Today, those who wish to pay tribute to Australian National Servicemen on their 66th anniversary will assemble at their memorial on Marius St, near the railway station, at 5pm.
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The ‘Nashos’, as they are widely known, are a different breed of Australian soldier, and this is not as clearly understood as it could be.
They differ from the Regular Digger or ‘Lifers’ because they did not make a career decision to join the Armed Forces with all the risks that that entails.
They did not weigh up the pros and cons of military life before enlisting - they were conscripted. Their fate was determined by a lottery draw.
The general idea of National Service had been to provide security on the home front, while Regular forces engaged overseas, and Nashos were not expected to see decisive action.
But the Vietnam War changed that. In 1964 compulsory National Service for 20-year-old males was introduced.
It seems quite bizarre, but the conscription ballot really did resemble a lottery draw. It was fully televised. Numbered balls representing birth dates were selected from a barrel, and if your number was drawn you could be having a medical and off to training within a month.
Fifteen thousand, three hundred National Service conscripts were sent to Vietnam from 1966 to 1972 to bolster Australia’s war effort. More than 200 died.
Australian War Memorial chief historian Ashley Ekins believes the arrival of National Servicemen raised the standard of the army and “certainly provided all of the battalions serving in Vietnam with very fine military material.”
It is one of the less noble aspects of Australian history that servicemen who had been conscripted suffered the ignominy of being heckled and abused by anti-war protesters upon their return from Vietnam as the tide of public opinion turned against Australian involvement in the war.
Many young men were damaged by the experience and bore the scars for the rest of their lives.
The Oxley Sub-Branch of The National Servicemen’s Association offers veterans the chance to meet, connect with former comrades, and help each other out.
They keep the spirit of the Nashos alive, and today we salute them and thank them for their contribution to our national wellbeing.