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At a
funeral for a Vet recently another Vet spoke.
This is what he said: "Rudy saved my live.
We met the day we answered our call up to National Service.
We did Recruit and Corps training together. We
went to the same unit and to Vietnam together.
We went on R & R together to Bangkok. We drank
lots of "Thai Coffee". This was on the 1st
floor of our hotel. After some drinks we would
jump from that floor into the swimming pool below .
It was great. Late that night in our room I
decided I would jump from our room into the pool.
Rudy stopped me because: Our room was on the 9th
floor and the opposite side of the hotel.
There was only a car park below us. He saved my
life" He then burst into tears and sat
down.
Congratulations to all the Vets.
You all served in VIETNAM in Vietnam by your choice or our
Government's choice. You all did your very best
over there -- often enough looking death in the face, losing
mates and suffering fear. You probably ate those
etherised eggs, lots of ration pack food; lived in cramped
uncomfortable quarters; lacked the comfort of family and due
to Postie strikes often not knowing how the family were.
When you finally got home instead of love and
respect you attracted abuse and insults.
All that
is in the past and I pray we can leave it there.
Let us rather look for the good.
I am extremely proud to be a Viet Vet.
In Australia an often repeated word is MATE. How
many times a day do we hear or say G'Day Mate?
From that comes an Aussie quality Mateship. It
is a quality we are all proud of -- and rightly so.
However I believe that due to our Military
Service & especially our Vietnam Service we have each
personally taken Mateship to a much higher level.
I cannot adequately describe the Mateship I feel with fellow
Viet Vets. In some ways it is closer than
brotherhood. There is a genuine love between us
Vets. Our Mateship did not just happen.
It was won by the things we went through together starting
at Recruit Training.
Vets are the greatest example of mateship you
could ever get. I particularly like the way that
wives and children are welcome into the Vet family.
We have come from all types of background to build this
precious bond. Let us move into the future
cementing that bond by supporting each other and our
families in a way that makes our community and country proud
of us.
A wonderful example of the Vets mateship is
Operations Aussies Home led by Jim Bourke as they locate the
bodies of the 6 men never recovered in Vietnam.
already they have been successful with tiny Parker & Peter
Gilson.
Finally another example of Mateship.
A Vet was posted to Townsville. He had already
served in Vietnam so he did not seek advice on life in the
tropics. Pity because one piece of advice is
that small green frogs live in toilet bowls and object when
you sit on their home. Then it is an incredible
shock when that wet slimy nose hits your bare - - .
In the Vets case the frog jumped but missed him.
Later as he prepared to leave and he pulled his trousers up
the frog who had landed in his undies really objected big
time ---- going on the volume of his voice at that time he
would make a great RSM. My point is that we Vets
even try to develop a Mateship with our native animals by
inviting them to share our cloths. |
