Heads Up- TV1 8.30pm

[turboNZ]

Hiya,
Good documentary about a Kiwi Vietnam-vet and his son who go back to Vietnam to revisit where he was in an artillery FSB.
Absolutely fascinating !!

[turboNZ]

Very moving, and very sad.

It just exemplifies how the NZ soldiers were forgotten about when they arrived home from Vietnam including the 37 that didn't come home alive.

I hope he's successful with getting a Vietnam War Memorial constructed.

[Bruce]

fat chance - our current PM was one of those protesting the Vietnam War. It would be against her principles (!) to condone such a thing.... despite the fact that they were NZ soldiers sent on a job by the Government.

[turboNZ]

She's got principles ?
The same PM that let the cops take the fall for her speeding to a rugby game....

I see your point, Bruce.

[Dave Homewood]

I too think it is high time that a memorial was erected.

My second cousin, who i always knew as Uncle Pat, was in Vietnam, and he was one of the men fighting to get compensation for being infected by Agent Orange. Sadly he died from the cancer it caused a few years before the Government finally acknowledged the affects.

I have known other Vietnam veterans too. They deserve better. I am not pro-war by any means, I think Vietnam was a crazy war, as is the current war in Iraq. But I am clued up enough to realise they were all serving career soldiers, sailors and airmen who went from this country to fight a war for the Government that they served. They had no choice.

I saw the documentary, very moving. The incident at Nui Dat (spelling?) in which 161 Battery sheleld and killed Australians was known to me as a General Service Hand at No. 4TTS, Woodbourne was there as a gunner and he told us the story during a lecture he gave to every class about his alcoholism. It was this event when he was no more than a kid that started him drinking, and saw him become an alcoholic in the Army, then the Navy, then the Police, and he finally kicked it decades later. He was by 1989 a sobre GSH in the RNZAF. Amazing chap, great courage to tell these stories to every class that passed through, to pass on his experiences so that others may learn.

Another friend of mine in the RNZAF who'd been in Vietnam was the legendary Warrant Officer Terry Wereta, who was the modern day equivalent of the famous "The Bull" of the wartime RNZAF. W/O Wereta was a fierce man, a direct descendant of Hone Heke. He had gone to Vietnam as a Warrant Officer, so that shows how long he'd been that rank as I knew him in 1991-93. He told me the first day he arrived 'in country' he and the other new arrivals stepped off the aircraft and were receiving their first briefing on Vietnamese soil. A shot rang out and the guy next to him fell down dead!! VC sniper got him. A rude introduction!

I had another mate at Wigram, another Vietnam veteran, GSH Laurie Sadler, who'd been there with the SAS. Brilliant bloke, fascinating.

I also know a great bloke here in Cambridge who is the Dad of a mate i went to school with. He began life as an engineer in the RNZAF and he went through a rare scheme they ran back then where he was trained as a pilot but retained the engineer trade he said. He ended up flying Iroquois with the RAAF for a bit in Nam.

All of these guys are great blokes. Every day Kiwis. They are a handful of the many veterans of that war. But to me they prove that the soldiers and airmen of Vietnam were not evil, as the hippies may think. They were just young boys and men doing a job that evil politicians sent them to do. Yet the politicians get staues and monuments, while the veterans still get the cold shoulder three and a half decades later. It's a bloody disgrace.

When all the WWII vets are gone, and the Korean War veterans are in their 90's, there will be very few Vietnam Vets left. They will be frail and passed caring. it will be then some politician will think to cash in on them and make a name for him/herself by erecting something as a gesture. But by then it'll be way too little, too late.

[turboNZ]

Great post, Dave. Thanks for sharing.

The Vietnam War has long since been an interest to me.
This poor guy tonight sharing his experiences from 35 years ago and still shedding a tear. We can only imagine what they went through.

It was of interest how the Vietnamese are still very opinionated about the war esp the VC Officer that he met.

[Dave Homewood]

Cheers Chris.

It was indeed interesting to see the Vietnamese reaction. I think it's fully understandable and human nature how some reacted. They won after all. They are proud of their victory obviously, of repelling the French and then the US and Allied invaders from their country. They were not gloating so much about the politics behind it I think. But more that they, the little guy, slain two Goliaths.

It is sad that only one tiny memorial remains in Vietnam for the ANZAC's where veterans can return to and remember their comrades. Compare the situation with the Turks and how well they cater for our people who want to go to learn, ot allow closure and reconcilliation after we invaded their country. Interesting how different cultures react really.

Has there ever been a Vietnam War film made in Australia? In the USA things really started to turn around for the veterans when their stories began to be told on film as I understand it. Maybe we should acknowedge the ANZAC's on film too, to allow the public to realise what it was like for the real veterans.