By Mikayla Van Loon
Gathering for a small service on Vietnam Veterans Day, Mount Evelyn RSL members paid tribute to all 60,000 men who served and to one of their own, Roger Boness.
On Friday 18 August, the sound of bagpipes rang through the town marking the occasion at 11am.
Taking the opportunity to remember and honour Mr Boness, former RSL president, vice president John Sumner told a snippet of his service.
“Roger was in control of many fire support operations with his mates of 106 Field Battery. He was known to be a very brave soldier,” he said.
“He believed in the veteran motto, which is mateship, sacrifice and pride through his later years.”
Veteran Ken McKenzie recited the Ode, Tom Steele played the bugle and Mr Sumner laid a wreath at the foot of the cenotaph.
50 years on from the end of Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War, those who served are still only now being recognised for it.
Mr Sumner and Mr McKenzie in mid-August each received the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, some 55 years after serving in the war.
Even after the fierce battle at Long Tan, Mr Sumner said the Australian government wouldn’t allow its soldiers to accept medals which saw the South Vietnamese government hand out other items like cigar boxes to honour their gallantry at the time.
Mr Sumner, at just 19 years old, volunteered to serve his country, becoming part of the artillery unit 176 Air Dispatch.
“We used to lift the guns from one fire support base to the other. Our job was very harrowing as well because I fought at the Battle of Coral Balmoral,” he said.
It was only in 2018 that Mr Sumner was recognised with a Citation for Gallantry for the Battle of Coral Balmoral which occurred in May and June 1968.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who attended an event in Ipswich on Friday, said Australians respected the valour, integrity and character of those who served in Vietnam.
“Let us say to every one of our Vietnam veterans, today and every day, we honour you, we thank you and we are sorry that as a nation it took so long for us as a nation to do so.“
He said the nation had matured enough to embrace the truth that “we can disagree with a war without diminishing the respect we feel for every man and woman who puts on our uniform and serves in our name“.
For the estimated 35,000 Vietnam veterans still living, 50 years later they feel as though they have the respect they deserve for taking up arms and putting on a uniform.
Veteran Russell Kennedy travelled from Melbourne to mark the occasion at the Australian Vietnam Forces National Memorial in Canberra.
“Today is closure,“ he said.
“We weren’t accepted when we came home.“
