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AFTER THE WAR:- Now & Then... OLD MATES..........THEN..... AUSTRALIAN VIETNAM VETERANS ASSOCIATIONS...... Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) &.... NOW. I am now a TPI and a member of the NSW TPI Association. I have been a member of the Vietnam Veteran Federation, since its early days, also a member of the Blue Mountains Association. Arriving in Mittagong in the middle 1970s I was always welcomed by members of the Mittagong RSL Sub-Branch. Yet it was not unti later years I felt confortable in attending ANZAC DAY. Today I am the honorary historian of the Sub Branch and involved in designing and arranging the display cabinets that the Club provides for us to put on display the Military memorabilia given to the Sub-Branch. Also I am involved as publicity officer for a major Vietnam War Memorial called the CHERRY TREE WALK being built at Bowral NSW. This role involves no meetings and I spread the word about the Memorial via the net. The Memorial will provide a WALK for over 5 kilometers flanked by Cherry Trees. The number planted over 500 will represent those Australians killed in Vietnam. There is a magnificent MONUMENT at the site of the Memorial, for further information please visit the CHERRY TREE WALK site; the address is on the "MEMORIAL & the LINKS" Page. OLD MATES:- I am lucky enough to be able to talk to a few members of my old Platoon, 3 Platoon Alfa Company 7RAR, by phone or email, who talk to others, so more than a few of us keep intouch. Diggers like Steve at Harvey Bay in Qld, who when I am visiting or passing thorough, he and his wife always have me stay over to share a few beers. Arthur who was Wounded when our Platoon Commander was killed. Bob who has been down to my home town for ANZAC Day. The Plt Commander I talk about in the "Mine incident" story who looked after me in the days and weeks after 'that day' Mr Wilson also is in touch. I was supprised and extremely pleased that he contacted me via e-mail after reading the story. I rang him up straight away and soon the years had fallen away talking about people we knew and events still fresh in the mind. Thankfully I have been able to chat about those days and he has filled in a few blanks about what the platoon did in the months before we went home. It helps to know and talk to all of these men who went through the worst of times together and still there helping one another; 30 years later. With the net I am lucky enough to talk to some mates, mostly Vietnam Vets who kept me on the straight and narrow when fighting my case. It goes with out saying that they form part of my support structure today as I don't get out much. THEN After getting home from Vietnam Vietnam I stayed with 7 Battalion until July 1971, & then Corps transferred to the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps. During the months I stayed with the Battalion I had a very difficult duty, that of coffin bearer. In June a number of Diggers were KIA in a contact with the VC. As 3 of them were 7RAR Diggers who stayed in country after the battalion came home, we were given the Honour of taking part in their funeral. We were flown to the country towns to carry out our duties and this was very difficult. Carrying the soldier out of the Church it was all most impossible to maintain your composure. This was followed by moving out to the cemetery for full military honours. A very painful and trying experince for all concerned. The one Digger who I could noy pay respects too was Mick Towler as his remains went back to England. It was not until the year 2000 I was able to dedicate a Tree to Mick at the Cherry Tree Walk. Fo rthe next stage of my military career I under took Corps Training at the main training center for the Medical cops at Healesville in Victoria. After that I was posted to the next stage of my training at 2 Military Hospital this time at Ingleburn NSW. Which as it happened was only half an hour by car from Holsworthy Village and still close to Wollongong. Helen my wife lived there while I was training with her mother. During my training as a "medic" at 2 Mil Hospital, David our first boy was born, in December at Wollongong hospital. After training and gaining the qualification of "Medical Assistant" I was posted to the hospital and soon started work on seven day shift work, as the hospital ran 24 hours a day. While at the hospital I was able to secure an Army House at Cavalry Crescent, Holsworthy Village, so Helen and David moved from Wollongong to our first house. The house was not far from my old unit lines. Although now due to government cutbacks had been amalgamated with the 5th Battalion, (the Tigers) and the new Battalion is now called 5/7 Battalion (Mechanised). The Battalion has served some TOURS of Duty at the turn of the Century in East Timor and performed magnificently. The Battalion has now moved up to Darwin as part of the reorganisation of the Australian Defense Forces. These days as we travel from our home at Mittagong at times we pass Holsworthy Village and the Base that provided a home for 7RAR in the 60's and 1970's; bringing back many memories. During the early 1970s