Long tan, p.31
Long Tan, page 31
At our Nui Dat base we were aware a plane frequently flew over and sprayed mosquito repellent on the rubber trees but what we did not know was the same tanks had been used for Agent Orange and not cleaned out. Nor did we realise the chemicals were washed off trees onto the ground and found their way via the rain wash-off into creeks and streams from which we often filled our water bottles when out on patrol, so we drank water contaminated by dioxins and I am told water purification tablets we used did not cater for dioxins.
Of those men I know from 6RAR Peter Smeaton died of prostate cancer, as I mentioned earlier, also Colin Townsend and Owen O’Brien. Others, such as Ian McQuire, my 2IC in 1967; Peter Dinham, 2 Platoon Alpha Company 1966; Bob Hagerty, OC 1 APC Squadron and myself have survived after surgery. I went to former 11 Platoon Private Brian Hall’s funeral after death from prostate cancer three years ago. I am aware my corporals Bill Moore and Tony Green died from cancer, and that 12 Platoon’s Neil Bextrum in Perth is on God’s Waiting List with leukemia cancer. Neil recently told me he is past the use by date and if his 1966 MID award is approved it should be sent to the AWM.
For years Vietnam Veterans’ complaints of serious health issues caused by their exposure to Agent Orange were denied and belittled by the authorities. A Royal Commission was finally formed in 1983 to look into the veterans’ case. However, the commission’s highly controversial report in 1986 returned a ‘not guilty’ verdict for Agent Orange. My understanding is that DVA, while not admitting the cause, will still fund treatment for cancer-affected soldiers, and so they should. In the US it is accepted that Agent Orange caused a number of cancers in Vietnam Veterans, including prostate cancer, and Veterans there who develop prostate cancer and were exposed to Agent Orange during military service are eligible to receive VA health care and disability compensation.
In recent times a senior Vietnam Veteran who was in 1 APC Squadron in 1966–67 and who retired as a brigadier, a respected friend, committed suicide here on the Fraser Coast. Some said it was after being diagnosed with cancer. According to a March 2013 report by Ruth Lamperd and Patrick Carlyon in the Sunday Herald-Sun, the veterans’ community in Brisbane alone was reeling from 11 suicides since Christmas, including former soldiers returned from Somalia, Rwanda, Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan. Veterans’ advocates say the tragic tally is a fraction of a hidden blight unrecorded by authorities which highlights serious inadequacies in the DVA’s bureaucratic claims process, which often stretches veterans’ battles for compensation out to two years.
DVA keeps no figures on suicides of past servicemen and women. It told the Herald-Sun that it aims ‘to deal with all claims as efficiently as possible to ensure minimal impact on the individual’. A Perth Veteran has published a list of 215 Vietnam Veterans who had suicided as at 1996. I gather there have been 200 Afghanistan veterans who have taken their own life and according to TV reports in March 2015, there are similar problems with Navy sailors in HMAS Leeuwin south of Perth. But not one of my former soldiers has taken his own life.
My personal experience, shared by many of my colleagues, is that despite no evidence of previous cancer in our parental families we contracted prostate cancer and it is a fair bet it came from drinking dioxin-contaminated water in Vietnam. The evidence is that there is a much higher percentage of this cancer and birth defects in the Vietnam Veteran community than in the public community, something like 50 percent higher. Apart from a bad temper, probably caused by continual arguments with the bureaucracy over the awards for my men, to my knowledge prostate cancer is the only possible serious health effect I’ve had from Vietnam, but cancer is an insidious disease which could cause cancer cells to migrate to other organs.
In recent years I have had many excisions for various skin cancers, the last one, the twenty third, a month ago, all perhaps the result of no ‘slip, slop, slap’ sunburn cream, shirt or hat in childhood holidays in the dry and hot Tasmanian summer sun, and no doubt exacerbated by sun damage in the Army and sailing. My dermatologist tells me that even if I hide from the sun the damage was done as a child and will still cause skin cancers to form. When sailing there is reflection off the water and unless one wears hot ‘Colonel Gaddafi’-type headdress, the sun stills gets to the face and ears. But as with prostate cancer, recent USA research results announced in June 2015 indicates a 10 to 20% higher rate of non-melanomic skin cancers such as BCCs and SCCs among Vietnam Veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange dioxins.
