Vietnam Veterans' Day

I begin by acknowledging the Traditional Owners of the lands on which we are gathered – the Bunurong people of the Eastern Kulin Nation – and pay my respects to their Elders, past and present.

Sixty years ago today, 105 Australian soldiers and three New Zealand artillerymen entered a rubber plantation near the village of Long Tan.

Within an hour, they were under attack from an enemy that greatly outnumbered them.

To make matters worse, a tropical downpour turned the ground to mud as ammunition ran dangerously low.

For almost four hours, D Company of the 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, fought without knowing how large the enemy force was or if help would arrive in time.

At Nui Dat, artillery crews fired in support, while two Royal Australian Air Force helicopter crews delivered ammunition through the storm.

As darkness approached, infantry and armoured personnel carrier crews reached the plantation.

The enemy withdrew. D Company had held its ground.

But the battle came at a terrible cost. Eighteen Australians lost their lives and another 24 were wounded.

The youngest was Private Francis Topp.

His mates knew him simply as Frank.

He was nineteen years old, the second of eleven children on his family’s dairy farm.

He enlisted at seventeen with his parents’ consent and joined 11 Platoon only one day before the battle.

Had he lived, Frank would be celebrating his eightieth birthday on Australia Day next year.

We cannot know what he, or any of the others, would have done with these sixty years that were lost.

They may have built careers, raised families, served their communities and shared decades with the people who loved them.

Today, we honour each of them.

We also honour those who fought beside them, and all those whose courage, skill and loyalty carried others through that terrible afternoon.

We remember, too, the almost 60,000 Australian servicemen and women who served during our nation’s involvement in the Vietnam War.

For those who did return, experiences were not all the same – either in Vietnam or after they came home.

Many returned to a nation still deeply divided over the war.

Too often, commentary about the conflict overshadowed the stories of those who served in it.

For years, Vietnam veterans were denied the recognition they deserved.

Just as those who had served in other conflicts, these Australians had done what their country asked of them.

They too, had lost friends.

And for many – as it had for generations past – the effects of the war continued long after they returned.

Some came home with physical wounds. For others, the weight of what they had endured became clear only in the years that followed.

Their families lived with those consequences too, caring for those they loved through the pain that followed many of them home.

We acknowledge the immense suffering and loss the war brought to all the people involved and in particular to the people of Vietnam on whose lands it was fought.

In the decades since, many Australian veterans have returned to Vietnam. Some formed friendships with Vietnamese veterans they once fought.

Those friendships tell us just how much can change in sixty years.

For younger Australians, the Vietnam War belongs to an era they did not experience.

As the years pass, our responsibility to preserve the stories of those who served becomes greater.

New generations should know what happened at Long Tan.

They should understand what was demanded of those who were there, and why the service of every Australian who went to Vietnam mattered.

Today we rightly remember the eighteen Australians lost at Long Tan, those who fought beside them, all who served in Vietnam, and all those affected by this war.

Lest we forget.