By Luke Voogt
Geelong Vietnam veterans marked the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan on Thursday, with 50 former servicemen joining their comrades at a Melbourne service.
The battle on 18 August 1966 was Australia’s most costly battle in the Vietnam War.
Geelong and District Vietnam Veterans Association of Australia president Rieny Nieuwenhof was with the group Geelong veterans in Melbourne.
“For us it’s a recognition of our service and sacrifice,” he said.
“It’s a day when we solute those 521 Australians who lost their lives during the Vietnam conflict, the 60,000 who served and their families.”
Mr Nieuwenhof said Vietnam veterans receiving recognition for their service over the past few decades was a fitting honour.
For years, politicians, RSLs and the public abandoned returning veterans as “political scapegoats” of an unpopular war, he said.
“Over time we have come to realise those young men and women were taken advantage of.
“They were told they were defending their country – but it was a political decision rather than the physical threat of communism.”
Mr Nieuwenhof served in Vietnam in 1971 with 131 Divisional Locating Battery.
He travelled to isolated fire support bases, which the Viet Cong frequently attacked with mortar and rifle fire.
Mr Nieuwenhof still remembers seeing battles in the distance at “Horse Shoe”, 15km south of Nui Dat.
“There were a lot of attacks at night,” he said.
“Very often you’d see the tracer bullets from helicopters or artillery exploding.”
While conditions were tough for him at times, Mr Nieuwenhof had great admiration for infantry soldiers, who would spend up to six weeks in hostile jungle.
They and soldiers of other corps battled constant heat and humidity searching for the Viet Cong.
“For them it was a horrendous experience – they were under constant threat of attack,” he said.
“They slept in scrapes of the ground, sat in ambushes and they were constantly wet because of the conditions.”
Local residents paid their respects at the Geelong Vietnam War Memorial on 14 August.
Peter Nash, the only Geelong veteran directly involved in Long Tan, attended the Sunday service.
They also remembered Gunner Tommy Simpson who is buried in Malaysia and is the only Geelong soldier who died in the Vietnam War.
