Thread: Let the healing begin, from both sides. Long Tan Day, Vietnam 2016

For information;


VIETNAM VETERANS DAY
GALA DINNER 2016
14 October 2015
Vung Tau Vietnam
Dear Sir:
My name is Rod Harlor service number 2789504, I was with 9 RAR in Vietnam in 1968/1969 and currently on the board as Chairman for the Vietnam Veterans Day 2016 Gala Dinner being held in Vung Tau Vietnam. The board comprises of the following,
Chairman Rod Harlor 9 RAR Vietnam
Vice Chairman Dennis Morgan 5 RAR Vietnam
Secretary Glenn Nolan 6 RAR
Committee Robert Herring 4 RAR Vietnam
Committee Rod Maxwell 4 RAR Vietnam
Committee Dennis Weatherall RAN
Committee Alister McCoy Victorian Ambulance (Rtd)
Committee Andrew Gunn Victorian Ambulance
Committee Leo Moran Victorian Ambulance
Committee Ian Moscrop Victorian Ambulance

This year on ANZAC day 2015, Myself, Robert Herring, Glenn Nolan and Tony Lowe were invited to Binh Ba for the 50th Anniversary of the formation of the 33rd Regiment that fought against the Australians from 1965 until the withdrawal in 1972. We were treated as the guests of honor and were presented with medals from several Generals, one of which fought at Long Tan. It was indeed a great honor to meet these former soldiers and socialize as they extended their hand of friendship. Robert Herring met Mr Thu whom he fought at the last battle of Nui Lai.

Next year 2016 will mark the 50th Anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan and also Vietnam Veterans Day. The committee was formed after ANZAC day 2015 in preparation for the 50th Anniversary, discussion was held and it was decided to hold a reconciliation dinner on the 18th August 2016.
The Vietnamese Government was approached and we will invite 40 members from 33rd, 274, 275 and D445 Battalions that fought against the Australians from 1965 to 1972. The event will be held at the Pullman Hotel in Vung Tau Vietnam where the Australians had their Logistics base. There is a 2400 people seating capacity at this 5 star Hotel.
The purpose of the night is to foster relations between Australia and Vietnam and with the Veterans on both sides. The night is to showcase Australia and Vietnam; this has support from the Australian Chamber of Commerce, and has overwhelming support from Vietnam Veterans organizations and the business community in Vietnam.
It is proposed to seek an up and coming singer from Australia to sing Australian style of music and also have Vietnamese singers and dancers as well. The Pullman Hotel has donated 10 rooms for VIPs and spouses, with a range of businesses donating in kind support. Harry Smith SG, MC, David Sabbin MG, Ross Smith whom was at Long Tan will be in attendance as along with Keith Payne VC and with several hundred Vietnam Veterans and spouses.
We have notified the Australian Consulate, Defense Attach? and the Vung Tau Committee of Friendship and all are in support of this event. If you require any further information of this upcoming event, please don't hesitate to call either myself or Glenn Nolan secretary of the committee. Website: Long Tan Cross
Kind Regards


Rod Harlor Glenn Nolan
Chairman Secretary
+841208579743 +84907378523

Long Tan veterans fight for gallantry awards as 50th anniversary approaches - 26/07/2016

Long Tan veterans to receive gallantry awards 50 years after battle

Australian veterans from the Battle of Long Tan will next week receive official recognition for their gallantry, almost 50 years to the day after their heroic efforts in the Vietnam War.
On 18 August, 1966, members of D Company who were outnumbered 20 to 1, fought against enormous odds to defeat the Viet Cong in one of the most well-known Australian engagements of the war.
For half a century, many of the men have received no official recognition of their courage, despite sustained campaigning from D Company commander, retired Lieutenant Colonel Harry Smith.

In April last year, former army chief David Morrison refused to recommend a range of gallantry awards for 13 Australian Army members who had fought at Long Tan, prompting Lieutenant Colonel Smith to approach the Defence Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal.
Last month the retired Lt Col told the ABC's 7.30 program this latest effort would probably be his final attempt to gain recognition for his company.
"I owe it to my soldiers to follow through on what I recommended in 1966," Mr Smith said.
"Probably if we don't win with the current review, at age 83, I'll probably decide to get on with my sailing and maybe let it go."

