Just as it did a half century ago, the Vietnam War continues to evoke political furore and controversy.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The commemorations for the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan, planned for so long by Australian forces, government and ex-servicemen groups has sadly deteriorated into a political spat and diplomatic friction.
It has, like it did for a deeply unpopular war from 1962, caused more angst, agony and pain.
In the end it might be that the Vietnamese government, scarred by a conflicted history that still divides its people, feared the plans for Vung Tau and the flood of Aussies might appear like a victory celebration to locals whose families still live nearby and still bear the pain of soldiers killed in battle.
The fallout from that and the last-minute denial of mass tributes will cause more grief.
But in Tamworth we still honour those who died and those who served and came home.
A Tamworth memorial was dedicated in February 1984 to seven men who died over the course of that war. They were privates Mervyn Wilson, Michael Birchell and Leslie Weston, Major Donald Bourne, trooper Douglas Voyzey, sapper Donald Wride, and second lieutenant Gordon Sharp, the Tamworth soldier killed at Long Tan, who we’ve paid tribute to again in the last week with national acknowledgement for his gallantry.
Private Birchell survived Long Tan, sadly to die six months later. Tamworth builder Lloyd Allen and Cecil Bayliss came out of that battle alive too.
Some were Nashos; our boys called up for compulsory training in the armed forces. Gordon Sharp was a conscript too.
He’d been a television cameraman before he was called up. Our other vets had been a spray painter, a diesel business manager. Sapper Wride had been one of the famed tunnel rats, those sent through to clear the deadly mines that killed so many.
Major Donald Bourne had been a Tamworth High School student and a member of the school cadets. His mother later presented his old alma mater with the Bourne Shield for competition between the THS cadet units.
Their stories are the fascinating stuff of our history.
Although the first local casualties were reported in 1966, the death toll continued, and well after the war had ended. It still sears our conscience and the spirits of veterans. But we salute them and support them.
It still sears our conscience and the spirits of veterans.
But we salute them and support them.
