Sub-branch member, Vietnam veteran pays tribute to those who served

Below is the oration, read by Narrabri RSL sub-branch member and Vietnam veteran Richard Barry OAM at the recent Victory in the Pacific/Vietnam veterans commemoration.

By Richard Barry OAM

I can’t believe it’s been twelve months since I stood up here commemorating Vietnam Veterans’ Day. It comes around quicker as I get
older.

Just because Narrabri has combined Vietnam Veterans’ Day with Victory in the Pacific Day, under no circumstances is one remembrance to detract from the other.

We all should regard Victory in the Pacific as historically significant despite the passage of time.

I think we still have three WWII veterans amongst us here in Narrabri.

In 2008 I stood on this very same spot when there were still six of our mates missing in South Vietnam. There were no prisoners of war. We withdrew from that country leaving six of our finest behind. That has changed.

It is indeed gratifying to report that all six have since been located and repatriated. They found the remains of Lance Corporal Richard Parker from Sydney NSW and Private Peter Gillson, from Moreland (Victoria) who were buried near where they had died fighting in 1965.

Then they found the remains of Lance Corporal John Gillespie, from Melbourne (Victoria) killed in a helicopter crash in 1971, and SAS Trooper David Fisher born in London (England), who fell from a rope as he was being evacuated by helicopter in 1969.

Then their attention turned to finding Australian airmen Michael Herbert from Freeling (South Australia) and Robert Carver from Toowoomba (Queensland) who vanished in a Canberra bomber mission over Vietnam in 1970.

Investigators found the wreckage of the aircraft in thick jungle near the border with Laos. No human remains were found but a number of military artefacts were discovered, including a badge unique to the RAAF’s No 2 Squadron.

I salute the group ‘Operation Aussies Home’ led by Vietnam veteran Jim Bourke. What a massive undertaking trying to locate human and military fragments in thousands of hectares of thick jungle from so long ago. I can tell you the jungle is thick and intense and it’s almost impossible to penetrate whilst the heat is oppressive and the jungle floor is swathed in darkness.

The Vietnam War was the longest in a century and arguably the most divisive Australian military involvement in our history. It is the least understood and the most misrepresented.

Today we honour the fallen and those who have since left our ranks. It is also appropriate that such an epic battle as Long Tan is the focal point, but it is not just this historic battle we remember, but all those forgotten patrols and ambushes as well as other battles now recorded as military history.

It is also time to remember that many who did return suddenly found themselves scattered throughout society which they no longer understood. For some of these veterans alone with their personal traumas, there was no more bark of the sergeant to discipline them, no more sound of a military band to stir pride, no more comrade to talk with, no more of the brilliant warped humour where they could laugh at each other and mock the military system they served with total loyalty.

They were alone with the past. Some decided it was enough and few noticed their passing. They saw war and never stopped seeing it. Sadly, such trauma has not stopped and now embraces a new generation of veterans. Let’s do better with regard to the latest generation of military who served in operational areas such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Timor Leste. Lest We Forget.