This year marks the 50th anniversary of the end of Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War.
A service to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War will take place at the Australian Vietnam Forces National Memorial on Anzac Parade, on Friday 18 August 2023.
Five hundred and twenty-three Australians lost their lives in the war, and over three thousand were wounded.
Australians are being encouraged to honor and remember the service of some 60,000 Australian men and women who served in the Vietnam War and their families.
Vietnam War veteran Leon “Curly”Tuttleby
Over there the comradeship was something special… very hard to explain !
“When you run into your old mates again its terrific… you think jeez I wont recognize him he’s probably fat or baldy, or something like that, but you do….. as soon as they open their mouths and start talking your right and the feeling is still exactly the same as when you were serving with them.”
Curly Tuttleby and his mates in Vietnam.
In a war situation everyone suffers…no one escapes the feelings and the feelings come out in certain ways but not all at once… sometimes it takes twenty or thirty years for these things to come out !
“Curly” explains what has happened since he returned from Vietnam. Listen here :
All photo’s provided by Curly Tuttleby except cover image courtesy of Australian War Memorial.