TO ALL Vietnam vets: welcome home and thank you very much.
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It is the reception returned Australian service men and women would have rathered when they came home from war half a century ago.
And it’s the wording on the banner they will march under during Inverell commemorations of the Battle of Long Tan next month.
The RSL sub-branch is organising a march, dinner, helicopter flyover and memorabilia display over August 18 and 19 to mark 50 years since the battle between the Australian army and Viet Cong at Nui Dat.
Sub-branch secretary Graeme Clinch is a Vietnam vet himself.
He said it was important to recognise the milestone, because - as with most conflicts - the vets had paid a huge price, but - unlike most other conflicts - there had been little help or thanks for those who’d returned.
“A lot of the blokes were snubbed by the Australian public, which was unfortunate - but it wasn’t our decision to go over," he said.
“We were sent by the government of the day, but because of the era we were in . We were treated as the bad boys.”
Graeme recalls trying to get into an RSL club on the coast after his return, only to be denied entry.
“I was a machine gunner in the infantry battalion, so I was out there risking my life every day," he said. “Then to come home and be treated like a mongrel dog? I thought, ‘This is not Australian’ …
“A lot of people carry that weight on their shoulders still.”
Graeme said there were about 35 Vietnam War veterans in the Inverell area and he thought they’d all march, “depending on health, of course”.
That will be at 4pm on the 18th, followed by a service at the cenotaph at 4.30pm, then a flyover by helicopters from Oakey airforce base, which will land in Varley Oval for people to check out.
That night, there will be a dinner - $40 a head and open to all - at the RSM Club with a five-piece band playing the hits of the era. The guest speaker will be Inverell GP Thanh Huynh, whose father was an officer in the Vietnamese army during the war and who came to Australia as a refugee.
On August 18 and 19 at Flanders House, there will be a display of memorabilia from the war and Vietnam.