Sharing stories and commemorating on the trip

Stories are very important for us to share

Image above: Page from the Virtual War Memorial re: Vietnam soldiers.

As mentioned at the briefing you are to nominate a soldier (South Australian) 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 the 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 your 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

Soldiers nominated to have their story told:

Sophie B:  Richard Woolford

Melissa: Peter Badcoe

Laura: Robert Lubcke

Matilda: Graham Norley

Lily: Hugh Carlyle

Montana: Ronald Hoods

Liam; Bernard Smith

Shreyas: George Constable

Sophie L: Allan Moss
India: Michael Herbert

Charli: Reginald Phillips

Ryan: David Paterson

Elise: Peter Chant

William: Kevin Mitchinson

Daisy: Anthony Casadio

Tabitha: Errol Noack
Bob: Marian Tomas

Malcolm: Bruno Adamczyk

Maddison: Jeffrey Rivett

Lauren: Allan Pattison

Ellen: Dennis McCormack

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.

Listen to stories of those who were there - they tell so much!

Stories to be told

 Image above: Vietnam veterans talking about their experiences on the Anzac Portal at

 https://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/history/special-features/veterans-stories/vietnam-war-stories 

Stories from Vietnam Veterans

On 5 July we had the privilege to hear the stories of the Vietnam Veterans, Bob, David, Jock and Bill.  When in Vietnam we will not have the chance to talk to any Vietnam Veterans (except Bob who be with us) but I do think it is worth spending time before we go listening to Vietnam Veterans talking on the Department of Veterans'Affairs site called the Anzac Portal. It will give you further insight into what it must of been like in Vietnam serving in the Australian Army, Air Force and Navy during those difficult years.

Janice and Stuart Smith tell their story.

The story behind the song 'I Was Only Nineteen' that captured the experience of Australia’s Vietnam veterans and helped communicate to Australian society what many veterans themselves had been unable to share. Read more about the story behind the song after watching the above film clip.

Listen to the song, 'I was only Nineteen'.

Whilst on the portal have a look at the following links - some fantastic background on Australians during the Vietnam War.

Australians and the Vietnam War
https://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/history/conflicts/australia-and-vietnam-war

Vung Tau Ferry  HMAS Sydney
https://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/history/conflicts/australia-and-vietnam-war/australia-and-vietnam-war/royal-australian-navy/vung-tau

Remember the tracker dogs

Image from the Australian Defence Force Trackers and War Dogs Association site

Remembering the tracker dogs during the Vietnam War

Here is a blog posting from Elspeth Grant (2018 Teacher on the trip) - thanks Elspeth for this great information re: the role of dogs during the Vietnam War beyond what we normally consider when commemorating the war.

Elspeth writes: 

Are you aware that animals have often fought by the Anzacs’ side?  You have probably heard of the Light Horse and seen the remarkable sculpture of a horse at our Boer War Memorial in Adelaide.  Others are less well known, like the Imperial Camel Corps of WWI and gallantry award winning carrier pigeons of WWII.

On the trip consider the stories of the tracker dogs who served in Vietnam.  Check out this news video on the Virtual War Memorial as background; it features South Australian Vietnam Veteran, Peter Haran:

https://rslvirtualwarmemorial.org.au/research/home-page-archives/war-dogs-honoured

I would like to visit Caesar’s statue over in NSW one day.  In SA you can pay your respects at this memorial to Australian Army Trackers at Goolwa:

http://monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/conflict/multiple/display/50798-australian-army-trackers

If you are a dog lover and are looking for a book to take or read before you go, I can recommend Peter’s book Trackers (2000).  There is also a children’s book called Caesar by Stephen Dando-Collins (2012) for a quick read.

The ADF still uses dogs in conflicts today:

https://www.army.gov.au/our-people/units/special-operations-command/military-working-dogs

Explosive Detection Dog Sarbi was one of the best known – she won the RSPCA’s Purple Cross for bravery for her work in Afghanistan.

What is Long Tan?

