Ray, old mate. Mate, I’m off to march with the boys tomorrow down Adelaide Street Brisbane. I’m taking my father for a walk as well – you remember Dad, you met him before we went to Vietnam. Well, Dad had served in the Navy during WW2 and died some years ago, but every Anzac Day I take him on the parade. Well, at least I wear his medals on my right breast and he’s sort of with me in spirit. Before the march I’ll get up at 3:30 and go to the Dawn Service at the local RSL. It get’s harder every year but until it’s as hard as landing at Gallipoli, and it never will be, I’ve got nothing to complain about. I go there to pay homage to all the lost souls of all our wars. Ray, I remember the day you died in that shitty country. You felt no pain mate, but we did. We cleared our way though to you. Alan was already dead but you were still alive, albeit unconscience. I stayed with you until the chopper came and watched you being loaded with a bad feeling in my heart. Later, back in Australia, I met your Father in 1972 at the City of Sydney RSL. I told him of your last moments, how you died game and how you didn’t suffer. Of course, that was no solace for the man – there is no solace for such a loss . He cried and I put my arm around his shoulder and we both cried for your lost youth and premature demise. He truely loved you and lived on for 20 years or more, missing you every day. Our detractors say we only glorify war on ANZAC Day. Well mate, maybe commemorating your life, death and sacrifice is glorifying war but I don’t think it is. Us guys from Recce Platoon try not to think of Vietnam too often but this weekend I had Flea up from Melbourne as a house guest for a couple of days, and of course, all the memories flood back. You remember Flea – he was my forward scout. I met Bull Mahoney a few years back. You remember he stood on a mine as well. He ended up losing both his legs and when he got home he spent years in hospitial followed by rehabilitation and then was told he was fit enough to work. He was too. He took on a newspaper delivery service. His wife drove and he sat in the back and threw the papers out. He said it was OK but a real bitch when turning corners. You see, without any legs he couldn’t brace himself and would roll off the seat if he didn’t watch it. The Department of Veterans affairs were right though, he could work. We just think he shouldn’t have to. Years later they gave him a pension. Ted Molloy turned up in Brisbane some years back. He was wounded with Bull and while lying there listening to the screaming of all those wounded men he started saying the rosary. It helped to settle every one down. You remember Ray, you were there that day. Well apparently Ted was fit enough to work as well. His legs were hardly recognizable as legs but he worked for years in the construction industry and told me that the pain was terrible but the Department of Veterans Affairs repeatedly rejected his application for pension. After several appearances at the Appeals Tribunal Ted’s counsel could see they weren’t making any headway against the beaurocrats, so in desperation told Ted to stand up and drop his trousers. He did so and the stunned silence from the members of the tribunal foreshadowed the approval of a pension. A picture is worth a thousand words and it wasn’t a nice picture. Maybe they looked into their souls and saw an even worse picture. Mate, you’d laugh to see us now, we’re all old men. You, of course are forever etched in our minds as young. Fit and dedicated to your mates – you were all we could ask for as a digger. Of course a lot of the country didn’t see it that way. You’ll be saddened to know that the press, the RSL of the day, the intelligensia, and even the Prime Minister, (a bloke called Whitlam) derided our service. Whitlam even had a commo as his deputy. A bloke called Jim Cairns, who as president of a USSR/Australia group even travelled to the USSR while they were sending arms, ammo and advisors to Vietnam to better kill us. He organised something called Moratorium Marches where uni students, wharfies, red raggers, and other ill informed people could gather in the thousands and spit on us. I met Pat Kelly last year down in Melbourne. I remember the last time I saw him he was lying down after a genade had taken him out. Blew me arse over head as well but Pat took all the shrapnell. That was the day Neil Richardson died and a few others were shot and shrapnelled. Well they are still getting shrapnel out of Pat. He lost his eye that day and later on he had to have a heart transplant but he’s still the happy and ever smiling Irishman he was when you knew him. Some things don’t change. Mate, we missed you for all these long years but rest assured we will think of you tomorrow and quietly raise a glass in your honour. While others still call us killers and question our service, the real Australians now line up on the footpaths and applaud our passing. They applaud our passing, we commemorate yours. Rest easy Mate. Ray ‘General’ Paton and Alan Talbot were killed in a mine incident near the town of Phouc Bu in Phouc Tuy Province South Vietnam on 1 Feb 1971. Wounded were the Platoon Sergeant, Dick Williams (killed the following year in a MVA), Neil ‘Shorty’ Godbold ( Shorty stood on the mine, lost a leg and then committed suicide some years later just before the 1987 Sydney Welcome Home March) and Phill Ryan. Phil is the only survivor from a very bad day and all of these guys were the last battle casualties suffered by 7RAR in Vietnam. The full story is here