after some time working at the Hospital in Simpson Ward, the surgical ward, I was sent on subject for Corporal courses and then promoted by the RAAMC RSM. He was Warrant Officer Class One 'Bluey' Mellowship whom I had worked with in Vietnam, at 1 Australian Field Hospital and literately bumped into getting off the chopper, after I had been wounded and flown to 1st Australian Field Hospital at Vung Tuy aboard a DUSTOFF Chopper. The next posting was a move just up the road as it happened, about 300 yards from the hospital. This time as a Corporal Medical Assistant to 101 Field Work Shops in 1975. The unit was a Field Force unit, in support of the Brigade at Holsworthy. It was an 'Royal Australian Electrical & Mechanical Engineers' or RAEME unit and I was its 'Medic'. It was during this posting that Helen and I decided to build at house on our block of land at Mittagong. It was a difficult year I had a knee operation, which was very painful, and the house was being built an hour down south. At that stage we did not own a car, so I had to hitch hike to check its progress. However after many months the house was finished and we and our belongings moved to Mittagong, which thanks to creative accounting by a mate in the Orderly Room, was paid for by the Army. By this time we had a VW Beetle which used to fly. Despite the freeway not being in the picture in those days the trip to Ingleburn and back every day was done at a high speed. It was about this time in late 1975 early 1976 that I noticed a change in my behaviour, manly while driving and became one of the first 'road ragers'. At this time I did not connect my behaviour and thoughts to anything to do with Vietnam, while struggling to carry on my duties for the unit. Finally after many months I went to a doctor for help, one that I trusted at the hospital. He made an appointment for me to see a Psychiatrist. The Psych recommended that I move from Field Force as he thought this was part of the problem, as I was still "switched on" like Vietnam, even carrying a weapon. So in early 1977 I was posted out of field force to 2 Base Workshop Battalion at Moorebank. However the move did not work and after much discussion with Helen looked for a job in the local area. I left the Army on Monday afternoon and started a shift work job at a local brickworks on Tuesday afternoon, as a Kiln Burner. Not bad, in 24 hours from serving as a Soldier to someone making bricks? Highlight of that year was the Birth of another son who we named Paul. Staying at the brickworks for 2 years, I moved to a Staff job in Security at Hardies; again on shift work and again that year another son was born. Shawn Andrew our third son made it a good size family so we called it quits on any more kids. About this time I received my discharge certificate and was incensed to read that I had been graded "unfit to be a soldier". I was so angry that I tore the paper up and threw it away. Some day I must do something about that and try to get another one? For someone who had just left the Army, I missed it? So I looked at how I could still be involved and was introduced to a member of a sub unit of B Company 4 Battalion Royal New South Wales Regiment, (RNSWR) an Army Reserve Unit. The Company was based at Wollongong. The Battalion was again a Grunt Unit and I was soon working in platoon tactics and handling my favorite weapon, the SLR. While I found it hard to be excepted in the unit at first, even being a War Veteran? I was selected to join a special 4 Battalion Platoon to spend two weeks in New Zealand with a Battalion from Auckland on exercise, entirely due to my skills learnt the hard way in Vietnam. It was a great trip. My selection was due to a good performance as a Forward Scout against another platoon, who were hunting us and we found them first, manly a bit of good work on our part and slack discipline on their part. Then attacking from the high ground we took them apart. After the New Zealand trip I was placed on the Sergeants carter course. After a few very hard weeks and my first trip to Singleton for a two week exercise the result was, along with the other successful course members, being promoted to Sergeant in front of the whole Battalion on parade. Then later that night, being introduced into the Battalion's Sergeants Mess. I can still remember this as a very proud day marching out in front of the Battalion, one of a few Diggers so recognised. In 1981 I was lucky to be selected and involved in a major exercise as a Sergeant, in November of that year, this being KANGAROO 81. (i still have the T/Shirt;-)) This is held most years in North Queensland with many different units of the Army, Air Force and Navy of Australia. After the exercise and in the new year for some reason I decided to leave the Reserves, something which I later regretted, taking discharge in 1983. Also importantly this Service has been recognised and is included on my CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE, reissued in 2002 after receiving the new NASHO Medal. The Nasho medal is the third on the right in th eimage of my Medals on the ENTRY page. AUSTRALIAN VIETNAM VETERANS ASSOCIATIONS:- It was during the early 