Opening of the new Vietnam War Memorial at Club Taree 12.12.23

Opening of the new Vietnam War Memorial at Club Taree

Transcript

00:00 Well, we've just completed the dedication of the 50th anniversary memorial for our Vietnam

00:07 veterans here at Club Taree, the home of the Taree Arisal Sub-Branch.

00:13 This came about as quite a project that I got underway back in August when we had the

00:19 vigil for the Vietnam veterans that were killed.

00:24 526 were killed and we had five from our area and two were buried out at the Dawson River

00:32 Cemetery.

00:33 So the vigil took place there and coincided with all those around Australia.

00:38 It was the 3rd of August this year and at that ceremony I was so moved by the act that

00:46 these people gave their lives and here I was doing their vigil and it got to the ode.

00:55 In doing the ode it just overtook me and I was told by members there that my voice cracked

01:02 and the emotion was there and I thought this has to be done something better than this.

01:09 So I thought about putting a memorial here to remember those that served and those that

01:14 paid the supreme sacrifice.

01:17 We got the rock and the sub-branch organised to get the plaque, a special plaque for the

01:25 50th anniversary to go on the rock.

01:29 And today that came about and I'm so pleased with the number of Vietnam veterans that are

01:35 here, not only remembering their service but supporting my idea to put it there forever.

01:46 Memorials are there where you walk past, stop, pause and remember those things that happened.

01:52 So there it is, it's here now in our memorial, it's going to be part of what I call our remembrance

01:59 garden and it's something now that our Vietnam veterans have as their own, as their own memorial

02:07 here in Taru.

02:11 From when we first came back and I was in Sydney, 68, Sydney and other places, I never

02:22 went to any marches because of the protests.

02:25 So I've never done any marches in Sydney, it wasn't until I moved up here that I joined

02:32 the club and met a few of the other vets here and the wife said to me, she said "Go on the

02:40 Anzac Day march" and I said "Nah, we're not Wamburr, we weren't Wamburr."

02:46 In the end she talked me into it and I went down to the march and I've been going ever

02:50 since.

02:51 Yeah, it's meeting all the blokes, a lot of them army so I never had a great deal to

02:57 do with them other than up here.

03:00 So I've come to know I'm up here and yeah, it's been great and it means a hell of a lot

03:07 to me because there's five people who never came back, look at their ages, 20, 21, not

03:16 very old and I think, I was 21 on the second tour, what can you do?

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