A year later he was aboard the troopship the Sydney and unloading stores in Vietnam, an event that would affect him for the remainder of his life.

These days Mr Greaves, who is 54, lives in Inverell; loves living there and is giving back to his home and community by maintaining the best traditions of volunteering by was of the St John Ambulance organisation.

A decade spent in the navy and marriage “to a girl from Coolah” set a different course for Mr Greaves.

“I should have gone back to Victoria to my family after I left the Navy, but I decided to join a mate in Newcastle to work in a fabrication business,” he said.

He left the business in Newcastle to work for eight years at the Alcan smelter at Kurri Kurri in the Lower Hunter.

“Our youngest son had severe asthma and the medical advice was to move away from the coalfields,” he said.

“We knew absolutely no-one in Inverell but we knew it had a cold climate, it was a risk, I suppose to move there.

“But I’d never move now,” Mr Greaves said.

He took up the ownership of a pest control business, which he ran until illness in the form of “a couple of mild tumours” he said that was related to his military service forced retirement.

“I had severe post traumatic stress disorder and went on a TPI veteran’s pension.”

As part of his counselling, Mr Greaves was advised to find an interest in his retirement.

“I’ve always been interested in first aid and I wanted to give something back to my community.

“So I joined St John Ambulance eight years ago.

Mr Greaves now holds the rank of divisional superintendent after undertaking an officer course at the service’s Blaxland centre in the Blue Mountains.

Being a volunteer with the service offers the opportunity to travel around the region - he has been to the Tamworth Country Music Festival on several occasions as well as attending numerous motorcycle endurance racing and campdrafting events.

“I love helping out at these events, it makes such a difference to the organisers.

“To have someone from the NSW Ambulance Service at these kind of events costs between $2000 and $3000 a day.”

He said the organisation in Inverell was always seeking members, even though the ranks were boosted by seven members of the Inverell motorcycle motocross club undertaking the 12-month training course.

“I’m absolutely rapt they did the training.

“You can never have too many volunteers,” he said.

“It would be great to see some people from the campdraft world do the training as well,” he said.