ANZAC Day marches are still relevant

 

Our ANZAC day marches are sadly now seeing Vietnam Veterans as the senior forces marching, however, let’s not forget these returned soldiers were not welcomed home for around 20 years, due to the disgraceful attack by socialist activists on the Vietnam war and anyone playing a part in it.  Remember most of these Vets were conscripted with no choice and still they did Australia proud.w

DENNIS Everitt returned from the Vietnam War in 1969 as a 22-year-old.

But it wasn’t until 1987, when Australia decided to ‘welcome home’ its forgotten soldiers, that Mr Everitt, was 69 in 2016, and was the senior vice president of the Waverley RSL sub-branch, felt he could lift the shackles of what remains our most controversial war.

“We didn’t admit we had been to Vietnam,’’ he said.

“The worst part was we were even told not to get around in our uniform and you thought ‘God, how long are going to have to hide like this?’’

The answer?  Almost 20 years.

“That return march really opened the door for us; it was best thing that ever happened,’’ he said.

Mr Everitt began taking part in the Anzac Day parade and he joined the Waverley RSL sub-branch.

The two years as a National Servicemen, and the 11 months in Vietnam, certainly matured him.

As a youngster he went to elite private school St Kevins — “a great school; my son went there, my grandsons’’ — but as a young man called to serve his country he had to grow up quickly.

“I was pretty sheltered, I didn’t know plumbers, and mechanics,’’ he said.

He got to know all of them and more at Puckapunyal, and later, at Kapooka in NSW.

After basic, he was posted to 2 Transport Platoon — his ticket, a non refundable one, to Vietnam.

“We do all the recruit training and driver training and I remember the day I got my posting, and they said ‘you got 2 Transport Platoon, and I said ‘oh, yeah’, and a few of my mates who went through everything together, well we realised that was a Field Force Unit.

“We saw an officer coming past and ‘I said is that right?’ and he said ‘yeah, you’ll be in Vietnam by November.’

He had to tell his parents, and still fresh in many people’s minds was the Battle of Long Tan in 1966, where 18 Australians were killed.

“I think it frightened our parents more than anything, knowing we were the group that could be next over there. I said to dad, ‘my unit’s a field force’, and he said ‘don’t tell your mother’.

But he did, and soon enough he was on his way to war in the ‘silver bird’.

“We refuelled in Darwin, on the way to Singapore, and I got off at Darwin and I thought ‘how am I going to cope with this heat’, particularly when I get to the other place (Vietnam) but I think I had half a hangover at that stage, so that didn’t help.’’

After the initial shock of the oppressive heat, and the different culture, Mr Everitt settled in to his deployment.

“Some of the road trips we did were pretty hairy, you didn’t know what was around, but basically, if we had ammunition and troops we were escorted,’’ he said.

“The only time I was nervous was when they hit a tank. ... we heard they got a Centurion; they used a 500 pound aerial bomb as a mine, so the word got back to us ... we did go through that crater, and the engineers with the mine sweepers were out in front of us.

And after all of this they proudly march each year and yet some cowardly official keeps trying to stop them once more by claiming it is for safety reasons. 

Let us support our glorious ANZACS no matter what conflict they were forced to take part in.