I note in this mornings Australian a letter from David Lyons who lives in Hallidays Point, NSW

ON Anzac Day when we ponder those Australians who fell while invading other nations, we might ask ourselves just why Australians were involved in invasions of Turkey, Korea, Vietnam and Iraq in the first place. The inhabitants of these countries had made no threat to Australia, indeed most would have been struggling to place Australia on a map. David Lyons Hallidays Point, NSW

David, if you’re going to be asking yourself questions you might start with getting you’re facts right. True, we were involved in invading Turkey and Iraq but in both Vietnam and Korea we were involved in stopping other countries invading, not invading ourselves. In Korea, the North Korean communist party, ably assisted by the Chinese communists, invaded South Korea with the intent of imposing their oppression over the people. Had it succeeded, South Korea would be a basket case like the communist North Korea is today, rather than a free and prosperous society. In Vietnam, the communist North Vietnam invaded for the same reasons as in Korea. Had the western world not been white-anted by the media and opportunistic communist propaganda thenVietnam would not be the basket case it is today. I have been to Vietnam recently and the country is still locked in 18 th Century poverty and the people have few freedoms. I might add, there is hope for Vietnam but it will take a long time to overcome 30 years of communist ‘lockdown’ and Russian ‘help’. In Turkey, we invaded to stop Germany expansionism and in Iraq we invaded as a part of the war against terror. David, your philsophy, if applied over the last century and this one, would have the world a terrible place to live in. You have to realize that human nature dictates that some will try and impose their will on others and some will fight that imposition. The fact that some have fought allows you the freedoms you enjoy today. You say ‘the inhabitants of these countries had made no threat to Australia’. Maybe they didn’t but their governments surely did. You need to read more. You didn’t mention Japan invading the Pacific and threatening Australia. Was Australia’s deployment of troops to Papua New Guinea another invasion in your strange world? Stay home on ANZAC Day and watch football and let Australians who understand the world as it really is commemorate the sacrifice of so many so that stupid bastards like you have the freedom to denigrate that same sacrifice.

I must admit to an Infantryman’s bias here. I have always thought that RAAF officers were more into commanding aeroplanes than men and thus had less understanding of the Army and Navy with their troops-before-equipment emphasis. That of course, is a generalization and doesn’t take into account a lot of other factors. The RAAF are a very professional force and have provided support to Infantrymen in trouble over many campaigns and wars. I owe them and can only respect any man that rose to the highest levels of command within the RAAF. The thing that matters most to us lower ranks is a 3, 4 or 5 Star rank’s ability to stick up for the troops of their service. We would want them to tell the Politicians the truth even when they don’t wan’t to hear it and never, never contemplate a career in politics whilst serving – it contaminates decisions. I was once told by a Colonel that after promotion above regimental command too many officers became political. That is to say their decisions were couched in political outcomes and paid less and less attention to the needs of the troops and the requirement to be able to meet the respective forces prime aim of closing with and destroying the enemy Cosgrove always maintained his integrity as an Army officer and pushed for outcomes that would look after the troops while enhancing their ability to wage war. I served with Cosgrove when he commanded the 1st Battalion and can vouch from personal experience that whereas we worked hard under his command it was very apparent that loyalty had a downward perspective. If we did right by him, he would do right by us. We were even on first name terms as in he would call me Kevin and I would call him Sir. I see no evidence to suggest that Houston isn’t of the same mould. Albeit with a RAAF background and therefore unknown to me, he has already shown an ability to defend the troops and tell politicians what they might not have wanted to hear. It’s a good start and I wish him well. The future promises to be even more demanding for the ADF and it will take a strong hand to keep moving forward. The media release of the Prime Minsiters announcement is here and go here for a biography of Air Marshal Allan (Angus) Grant Houston, AO, AFC as Chief of the Air Force (CAF) UPDATE: I have just read AM Houston’s biography in detail and note;

In 1989 he enjoyed one year as a Squadron Commander with the 5th Aviation Regiment.

The 5th Aviation Regiment is an Army unit. He’ll do.