Details of accommodation and your entries posted on Veterans SA site

Vietnam veterans talking to students and parents at the briefing for the trip on 15 July.

Your entries and your names as winners are now up on the sa.gov.au site at

https://www.sa.gov.au/topics/education-skills-and-learning/schools/curriculum-and-learning/programs-and-extra-curricular-activities/premier-s-anzac-spirit-school-prize

All official now and your names are there for all to see.

I also thought you may like to know the contact details for the hotels we are staying in during the trip (I have just had them confirmed). They are:

Accommodation details:

02-05 October 2016 / 06-07 October 2016

Saigon: Muong Thanh Hotel

No.8A, Mac Dinh Chi st., Ben Nghe Ward, District 1, Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam

Tel: +84 83 827 9595

http://saigoncentre.muongthanh.vn/

05 – 06 October 2016

Vung Tau: Grand Hotel

No 02 Nguyen Du St., Vung Tau City, Vietnam

Tel: (84-64) 3856888 / 3856787

http://www.grandhotel.com.vn/

07-08 October 2016

Hoi An: Green Heaven Resort & Spa

21 La Hoi Street, Hoi An City, Quang Nam, Vietnam

Tel: +84 510 3962 966

http://hoiangreenheavenresort.com

08-10 October 2016/ 11-12 October 2016

Ha Noi: Boss Legend

21 Hang Thung Street - Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi 0084, Vietnam

Tel: +84 4 3926 2666

http://bosslegendhotel.com/

10-11 October 2016

Halong Bay: Indochina Sail

N22, Port 2 Tuan Chau Island, Halong City, Quang Ninh, Vietnam

Tel: +84 4 3984 2362

http://www.indochinasails.com

Persons of interest

The 2016 Premier's ANZAC Spirit School Prize awardees at Anzac House on 15 July for the briefing session - a fine bunch!


As mentioned at the briefing you are to nominate a South Australian soldier to present on one of the nights of the tour.


We ask you to go to the Virtual War Memorial and select a soldier who died during the Vietnam War. You will be asked during our trip to share the story of your selected person with us as a way of connecting with the sacrifice such times in our history have involved. We cannot visit the grave of the soldiers but we can in our own way remember and commemorate their sacrifice – and that of their family and loved ones all of these years ago. Do what you can to find out some information and background on a person – you will need to do a bit of checking out of names to find one with enough information uploaded. 

Feel free to look at other sources to build you story, such as the Australian War Memorial and the Australian Archives:

https://rslvirtualwarmemorial.org.au/explore/people?conflict_id=5&died_in_service%3F=true

https://www.awm.gov.au/people/roll-search/all/?preferred_name=dennis+abraham&service_number=&unit=&conflict=0&op=Search

http://www.vietnamroll.gov.au/veteransearch.aspx

To date I have the following names nominated to tell their story:

• Bruce Plane (Sophie)
• Kevin 'Dasher' Wheatley (Maddisen)
• Erroll Noack (Charlotte)
• Douglas Graham Borlace (Deklan)
• John William Wheeler (Bridgette)
• David Paterson (Tayla) 
• Maxwell Powell Hanley (Talia) 
•  Hugh Carlyle (Samuel)

I am happy to upload any information on your soldier onto this blog if you put it into a Word document for me and send through any images you download.

Getting underway

To find out about the South Australian Premier's School Spirit School Prize go to the South Australian Government website. The prize has been conducted by the South Australian Department for Education and Child Development (DECD) in collaboration with the Department for Premier and Cabinet since 2007. During that time 76 students and 21 teachers have been involved in the Premier’s ANZAC Spirit School Prize Tour to France (2007-2012 and 2014), Singapore/South Korea (2013) and Gallipoli (2015). In 2016 eight students and two teachers will participate in a study tour to Vietnam from 2 to 13 October. This blog has been developed to support commemoration activities and student learning during the tour. 
Since 2007 it is estimated that over 7000 students have participated in the research competition that forms the basis for the selection of the students to participate in the tour. Winning entries can be viewed on the Veterans SA site. It is also important to note that all 431 entries submitted to the judges since 2007 have been integrated into the South Australian RSL Virtual War Memorial - an initiative with a very close relationship with the Premier’s ANZAC Spirit School Prize initiative.

Hi all
Just getting this blog underway for the trip. I will be posting regularly to the blog over the next months in preparation for our trip to Vietnam. I am sure many of you will set up a Facebook but this is just a way for us to communicate as a group on matters important to us (history background, information etc).

Regards
Malcolm

     Backgrounding on Vietnam

Do some backgrounding on the history, geography, culture and travel conditions of Vietnam. Again, nothing too much but it is worthwhile getting an idea of the place and people we are visiting. Here are several useful sites to check out:

http://dfat.gov.au/geo/vietnam/Pages/vietnam-country-brief.aspx 

http://smartraveller.gov.au/Countries/asia/south-east/pages/vietnam.aspx

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/vietnam

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/vietnam/history

http://guide.culturecrossing.net/basics_business_student.php?id=223

      Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War (to the Vietnamese, it is known as the American War)

Do some reading/watching about the cause, nature and events of the Vietnam War 1962-75. In particular, we suggest you focus on the involvement of Australians in the conflict. Check out the War Memorial site and some of the great videos up on YouTube

https://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/vietnam/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy1vsgZnAkY