Memories stirred

Psychology of war: Derrill de Heer, who had two tours of Vietnam, stands by a rock which marks the site of an Australian encampment. He is writing a thesis on psychological warfare. Photos by Wendy Moline

Memories shared: Tony Templeton, ex-5RAR, and his wife June at the Long Tan memorial.

Pensive: Philip Badcock, ex-6RAR, in the rubber plantation at Long Tan.

Thirty-nine years ago, on August 18, 1966, Australian servicemen fought the battle of Long Tan. A party of veterans revisited the scene for a memorial service on Anzac Day. It’s difficult to remember much less return, as Wendy Moline reports.

It was dark, pitch dark. Before dawn a party of about 50 Australians and one New Zealander made their way through a rubber plantation near Vung Tau in Vietnam.

Few had torches and most felt their way along a narrow track towards a site which is becoming a place of pilgrimage on Anzac Day, not just for Australian and New Zealand veterans who fought at the battle of Long Tan in 1966, but for all who hold the Anzac spirit close to their hearts.

Among the 50 were about 30 Vietnam veterans, many from the second tour of 6RAR who planted the original Long Tan Cross in 1969, three years after the battle.

The party included Tony “Oscar” Templeton, who was a national serviceman and private in D Coy 5RAR on their first tour in 1965/66. Three days after the battle of Long Tan, he and other members of 5RAR went back to the scene as part of the battlefield clearance group to find and bury 245 enemy bodies.

Understandably Tony, on his first visit to Vietnam since the war, experienced a whole range of memories and emotions then and afterwards when the group visited the Mekong Delta. He found himself in a home sleeping in a row of camp stretchers just as he had done during the war. Snoring from one of the party was enough to set off a series of flashbacks, which left him still shaken the next day. This is an experience common to many veterans who have the courage to return to Vietnam.

Dawn came swiftly to the Long Tan Cross and Paul Murphy, President of the Australian Veterans Vietnam Reconstruction Group (AVVRG), said a few words recalling the Battle of Long Tan and all the other battles in which Australians have fought and died since the original Anzacs landed at Gallipoli 90 years ago. Members of the group bowed their heads for a minute’s silence and then placed poppies at the foot of the simple white cross, and lit incense sticks to honour the fallen Vietnamese.

Many of the veterans went a little way off to be alone with their memories and face their personal demons from that time so long ago. Although the rubber a new generation, the whole area must be similar to back then.

A dozen of the veteran’s wives accompanied them to the service, as did several people under 30 who had come to Vietnam on holiday but were keen to honour fallen, and were interested in finding out more about our military history while they were there.

There was also a group of four men in their 40s from Dampier in WA, who had come to pay their respects to mates they knew who were based in nearby Nui Dat during the war. They found plenty in common with expats and veterans drinking at the Ettamogah Pub in Vung Tau who, later on Anzac Day, gathered to watch the traditional Collingwood/ Essendon AFL match. Vung Tau is now the base for a rich offshore oil and gas field, which has made the town into a prosperous and attractive seaside port.

The Ettamogah Pub has several walls covered with signatures of veterans who have visited over the years. You can play a good game of pool against the Vietnamese bar girls (a much more friendly but only slightly less dangerous pastime than the veterans experienced on their first visit to Vietnam) or take in some Aussie football on the 50-channel satellite TV.

Later I visited Nui Dat with Derrill de Heer, who is writing a thesis at ADFA on psychological warfare, in which he was involved during his two tours of Vietnam.

His memory of those times made him an excellent guide. We found several stones in the replanted rubber plantations, which had been painted to mark different units’ camps on the base.

We also visited the remains of Luscombe Field, the air base named after Lt Brian Luscombe, the first Australian army pilot killed in the Korean War. The remains of the tarmac now form a broad main street for Nui Dat Village. The AVVRG, which has raised more than $1 million in Australian aid since it started working in the area 10 years ago, has been instrumental in building a kindergarten just off the road, which was opened in 2002.

AVVRG has recently opened a Visitors Centre in the Song Hong Hotel in Vung Tau to help visiting veterans obtain the necessary permits to visit the old battle sites and the Long Tan Cross, for which they have been given responsibility by the current Vietnamese government. Paul Murphy has recently moved to Vung Tau to live and is very helpful, as are Al and Anh Davis at the nearby Ettamogah pub.

Wendy Moline is a Canberra-based freelance journalist. She is currently researching a book on collected stories from women connected to Australia’s Vietnam veterans. Mothers, sisters, daughters, partners and ex-partners are invited to contact her at wendymoline@bigpond.com to contribute to the book.