By Matthew Sims
About 50 years after Australia’s participation in the Vietnam war came to an end, Williamstown resident Bruce O’Brien said the mental scars of his time have never disappeared.
“There’s not a day where I don’t think about it,” he said.
With Anzac Day services being held across the country on Tuesday, April 25, Vietnam War veterans and other veterans will reflect on their time at war.
The Newport Returned and Services League (RSL) member and the past president of the now-closed Williamstown RSL was conscripted into service in 1967 and served as a radio operator for nine months in the Royal Australian Army 104th Signal Squadron at the Nui Dat 1st Australian Task Force base.
Mr O’Brien said his family were distraught to see him off, not knowing if they would ever see him again.
“Dad was devastated,” he said.
“He was a New Guinea veteran.”
Lasting from 1954 to 1975, the Vietnam War pitted the communist government of North Vietnam against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States.
Mr O’Brien said he did not regret his participation in the war.
“I’m not disappointed that I went,” he said.
“I felt that we were there for the right reasons.
“We were there to defend the oppressed.”
The Newport RSL is hosting a dawn service at the Williamstown Cenotaph at 5.30am, followed by a ‘gunfire breakfast’ of coffee or tea with a splash of rum, an afternoon service at Paine Reserve in Newport from 1pm and entertainment at the Newport RSL, with proceeds going towards the Hayden Butler Foundation for suicide prevention efforts.
The Altona RSL is hosting a dawn service at 5.45pm, followed by a general service and breakfast at 8am at the Altona War Memorial.
Friends of Cruickshank Park members have also installed wreaths at Cruickshank Park, honouring the fallen soldiers and animals ahead of Anzac Day.