In May 2010 I received the sad news that my Long Tan Kiwi Forward Observer Captain Morrie Stanley was terminal with a rare sarcoma cancer, and I joined Bob Buick, Dave Sabben and Red Dune Film’s producer Martin Walsh in going over to visit him and presenting him with a Delta Company plaque with his UCG emblem on behalf of our company. I personally paid for it to be made by Warwick Cary’s Medal Shop in Sydney which had made a nice frame for Felicia’s uncle’s World War I medals and his King George V memorial bronze-embossed ‘death plaque’ and the scroll. Our government had not advised the NZ people of the UCG award approved in October 2009 and, again, I had to chastise Defence Canberra. CDF Angus Houston then sent an urgent facsimile to Auckland to advise we would be presenting the 2009-approved UCG to Morrie and his signaller Willy Walker, the other NZ signaller Murray Broomhall now living near Brisbane.
In NZ at presentation of the Delta Company UCG to FO Morrie Stanley and his signaller Willy Walker.
Although some of his fellow officers such as Barry Dreyer believed Morrie had received the Gallantry MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire medal) I was disappointed to find from his two sons that Morrie did not get the appropriate gallantry Oak Leaves Clasp for his 1967 MBE in lieu of the Military Cross I recommended. I then wrote and suggested to the NZ Defence Minister it be approved. In 2012 widow Alva told me that it had still not been approved. While the MBE is higher in precedence than the MC it was normally awarded for meritorious service and his gallantry at Long Tan should have attracted the Oak Leaves gallantry clasp.
I went to Auckland to visit Morrie via Sydney where I stayed with my daughter Debbie near Mascot, who organised a surprise dinner visit by daughter Sharon and son Brett who came in all the way from Campbelltown and Camden. It was very special to see them altogether.
In New Zealand Morrie’s health deteriorated but although he had more radiation therapy there was no lasting cure and he passed away in September 2010. Bob Buick went over again with wife Bev for the funeral at his own cost, which was a fine gesture from a Digger compatriot and to represent our former company.
In April 2011 I was invited to lead 1 Commando in the Anzac Day Sydney march. In June 2012 I was invited to the 2 Commando annual dinner. On the way home I spoke at the Biennial National Conference of the Vietnamese Community in Australia in Sydney, most of whose members, formerly ARVN officers and soldiers or civilians whose properties were confiscated by the communist regime, had escaped from re-education camps in Vietnam in the clothes they wore. According to UNHCR reports, more than 1 million Vietnamese fled Vietnam to escape communist tyranny after April 1975, and close to 500,000 died unknown at sea or in the jungle on their escape route. Dr Tien Nguyen, ex-ARVN ranger Van Thu Pham and his wife Anh, members of the community, hosted daughter Debbie and myself. They are wonderful and sincere people, happy to be welcomed to Australia, and in the main have worked hard to live comfortably without relying on government pensions. They still admire the Australian commitment to the Vietnam War.
Dr Tien Nguyen, ex-ARVN and me, Sydney 2012. Photo courtesy Deborah Smith.
1 Commando Assn President Barry Grant and me at Anzac Day march Sydney 2011.
In 2007 I gave my medals to my family and they loaned them to the Maryborough Military and Colonial Museum, which had Keith Payne’s VC Group and Bali hero Tim Britten’s Cross of Valour Group, although Keith Payne’s original medals went to the AWM in June 2014, leaving the Museum with his replicas and a UK Victoria Cross. I donated a set of replicas which are in the Long Tan display there; the originals being kept in the safe. I have donated two Long Tan prints by Fletcher and Ian Grieves and loaned my cigar box presented by the Vietnamese Government in 1966. Bob Buick MM, Dave Sabben MG and Ron Eglinton MM have done similar things with their medals and other memorabilia. Bill Roche has loaned his lacquered cigarette box, and Bev Kirby has loaned late husband Jack’s replica medals and various items from his time in Malaya. Bob and I have also donated a brass incense burner and candle sticks that we purloined from the ruins of Long Phuoc village which 6RAR destroyed in July 1966.
