Local Vietnam veterans gathered yesterday (Sunday, August 17) in Robertson Park, Mudgee to commemorate and reflect on their tours of duty during the Vietnam War.
Vietnam Veterans day, which is actually held today (Monday August 18), was designed to commemorate the Battle of Long Tan and those Australians who served during the Vietnam War. It has been running since its development in the late 1980s.
President of the Mudgee Vietnam Veterans society, Geoff Robertson, said the day is designed for all soldiers, airmen, naval officers and people who took part in the war to commemorate and reflect.
Ex-Vietnam veteran David Henderson said that it was a day for Vietnam veterans to get together and catch up and remember the time they spent in Vietnam.
“Despite everything that happened, over there and here, I wouldn’t change a thing about my time spent overseas,” he said
The battle of Long Tan was the first large scale battle that the Australian troops fought in their 10-year stint in Vietnam. One hundred and eighty Anzac troops encountered and engaged a Viet Cong force, estimated to number between 1500 and 2500.
Against overwhelming odds the Australians won the battle with only 18 fatalities and 24 wounded. A body count next morning showed 245 Vietnamese had been killed.
This year also marks the 40 year anniversary of the battle of Balmoral and Coral which was one of the three largest battles undertaken whilst Australian troops were deployed in Vietnam. It is when 5000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops attacked fire support bases Coral and Balmoral in Bien Hoa Province where 21 Diggers lost their lives and another 53 were wounded.