Bathurst veteran who fought in the Vietnam War Lyle Orreal talks about his experience

Western Advocate

Bathurst veteran who fought in the Vietnam War Lyle Orreal talks about his experience in light of the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War - commemorated on August 18, 2023.

Transcript

00:00 I was in the 9th Battalion, I was an infantry soldier and we went to Vietnam expecting to

00:07 be at war, the Battle of Hat Dik and that was a 77 day battle and in that we found out

00:16 what war was all about.

00:18 It wasn't a pleasant experience but it was something that had to be done at that time.

00:22 I never necessarily wanted to go.

00:24 I thought it was a shame that we left the South Japanese people and abandoned them 50

00:31 years ago.

00:32 We live in a democratic country and people can believe what they like.

00:35 They can believe we should have been there or they can believe we shouldn't have been

00:38 there.

00:39 When I got out of the army I just took off and I've been in Bathurst ever since.

00:44 I've made this my home.

00:46 The Second and First World War soldiers treated us pretty badly.

00:51 They said you haven't been to a real war and when I asked them what he did in the war he

00:57 said he was an ordnance, he was a blanket counter.

01:01 People in Bathurst didn't appear to be very prejudiced against Vietnam veterans.

01:06 Bathurst was a very friendly place to be.

01:08 I think that's the best thing about it.

01:09 I think that's the best thing about it.

01:09 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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