The director of the local museum is John Meyers, a former timber businessman, who also served some 20 years in the CMF leaving as a Warrant Officer Class 2. With wife Else, they have a wonderful collection of medals and memorabilia, some 7000 items, and the Gallipoli room display is amazing. The museum is run as a family trust in memory of their two children, one a young girl, the other a young soldier, killed in an accident with a rogue truck near Gympie in 1982. John Meyers’s brain is like a computer hard drive with regard to military history and medals. He has 100 volunteers who help run the museum. A visit is highly recommended.
In 2013 the Hervey Bay RSL invited me to be Honorary Patron of the 2015 Anzac Memorial Park project worth over $700,000 to provide a larger area for the increasing Anzac Day crowds. Humbled and honoured to accept, Felicia and I donated $5000 to the project to set an example so that in my lobbying of local business and the community I was able to seek donations. My Army modus operandi was not to ask anyone to do something that I would not do myself. My wife Felicia’s uncle was killed on the beach at Anzac Cove. To remember him and the 23 soldiers I lost in Vietnam and all the others who sacrificed their lives or health in war we were happy to donate to commemorate them in this local Anzac project and it was completed in time for the 100th commemoration.
The centrepiece costing $400,000 is a 3-m bronze statue of a World War I light horseman jumping over enemy trenches at Beersheba and would be one of the best memorials in Australia. In October 2014 it was finished and mounted on the plinth. It was made at Brendale near Strathpine; the wire and clay model converted to fibreglass moulds which were converted to ceramic into which a thin 6-mm layer of bronze was poured and then all parts were welded together and polished. The dedication ceremony took place on 11 October with Rear Admiral Ken Doolan AO, National President RSL, Presiding.
3-m bronze statue of a World War I light horseman at Anzac Memorial Park Hervey Bay Queensland.
WWI hospital ship Maheno wreckage on Fraser Island, Queensland.
In late 2013 local MP Paul Neville enlisted me as Chairperson of the Hinkler Electorate 2015 Anzac Committee in Bundaberg to adjudicate on the Commonwealth grant of some $140,000 to each electorate. After a number of meetings we submitted our recommendations to DVA (Commem) early 2014 and it was gratifying to see our new MP Keith Pitt present a $50,000 cheque to the RSL to help with the statue which was erected for the anniversary of the fleet sailing from Albany to Egypt on 1 November 1914. All other work, like the granite wall with 1200 pavers with names engraved, including those for Long Tan, Buddy Lea, Bill Roche, Felicia’s uncle and myself, was completed in time for Anzac Day 2015.
Adding my support to this project involved much of my time and continued to the Centenary on 25 April 2015. Then, in June 2015 I was asked to be Patron of the Fraser Coast ‘Heritage War Tracks’ Committee which will link all War Memorials, Museums and RSLs plus the former Z Special Commando camp and WWI hospital ship ‘Maheno’ wreckage on Fraser Island. A week later I was asked to attend a DVA (Commem) conference in Canberra relative to the 2016 50th anniversary of Vietnam Veterans on 22 July, three days before my 82nd birthday. Never get a day off when retired! But with my sailing it keeps my body and mind active and I am happy to contribute. The 2016 Vietnam War Commemoration is to be based around Long Tan Day at the Canberra National Vietnam Memorial and a function in the Great Hall as for the 40th in 2006, but could also include a delegation to Vietnam to accept the invitation of former enemy we fought at Long Tan to meet and cement ties as has been done with the Anzacs and Turks who fought at Gallipoli.
In June 2014 my regular PSA blood test revealed another problem – a very low iron count – a red flag for internal bleeding. After two colonoscopies and an endoscopy clearing the stomach and colon, I had to have a capsule endoscopy (pill camera) to check out the 8 m of small intestine for possible lesions. The result was a perforated small intestine caused by bacteria, most probably from untreated drinking water in Vietnam.
