This came to me this morning. It's obviously a few weeks old, but certainly worth the read. An interesting point of view from one of the younger generations....
SOURCE: THE SUNDAY MAIL (SA)
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/opin ... ration-of- men-still-fighting-their-war/story-e6freafu-1226123472195
Lost generation of men still fighting their war
Peter Goers August 28, 2011
SOME of the best men - and mates - were the boys sent to the Vietnam War, writes Peter Goers.
THEY'RE the best men I've ever known, Vietnam veterans.
A lost generation we must never stop trying to find. It's been one of the best things that ever happened to me that I fell in with these blokes and I can't remember how or why it happened. It just did.
I've never known a more forgiving, friendly, big-hearted group of people.
I was too young to have opposed their war but I admire most of those who did. Had I been old enough I would have marched proudly in the streets to oppose that most stupid, wretched and useless war. I would have inevitably made the mistake of that generation of blaming the soldiers for the war.
That was wrong and very hurtful and those wounds are still being healed. We can never, as a society, redress that error sufficiently but we must continue to try.
Also, as a nation of volunteers, we've been quick to support liberty and capitalism all over the world and more than 105,000 of the very finest Australians lay buried in foreign fields because of wars not of our own making.
The worst of the Vietnam War was that for the only time in our history men were sent against their will as conscripts in a lottery of death.
Former prime minister Robert Menzies declined to volunteer for World War I yet championed the conscription of the Australians other than himself in two wars. Bastard.
Politicians love winning wars they very rarely fight in.
The Viet Vets are the legacy of the lesson we all learnt: never blame the soldier for the war. It ain't his fault and he ain't heavy, he's my brother.
War and life is about your mates.
Believing in them. Fighting for them because they may not make it. You're fighting for those around you, those you love - not flags or countries and especially not causes, because they come and go.
The irony of the anti-war movement is that unlike the Diggers they opposed, important as the anti-war movement was, it was never noble and they no longer have each other.
No commune lasts for very long and hip becomes hip replacement. It's hard to remain radical all your life and, believe me, I'm trying.
The Viet Vets remain together because only they know what they went through and they did it tough before, during and after, with no support from the home front in an unpopular war - even worse, a dirty war.
Broken men have become strong in each other. And they tell me stuff that's funny and sad and we laugh and cry and we look into each others' eyes and see hope.
It was a beautiful day in our city last Sunday and the Viet vets gathered to honour their own. They marched and had their memorial service at their own memorial. A dog "laid" a wreath (symbolising the amazing tracker dogs).
Then lots of big, broken blokes shed a tear and then some got pissed and ate sausages and Vietnamese food and took part in the annual concert at the Torrens Parade Ground and we all came together to share their story.
The Diggers sang and danced - some of them to their own music in their own heads.
It's now a rag-tag army with its own eccentric style with the nobility of the battler. The only true nobility. Some wear medals and some didn't even pick them up from the post office - returned to sender, address unknown. Who cares? You don't get medals for the courage that is required to survive from day to day in a war that never ends.
Every year I go to the concert to hang out with the vets and the entertainers and I always bullshit and say "I'm just here for the sandwiches" - which are always excellent. The bearer of the first breasts I ever really noticed (on a telethon), Big Pretzel (aka Pat Kennedy), also has a heart as big as Texas and organises these concerts.
The forces' sweetheart is a reluctant star and these days she'd rather umpire netball, but she loves her boys and they love her. So do I. She wrangles entertainers who performed for the troops in Vietnam to do it again at the concert and others.
This year it was the splendid Navy band, the Red Hot Mama and the trooper's trouper, Linda McCarthy, the genial Evan Jones, the hilariously droll "Old Fella" comedian Rod Gregory, the wonderful Graham Cornes Allstar Band, and, wow, John Schumann singing to those who were only 19.
They gather around him and they mouth that song as a catechism of their conflict, the "war within yourself" and they cry with and without tears. It's a great day.
As Australians we have a sacred duty to honour, service and sacrifice until we can say "we've got to get out of this place if it's the last thing we ever do", and mean it.
_________________
Chris O'Keefe
R43136
Ex WO Chippy
19th MOBI Intake
July 65 to July 85
HMAS Nirimba X 4 -Penguin-Sydney-Queenborough - Creswell - Moreton - Stalwart - Platypus - Coonawarra Reconstruction Team 76 - Platypus - Hobart - Cerberus - FHQ - Coonawarra.
Anyone can be ordinary. Shipwrights choose to be extraordinary!
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