Forty years after his last day of active duty, Vietnam veteran James Gresty is still paying the price.
The Laverton resident and Newport RSL member served in the Royal Australian Navy as quartermaster gunner on the HMAS Vendetta.
At 11am on Tuesday, Australians will honour the sacrifice of Diggers in all conflicts at Remembrance Day commemorations.
Like many of his veteran mates, Mr Gresty, 65, is still making a sacrifice in the form of post- traumatic stress disorder.
“That’s real,” Mr Gresty said. “Everyone’s got it. We had a bloke … DVA [Department of Veterans Affairs] kept knocking [his claim] back.”
Mr Gresty said the man entered DVA offices in Lonsdale Street and took his own life.
“So now you’re not allowed to walk around DVA any more; you’ve got to be escorted.”
Mr Gresty said Remembrance Day was for commemorating, not glorifying, war.
“You’re commemorating, which is a different term. There’s a hell of a difference.
“You’re remembering, which is all Remembrance Day is. And see, now we’ve got Vietnam Veterans Day and that’s because the Vietnam veterans when they came home, they were ignored, so they put on a
stink.
“The difference between the Vietnam veterans and Korean veterans is the Vietnam veterans fought the political system, where the Korean veterans, everybody forgets about them. The Koreans got forgotten.”
When the Vietnam veterans returned home from war, they were told not to wear their medals, Mr Gresty said. “I thought, if you’ve got a uniform on you, you should put the bloody thing on and wear it. Bugger ’em.”
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