For many old Diggers there can be pain as well as pride when marching in an Anzac Day parade.
“It took me many years to do so when I returned home (from war), because what I was trying to do was to move on, and marching in a parade wasn’t helping me move on,” confided Tony Carter, 78.
He was among more 15,000 young Australian conscripts whose birthdates were plucked from a barrel — the so-called “lottery of death” — and sent overseas to fight the Viet Cong in steaming hot jungles, paddy fields and highlands of Vietnam.
What they experienced left deep mental scars that for some remain raw 60 years later.
Mr Carter, who is also the chairman of the Anzac Day Trust, won’t marching with other ex-National Servicemen, or Nashos, as they were known. This year he’ll be on the dais taking the salute.
The rest of the Nashos will receive their own honour, marching at the head of the parade of ex-service personnel, behind serving ADF members. Their placement acknowledges the 75th anniversary of National Service.
Mr Carter will also give one of the readings at the Kings Park dawn service, in which he will remind attendees of another unpleasant legacy for soldiers upon their return from Vietnam — disdain from some in the community.
Though not all made it back — more than 200 conscripts made the ultimate sacrifice. And thousands more were badly injured.
Mr Carter will recount the reflections of one wounded Nasho, Gary McKay, who was awarded the Military Cross for his actions as a platoon commander in one of Australia’s final battles of the war in 1971.
“While I was recovering in 1 Military Hospital in Brisbane, I went to a game of football complete with plaster cast and nursing sister,” Mr McKay said
“A young man from the University of Queensland Rugby Club came up to me and asked how I came to be in the condition I was in and I told him. He looked me right in the eyes and said, ‘Serves you bloody well right.’”
Mr Carter said the experience “rang a bell”.
“There wouldn’t be one returned soldier from Vietnam that didn’t experience (that reaction) to a greater or lesser extent,” he said, whilst emphasising it came from just “pockets” of the community.
“People can be unkind and cruel at times, and they were to (McKay) who put his life on the line to do the job that he was required to do,” he said.
“All of us went over there to do a job. We did it. We did it extremely well and put our lives on the line ... and then to come home to have some silly people say silly things was just not helpful.”
Mr Carter, who was in 8th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (8RAR), said “a lot of young boys grew up overnight” in Vietnam.
He was 21 when he was sent there after seven months of training.
It felt like an adventure at first.
“To be quite frank, I was excited. I thought this is different, his is this is new,” he said. “And when you get over there, initially, you feel that way, and then when you start to experience some of the tragic events, then you’re brought back to Earth very, very quickly.”
“It’s not just the mates that you lose over there,” he added. “When you get home, it’s those that were physically injured and those that have PTSD and still live with some of the confrontations they had 60 years ago. Some of the guys didn’t get the best of help after the war.”
Through the Anzac Day Trust — he’s been chairman for ten years — he’s been trying to put that right. It provides funding for projects and programs supporting the mental health and wellbeing of veterans and their families.
“We get $1.3 million from the State Government,” he said. At a federal level, support and counselling is provided Open Arms, which was founded by Australia’s Vietnam veterans and now comes under the umbrella of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Mr Carter stressed that it was vital that support extended to families because veterans’ experiences and trauma “washed through” to those around them.
Catching up with other Nashos for a beer and chat was now a standard operating procedure and good therapy. On the eve of Anzac Day, he caught of with fellow “old farts” Harry Neesham, Rob Antonio (both 5RAR) and John O’Halloran (6RAR) who is to be awarded a Medal of Gallantry from the WA Governor in a couple of months — his courageous conduct officially recognised.
On the 17 February 1967, then-Second Lieutenant O’Halloran, leading 5 Platoon B Company, engaged a large enemy force near Lang Phuoc Hai in Phuoc Tuy Province.
Under intense from the front and flanks for three hours, he was ordered to move forward to out-flank the Viet Cong’s machine guns which were pinning down another part of the company.
“Despite intense automatic fire and grenades the platoon assaulted straight into the enemy positions inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy. At this stage three previously unlocated machine guns opened fire at a range of 30 metres catching the platoon in enfilade. Claymore mines and mortars were also used,” his mention in dispatches citation stated.
“It was during this fierce, close engagement that the platoon suffered heavy casualties. Second Lieutenant O’Halloran quickly re-organised the platoon, evacuated the casualties and secured the flank in time to resist the enemy thrusts against the company which developed from all sides.
“5 Platoon fought bravely throughout the engagement which lasted until darkness fell, and Second Lieutenant O’Halloran’s personal command, leadership and courage were a great inspiration to his platoon and to all those involved in the action.”
Returned Services League chief executive Stephen Barton said there would be a sprinkling of WW2 veterans in the Anzac Day March, but said their numbers were sadly fast depleting.
He said the dawn service had been overhauled in recent years to make it more engaging for attendees.
“We have people do readings or diary entries to actually tell the stories across the span of over a century of Australians at war,” he said.
“We’re mindful that the composition of Australia is changing and that we have to trying to find ways to tell people, who may not have a family connection, this is Australia’s story and now it’s your story.”
He said it was hard to ignore the backdrop of war in the Middle East and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
“What may a future or current generation of Australian kids be called upon to do in the future?” He said.
“I look at the world, and think it may be that we have to draw upon the example of these generations in the time ahead, which is really sobering.”
A more precarious world has seen the Australian Government recently announce an additional $53 billion to boost the nation’s defence capabilities over the next decade, including $14 billion over the next four years.
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