The ranks of Mudgee war veterans will be swelled on Anzac Day with the attendance of C Company, 6th Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment Vietnam veterans.
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They will be accompanied by their wives and partners for a four-day biennial reunion.
The men of C Company, or Charlie Company as they prefer, engaged in combat with Viet Cong and North Vietnam regular forces in their year-long tour of duty in 1966-67.
Five of their number were killed in action or died of wounds and more than 70 have since perished through illness, accident and other causes.
"With an average age of 73 we are getting a bit long in the tooth, but we gather together every two years to remember our mates and to commemorate their sacrifice," Charlie Company spokesman and Mudgee identity, Geoff Robinson, said.
"We chose Mudgee this year for its unrivalled commemoration of Anzac Day and for the natural beauty of the town and district.
"The camaraderie that fortified us on the battlefield remains evident today.
"The excitement we share in meeting each other begins with an embrace, a hearty hand shake and everyone talking at once.
"The horrible experience of war is raised only in passing. Our inclination is to find out what each has been doing; how's the family and what about your golf game?
"Nonetheless, our shared experience of war is never far from our minds and it is our solemn duty to honour our mates who made the ultimate sacrifice."
Charlie Company men also pay tribute to the young men of the 6th Battalion who lost their lives in the turbulence of East Timor and the war in Afghanistan.
"We live in troubled times and we must be prepared, as these young Australians were, to defend our freedom and way of life," they say.
August 18, 2019, marks the 53rd anniversary of the battle of Long Tan where the Diggers of D Company 6 RAR defeated an estimated 2,500 crack enemy troops in a monsoon swept rubber plantation for the loss of 18 Australian lives and 24 wounded. 245 enemy soldiers lay dead with evidence of many more being carried away.
Charlie Company joined D Company in burying the enemy dead before pursuing remnants of the defeated force. The Battle of Long Tan on August 18, 1966, is an iconic feat of Australian arms.
Mateship forged on the battlefield sustains Charlie Company veterans to this day.
They will travel from as far afield as Cairns, Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne and Tasmania to be with their mates at this reunion.
"We wouldn't miss it", they say, and their wives and partners agree.
There will be many stories told and retold at the reunion dinner at the Mudgee Club on Friday, April 26.
Retired Major to deliver address
Geoff Jones enlisted in the Australian Regular Army in 1964 and served in Vietnam as a Corporal Medic in C Company 6 RAR in 1966 and as Sergeant Medical Liaison NCO on Headquarters Australian Force, Vietnam in 1970-71.
In 1975 he underwent commissioned officer training and in 1986 undertook schooling at the US Army Academy of Health Sciences in San Antonio, Texas, and the Canadian Forces Medical Services School in Borden, Ontario. He retired from the Regular Army in 1989 but continued in the Army Reserve until 2007, completing 43 years. In 2001 he was admitted as a Member of the Order of St John of Jerusalem, in 2003 was Queensland's Colonel John Thomson Orator and Medal winner, and in 2005 was awarded the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps' prestigious Geoffrey Harkness Medal.
In 1967, the then Corporal Jones married Private Pamela Brown, they have three sons each of whom infantrymen in the Australian Army with the middle son serving in Rwanda. Their grandson is an Afghanistan veteran.
