Reflections of a Vietnam vet
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IF Bill White needed reminding about perceptions of the Vietnam War, it came soon after his return from the campaign.
The ex-trooper innocently thought he might join the Coogee RSL Club. After filling in the paperwork a club official told him he could only become an associate member.
“He told me the club didn’t recognise Vietnam as a war,” the Goulburn man said.
“I was gobsmacked! They should have seen people being torn apart over there.”
He promptly tore up the document and walked out. That incident was far from the norm among Soldiers’ Clubs, especially Goulburn, where he moved in 1984.
For the past six years he’s been a Goulburn Soldiers Club director. Coupled with soldiers being spat upon, the experience nevertheless confirmed a populist view of the Vietnam War. Like so many, Mr White recalled a battle of a different kind.
“There was a lot of propaganda around at the time,” he said.
“I believe what really pushed me over the edge was seeing the Deputy Prime Minister at the time, Dr Jim Cairns, speaking to a crowd in Sydney and almost inciting them to violence.
“That was in 1970. I came back from Vietnam in 1969 and we still had people fighting and dying over there.”
At age 23, Mr White was not one of the nervous young men waiting for his marble to be drawn for national service.
Having completed his plumbing apprenticeship, he volunteered to enlist only to be branded ‘mad’ by others who had been drafted. He undertook extensive training at Wagga, Kapooka, Singleton, Puckapunyal, Singleton and Watsons Bay in 1969 before flying with his regiment to Vietnam on a Qantas jet.
“I thought it was wonderful,” Mr White said.
“We all thought it was a big adventure. We were in the army and going to a conflict. At that stage there wasn’t much publicity about it. We were going overseas, all expenses paid, with a gun.
“I think the realisation that something was going on came when we were flying over Vietnam and all the ground was pockmarked with holes from B52 bombers.”
The young trooper, eventually attached to A Squadron, Third Cavalry Regiment was stationed at Nui Dat throughout his tour of duty.
Here he became good friends with another serviceman, the singer Normie Rowe.
For the full story, along with our complete ANZAC Day feature, please see the print edition of Monday's Goulburn Post, available from newsagencies across the region.
