I spent most of last week in Bendigo attending a reunion of my Army unit from Vietnam. We originally planned it for last year but the borders being closed due to Covid beat us and we had to defer it until this year. In 1987, the then Prime Minister (Bob Hawke) declared that August 18…
Yesterday was the date in 1972 that Jill and I were married at St. Peter’s Anglican Church in Box Hill. The Vicar, a crusty old time priest said, when he found out that I was a Methodist and Jill an Anglican, “Mixed marriages don’t really work”. Well, here we are still together (very happily) after…
(Reminder – if you are reading an email version of this post on an Apple device, click on the title to see the image(s). For some reason, Apple Mail does not download the images from the website.) Today was the 106th anniversary of the World War 1 Battle of Fromelles. Its commemoration is a significant…
The city of Bendigo is currently hosting ‘Elvis – Direct from Graceland’ an exhibition of the life of Elvis Presley. He needs no introduction – anyone my age, or much younger would be completely familiar with Elvis, his music and his movies. We had tickets for the exhibition at the Bendigo Art Gallery and stayed…
I was recently asked to give a talk on my experience as a soldier in Vietnam. Others have also asked for a copy of my talk – so here it is. This year, as normal, I attended the Anzac Day Dawn Service and the annual March to the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne. For me,…
It’s been a busy few days for us this week, Just after returning from Perth, we have been thrown into a flurry of activity. Our eldest grandchild, Audrey, (14) has decided to have a shot at undertaking the Duke of Edinburgh Award. Their official website tells us that this award is “An internationally recognised program…
Well, we have just had a wonderful time at Port Macquarie with my old army unit where seventy five fellow veterans and their partners attended the 13th bi-annual reunion of 85 Transport Platoon (Vietnam). Our event began with a ‘Meet and Greet’ evening at the local Southport Club which gave us a big chance to…
We left home at mid morning and had a lazy drive to the wine town of Rutherglen in northern Victoria where we have a stopover on our way to a reunion in Port Macquarie, NSW. We decided to stay at the very nice Tuileries Resort here for a celebration. We reached Shepparton for lunch. This…
There are some significant dates that stick in my mind and I can clearly remember what I was doing at the time. I remember listening to an old valve radio in my bedroom on the day that President Kennedy was shot. I was driving to Canberra on the day that Princess Dianna died and I…
Today is the 100th anniversary commemoration of the armistice that ended World War One and a day on which to reflect on the solemnity of the occasion and the tragedy of the Great War. Jill and I went to our church this morning and attended a very moving service complete with a minute’s since at…
At our 85 Transport Platoon Reunion in Albany WA last week, I was interviewed by the local TV news service. This is the item that appeared on the news on the evening of our Vietnam Veterans Day Parade Albany TV News The address at the parade was given by our own Paul Asbury (Lt Col Retired).…
It’s fifty years since 85 Transport Platoon was deployed from Australia to Vietnam. It operated as a front line transport unit supporting our task force from 1967 to 1972. Overall, about 450 men served in the unit, each for a period of around one year. I was posted to it from April 1969 to April…