 

Image above: Commemoration ceremony and dedication of memorial cross on the site of the Battle of Long Tan. The Battle of Long Tan took place in a rubber plantation near Long Tân, in Phước Tuy Province, South Vietnam,  The battle took place over the days 18 August – 19 August, 1966 (52 year ago this weekend). Vietnam Veterans Day https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/blog/vietnam-veterans-day Vietnam Veterans Day is commemorated on 18 August every year. The day was originally known as Long Tan Day, chosen to commemorate the men of D Company, 6RAR who fought in the battle of Long Tan in 1966. On that day, 108 Australian and New Zealand soldiers fought a pitched battle against over 2,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops in a rubber plantation not far from the small village of Long Tan. The Australians prevailed, but only after fighting in torrential rain for four hours. They were nearly overrun, but were saved by a timely ammunition resupply, accurate artillery fire from the nearby Australian base, and the arrival of reinforcements by armoured personnel carrier. Eighteen Australians lost their lives and 24 were wounded, the largest number of casualties in one operation since the Australian task force had arrived a few months earlier. After the battle the bodies of 245 enemy soldiers were found, but there was evidence that many more bodies had been carried away.  This time in 2016, you may remember that the Battle of Long Tan was in the news for a range of reasons. It was the 50th Anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan and many Australians who travelled to the memorial site could not enter. Many of those excluded were Australian soldiers who had fought in the battle and felt somewhat disturbed that they could not commemorate their mates that fell at that spot. As always, as a contestable issue there are two sides to the story - sides that we discussed when we were in Vietnam several weeks later. As you know this is again a part of our tour and it would be great if you had some detailed background on the battle and the commemoration activities. We will be conducting a Memorial Service at the site when we visit - led by Cheryl. In fact, this is the only official Memorial Service we participate in because there are no other memorials to Australian soldiers in Vietnam. We will however have informal moments of commemoration at nights when you present the soldier you have researched. I recommend that you listen and/or watch the links below that provide some excellent backgrounding to the Battle of Long Tan and the controversy from 2016. What do you think? Videos to watch about the Battle of Long Tan ... and other aspects of the Vietnam War for Australians https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uODWvj8aP-Q&t=13s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nsbMhY5r6w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1YEaJ6ZCJQ ... and many more at: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=long+tan To coincide with the month of the 53rd Anniversary of the battle, a new movie has just been released on the battle and is being shown at the movies (https://www.dangerclosemovie.com/tickets/). It is called ‘Danger Close’ and information on the movie is at https://www.dangerclosemovie.com/  Apparently it is a good representation of the battle and life for the soldier (told to me by one of the veterans you met at the briefing on 5 July) but as always with movies it uses a fair bit of imagination.  Some of it is also quite confronting, so it is up to you and your parents if you wish to see it. It is an amazing and moving (and disturbing) story that will make more sense when you are actually standing in remembrance at Long Tan.  Bob Kearney is writing a poem to read to you at the memorial  and you will have a rose with your soldiers name on it to lay at the cross when we are there.

Images have power and a life of their own

Image above: Part of the photo of the Napalm Girl taken by Nick Ut Cong Huynh in 1972 outside the village of Trang Bang in Vietnam.

The Napalm Girl

Written by Cendall Slattery - teacher on the 2016 Premier's ANZAC Spirit School Prize tour to Vietnam.

You may have seen in the news in 2015 that the Norwegian Prime Minister, Erna Solberg (along with many other leaders) accused Facebook of 'editing history' after it chose to censor the Pulitzer Prize winning photo of Kim Phuc, more commonly known as 'Napalm Girl'. The image shows Kim and four other local children fleeing after a napalm bomb was dropped on her village in the south of Vietnam. As Kim is naked in the photograph, Facebook removed it in line with their community standards. After much debate and criticism, Facebook has now decided to allow the image to be shared, stating that 'Because of its status as an iconic image of historical importance, the value of permitting sharing outweighs the value of protecting the community by removal, so we have decided to reinstate the image on Facebook where we are aware it has been removed."

The photo was taken in 1972 and is considered a defining image of the realities and devastation of communities during the Vietnam War. Kim was just 9 years old at the time. Debate still occurs, however, regarding the power of this photo for strengthening the anti-war sentiments on the home front in USA and Australia. A simple Google search will leave you with various articles debating each side. 

The ABC's report of the Facebook censorship event (as well as a copy of the image itself) can be found here:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-10/facebook-reverses-move-to-censor-napalm-girl-photo/7832894

The photo is also on display at the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, which is on our itinerary to visit on Day 1. It certainly inspires a lot of discussion, particularly around the circumstances in which the bomb came to be dropped on her village of Trang Bang, and the impact of the war on locals. 

I have since taken to reading about Kim's life since the attack - it is a very fascinating story. She was inspired to study medicine after the treatment she received for her burns, but her plans were halted by the government who wanted to use her as a symbol of the war. In her 20s, she sought asylum in Canada, and has since become a citizen, and now tours the world speaking about her experience. 

She works with victims who have sustained injuries through means of attack (eg. acid attacks) to help them find forgiveness and confidence. She has also established a foundation to help child victims of war. In 2008, she read her essay "Long Road to Forgiveness" on NPR's "All Things Considered" 

A very inspiring and insightful story.