In October 2014 my medals, along with my father’s OBE and World War II medals, were presented to the Australian War Memorial National Collection to be displayed in the Long Tan area of the Vietnam Gallery at the request of Director Dr Brendan Nelson. They will be on display for my former soldiers, my children and their families, the public, and veterans to see. It is a colourful medal group with the Star of Gallantry, the Military Cross, an original National Order of Vietnam 5th Class (Knight), a Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Palm, plus my service medals and three gallantry citations, our UCG, the US PUC and the GRVN CGCP. I am very proud and pleased to see my medals in the AWM. My decorations come from our victory at Long Tan and were earned for me by the gallantry of my officers and soldiers and the units which supported us, especially the Artillery, APCs, A Company 6RAR, B Company 6RAR and RAAF helicopters.
Unlike most of the past 34 years we will not be venturing north on the water this year. However, I am still sailing and now racing with the local Hervey Bay Boat Club Sailing Squadron. With our six-person crew, we were placed second in the 10-race 2014 Winter Series, and also second in the 2014–15 Summer Series. The 11m Sydney 36 yacht is named Mayhem and it sure is mayhem when setting or recovering the spinnaker goes wrong. It is a battle to get good foredeck crew. But while second last in the first race, we won the second race and took second place overall in the nine races. We are looking at racing offshore Mooloolaba in the SCOR Series in August and perhaps the Brisbane to Gladstone race in 2016.
Sydney 36 Yacht Mayhem.
EPILOGUE
At 82 years of age in July 2015 I can look back on my life and say it has been very diverse, adventurous and, overall, wonderful, despite the misgivings I have about my personal family life; the sadness at losing so many soldiers in Vietnam and my second wife to cancer; the battles with the bureaucracy and the Generals Club and, in more recent years, all those jealous detractors who have tried hard to ‘cut down the tall poppies’ and have really only put themselves down in the eyes of the veteran community, but still remain a nuisance to us. It remains an ongoing battle with these people.
I have battled injury from parachuting and then prostate cancer, and at times very rough seas and many skin cancers, with excision number 23 last month. But I still enjoy yachting life on the water, which has been my largest single sporting interest since childhood. I am battling a recurrence of prostate cancer and internal bleeding in the 8 m of perforated small intestine which has been diagnosed by a capsule endoscopy (pill cam). What an amazing device this is, complete with flashlight, camera, transmitter and battery, taking some 60,000 images in the nine hours it took to travel though the intestine. The specialist told me it was developed in Israel to check the innards of suspected spies who may have swallowed secrets on notepaper.
My bleeding problem was diagnosed from the video of the many images as pinhole bleeds which medication should have healed, and along with iron tablets should restore my former fitness and improve my outlook on life. So life on the water can continue. It is interesting that it appears I have had the bacterial infection for 48 years, and it is common in World War II New Guinea and Vietnam Veterans, and can live for 65 years. Drinking untreated water in Vietnam which may have been contaminated by sewage from a local village upstream is quoted as the probable cause. I recall we mostly used purification tablets, but where the water was free-running and clear in creeks I usually drank that. I gather Veterans’ Affairs newsletters have mentioned this matter in past years although I admit I was unaware of the problem.
Since 1978 when I set sail from Sydney for a once-only trip to ‘the reef’, I continued to sail or cruise for most of the next 35 years, mainly along the north Queensland coast to Thursday Island and down into the Gulf, logging 150,000 nautical miles at sea, which is about the same as six times around the earth on the 25,000-mile Equator. We have met some wonderful sincere people on other boats, many who remain close friends, explored most of the coast and reef up to Cape York and into the Gulf, walked most of the beaches between Cooktown and the Cape, seen lots of crocodiles and feral pigs, found hundreds of glass floats, caught heaps of fish and eaten lots of oysters.
I apologise to the relatives of former commanders in Vietnam in 1966–67 for my criticism of those in power at the time who were unable to ensure the fighting soldiers were given all the available intelligence about the enemy, and who were unable to make appropriate decisions and who thus caused the unnecessary loss of life at Long Tan. Their excuses about withholding the intelligence to preserve the secrecy of the sources do not hold water with me. Those in combat should have been given all the available information and provided with all the support they required. Then to downgrade gallantry awards for officers and soldiers who fought in close combat and defeated the enemy while accepting high awards themselves on questionable citations simply adds insult to injury.
