About time: MP Richard Marles presents Ron Medson with his Australian Service Medal.
KIM WATERS
FORMER naval seaman Ron Medson has received a medal for his role in the Malayan Emergency more than half a century after his service.
Federal MP Richard Marles this week presented the ex-National Serviceman of Clifton Springs with an Australian Service Medal for his tour of duty in the Malacca Strait in 1956.
Mr Medson was “honoured and humbled”.
“It was compulsory conscription, so I had no choice but to go. There was a bit of excitement and we were all anxious to get there but we probably didn’t realise how dangerous it was at the time.”
Mr Medson manned anti-aircraft guns on aircraft carrier HMAS Sydney as it patrolled hostile waters watching for communist insurgents.
“Many people in Australia don’t know much about it but the Malayan Emergency was between the Korean and Vietnam wars and there were quite a few Australians there,” he said
The larrikin ex-seaman admitted some inglorious moments on patrol, including accidentally firing on a friendly plane during a training exercise.
“I wasn’t very popular at the time,” he laughed.
“Luckily it was only a simulation but those are the things, those funny incidents, that you remember rather than the feeling of being scared.
“Another time the other seamen tricked me by saying if I pretended to be sick I could get out of marching practice, so I faked it and was put in hospital for the weekend and couldn’t go home to see my girlfriend for another fortnight.”
