About 100 Vietnam and other Veterans and their families gathered at Port Macquarie’s War Memorial on Town Green last Thursday for a commemorative service.
The service marked the 45th Anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan fought between the Australian Army and Viet Cong forces in South Vietnam.
Eighteen Australian soldiers were killed in the battle.
The fallen from this and other battles during the Vietnam War were honoured with a wreath laying ceremony followed by an address by US Medal of Valour recipient Bayne Kelly.
Vietnam Veterans or Long Tan Day as it is known by Vietnam Veterans commemorates Australia’s ten year involvement in the Vietnam War from 1962 to 1972 and the longest major conflict in which Australians have been involved. Some 60,000 Australians were involved in the conflict which cost more than 500 Australian servicemen their lives, some 3000 were wounded, injured or victims of illness and many Veterans and their families suffer the consequences and after effects of their war service today.
The Vietnam War and its associated conscription was also the cause of the greatest social and political unrest in our modern history.
