Canungra RSL Sub Branch invites all Veterans, Veterans’ families and supporters to attend a service in D J Smith Memorial Park from 11am on Friday 18 August.
The 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War will be commemorated throughout Australia on this date – Vietnam Veterans Day – the day in 1966 that Australian soldiers fought one of their fiercest battles of the war in a rubber plantation near the village of Long Tan.
Vietnam Veterans’ Day has become a day to say ‘thank you’ to the 60,000 Australians who served in the war, of whom more than 3000 were wounded and 523 tragically lost their lives.
The Vietnam War from 1962 to 1975 was one of the longest conflicts in the 20th century. Australia’s initial commitment of 30 military advisers in 1962 grew to include a battalion in 1965 and a task force in 1966. The last combat troops came home in March 1972, about three years before the war ended.
Of the more than 15,000 National Servicemen who went to Vietnam between 1965 and 1972, some 200 were killed and more than 1200 wounded.
Like their Regular Army colleagues, some of the returning National Servicemen brought psychological scars with them.
There is an enduring connection between Canungra and the men who served in Vietnam, as the Jungle Warfare Training Centre Canungra was where the majority of them trained.
The extremely intense daily training routine – before dawn and after dark every day – was aimed at preparing troops and familiarising them with the conditions they would encounter in Vietnam.