With the 50th anniversary of the battle approaching, the Defence Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal has now finished reviewing an application to officially recognise 13 men who fought in the battle.
The ABC has confirmed on August 10 the Veterans' Affairs Minister Dan Tehan will announce new bravery awards alongside Lt Col Smith and Mark Sullivan, the chair of the Defence Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal.
Details of precisely which medals will be presented and how many former soldiers will be recognised for their efforts in the Battle of Long Tan so far remain confidential.

Surviving Long Tan veterans will head to Vietnam later this month to attend a 50th anniversary commemorative service.

Not before time. Naval veterans of the Vietnam War have the most problems with exotic cancers, put down to the fact that the nasty elements of dieldren, etc., were carried over in the process of distillation of salt water to drinking water. We were drinking many times the dangerous percentage of cancer causing nasties.

Vietnam War's medical history to be rewritten to correct record on Agent Orange;


A new official medical history of the Vietnam War is to be written to correct the record on the Agent Orange controversy.
The council of the Australian War Memorial decided on the move after a long campaign by veterans dissatisfied by Barry Smith's account in the original history.

Jim Wain, the national president of the Vietnam Veterans Federation of Australia, told veterans the "wonderful news" over the weekend.
He said that Professor Smith's account was "fatally flawed" and "unjustly insults" the veterans over their "years of campaigning" to have the repatriation system acknowledge Agent Orange's harmfulness.
Mr Wain said that Professor Smith's history "goes so far as to accuse the campaigning veterans of dishonesty and greed".
Instead, he said, the "veterans turned out to be right about the harmfulness of Agent Orange" and "their behaviour, far from being dishonest and motivated by greed, was a fine example of the Anzac tradition of veterans looking after their comrades-in-arms".

Mr Wain succeeded Tim McCombe, who died this year after leading the long campaign to achieve this result.
Professor Smith also died this year, but when contacted by Fairfax Media last year, when the possibility of a new history was first raised, he was unavailable for comment.

Brendan O'Keefe was the main author of the 1994 volume Medicine at War: Medical aspects of Australia's involvement in Southeast Asia 1950-1972 that included Professor Smith's chapters on Agent Orange.
Mr O'Keefe did not wish to comment but had previously "welcomed" the prospect of a new history.
Mr Wain said the campaign was important for veterans because Professor Smith's history omitted two key findings of a royal commission on the effects of chemicals on Australian Personnel in Vietnam, established under Justice Phillip Evatt in May 1983


The findings were that "under the standard of proof prescribed by Repatriation law, there were two categories of cancer attributable to exposure to Agent Orange" and "the Department of Veterans' Affairs purposely disobeyed Repatriation law in not allowing veterans the prescribed 'benefit of the doubt' ".


In July 1993, the year before Professor Smith's chapters were published, the Institute of Medicine of the US National Academy of Sciences found "sufficient evidence" and "limited/suggestive" evidence to conclude there was a positive association between the herbicides used in Vietnam and various cancers.
Graham Walker, AM, who was an infantry company commander in Vietnam said, on behalf of veterans, that Professor Smith had "ridiculed their case and accused them of dishonesty and greed" but without interviewing anyone.

The council has appointed Dr Peter Yule, History Department Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne, to complete by 2019 a volume entitled Medical Legacies of South East Asian Conflicts ? Vietnam War, which will also cover other medical issues such as post traumatic stress disorder.
Mr Walker, who was directly involved in the lobbying to commission the new volume, said: "Of course the veterans' campaign has been vindicated. The official war history must now tell the true story and restore the reputations of those fine Vietnam veterans."

A spokesperson for the Australian War Memorial explained the council's decision "to proceed with the history", which will be "an independently written single volume funded from within the memorial's resources".
The volume is not intended to "rewrite history but instead be informed by 25 years of new knowledge and interviews with Vietnam War veterans".
However, Mr Wain cautioned: "It remains to be seen whether the new history redresses these omissions and insults ... We can only hope so."