1980s that Australian Vietnam Veterans taking the lead from their USA Vet Mates, started to question the failing health of many Veterans and the effects of Agent Orange. This led to the formation of the Australian Vietnam Veteran Association who did mighty work to get the Associations up and running. All done by the Vets themselves many of who were very ill at the time. The work carried out by the Associations continues to this day. I joined the Association in those early days and have remained a member ever since. Following advice from people who I talked to in the Association at the time, who were starting to hear many stories like mine, I went to the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) for a check up. This resulted in them agreeing that my situation was a condition from my Vietnam experience and started payment of a small pension. While I knew nothing of PTSD in those days, if you read my medical file, which I got through the "Freedom of Information Act" some years ago, my PTSD was evident as far back as 1976 and again in 1981. The Vietnam Veterans Association also went through some changes some years ago, when after some internal problems the body spit and now we have two main bodies a Federation and a Association of Vietnam Veterans. This is a great pity to split those efforts when all Veterans should be in one body to fight the attacks that some in positions of power continue on Vietnam Veterans today and will do so in the future. Maybe in some future time the Veterans in both organisations will get together again, in ONE organisation as they were during our time in Vietnam? Having stayed at the security job till 1985, then leaving due to the way I was treated by certain people, I managed to get a job in a Cement plant in early 1986 and soon was back on shift work. The plant was involved in manufacturing cement and was a turbulent place to work due to industrial relations of that time. Not used to letting other people decide my future I became involved in my union by being elected as the co-delegate of the Australian Workers Union. (AWU). After a year I was voted in to the delegate's job and held the position through the late eighties and the nineties. I was involved in the change in the workplace with reforms such as AWARD RESTRUCTURING led by the then Labour Government. While I was showing signs of my condition to work mates and family, I thought I was fine and "normal", throwing my self into work, with committee after committee and study at TAFE from 1991 to 1997 and my hobbies of soccer refereeing & administration, photography, reading etc. Those that deal with PTSD say that all this frantic activity is called "avoidance". (PTSD) This is Covered in more detail on next page!~! My condition was to lead to me being forced out of my job and another break down in 1997. This occurred when due to a massive cash injection the plant was downsized and I was downsized out of the gate. At the time I was very bitter after all my work via the AWU and plant committees (with other Union delegates of course) that enabled the plant to archive this plan. It was a very difficult year and I was finding it difficult to hang on and function day to day. When I saw the doctor the company sent me to for an exit medical, it was clear he had served in the Australian Defence Forces and I told him about how my life had been for some time. He thought my problems were related to my war service and told me to go and see the Vietnam Veterans. I did this and was sent to see a Psychiatrist. Going for help was difficult and talking about what was going on, but I was then diagnosed with PTSD and finally had an answer to why I was thinking and doing certain things. Eventually a Psychiatrist that the DVA sent me to, agreed I had PTSD and was too ill to work, due to my "war caused disabilities" a report that the DVA finally listened too and granted me TPI status, November 1999. PTSD those few letters that mean so much to Veterans and their families, as it takes over your whole life. Some of the symptoms of PTSD are:- Anxiety: Depression: Sleep Disturbance: Hypersensitivity: Irritability: Negative Beliefs: Intrusive Thoughts (about the trauma) Avoidance: Social Withdrawal: Hyper arousal: Communication Skills (poor). If you are reading this and feel that these symptoms describe you, do something about it, there is help these days, all it takes is a phone call or an email. This is not the end of the story at this stage in 2003 as Australia is involved in the War in Iraq there will be other soldiers who will return damage and I commit to assist in any way I am able either through the RSL or Vietnam Veteran Organisations. What ever the political feelings about that war those soldiers should not be treated as we were when we came home nor should they have to endure so long before they get help, if they require it. Oink 17th November 2003 This is PAGE 20 of A GRUNTS VIEW:- "Me After the War" To move to "PTSD" Page use the SLR on the right. To return to END OF TOUR Page use left SRL. To return to ENTRY PAGE click on Willy the PIG. Page Checked and updated 17th November 2003
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