polarising wars was an ongoing and at times solitary process.
“The memories of fighting in harsh climates and seeing friends killed lingered hard,” he said.
:But this was made worse by the hatred directed at returning soldiers, who at the time had very little knowledge about the political aspects of the war or even knowledge about Vietnam as a country.
“I can recall being secretary of a small country RSL Sub Branch (not in Warwick) a few years after I returned home.
“I attended a state congress where some RSL members told me Vietnam wasn’t a “real war”.
“I left there vowing to give away any thoughts of working with the RSL and looking for other ways in which I could help veterans.”
But Mr Skinner said times had fortunately changed, particularly after the 1987 welcome home ceremony and medal honours were announced for Vietnam Vets, which later secured the future recognition of Vietnam War veterans.
Mr Skinner said many Vietnam veterans now carry the banner for past service men and women through RSL Sub Branches.
“As many of the World War II veterans pass away or retire from Sub Branch duties, they have called upon many other veterans from past and present conflicts to continue the important work towards supporting and representing the interests of the veteran community,” he said.
“Our core business is veteran welfare which has nothing to do with the war they fought in, the branch of the service they were in, male or female, we do whatever we can to secure their welfare.”
Mr Skinner said as all Vietnam Veteranss were now over 60 years old, RSL Sub Branches needed to ensure future veterans carry the flame of remembrance.
“There are a few veterans’ names that spring to mind from Warwick who served in Iraq or Afghanistan who could take over in the future,” he said.
“But there is a need to start considering how these organisations and past and present members will be remembered and represented into the future.”
BREAK OUT
WAR in Vietnam has been continuous for centuries, as neighbouring countries invaded or the Vietnamese themselves either invaded or defended themselves. Japan took over the country during World War II, then the French claimed the country in the ‘carve-up’ after the war. The French had huge rubber plantations throughout the country which helped the country to become an economic success story, so-much-so, the Vietnamese eventually defeated the French at the Battle of Dien Ben Phu.
The country was then divided into the communist north and the democratic south but almost immediately, the north sent insurgents into the south to destabilise the government.
THE Vietnam War began in 1954 as an attempt by communist North Vietnam to unify the country.
South Vietnam’s principal ally was the United States, which began military action in the mid-1960s, eventually involving as many as 500,000 personnel.
Hostilities ended when a cease-fire agreement between the US and North Vietnam was signed on 23 January, 1973.
A formal signing took place four days later in what is known as the Paris Peace Accords.
The peace agreement called for armed forces’ withdrawal which occurred during March 1973.
On 15 August 1973, the United States flew its final bombing mission over Southeast Asia.
In 1975, North Vietnam successfully invaded the south and it became a communist country.
In total more than 260 million cluster bombs were dropped on Vietnam making it the most heavily bombed country in history.
