Barry Yovkoff is proud to call himself a Vietnam Veteran 84969 Picture: MATHEW LYNN
By XAVIER SMERDON
WYNDHAM’S Vietnam veterans will gather this month to remember the sacrifices they and their comrades made 50 years ago.
Barry Yovkoff was 19-year-old when he was sent to Vietnam in May 1966.
Part of a line of proud military history, Mr Yovkoff served with the 1st Field Regiment of the Royal Regiment of Australian Artillery.
In the early hours of 17 August 1966 Mr Yovkoff’s base in Nui Dat was hit by more than 100 rounds of Viet Cong mortars.
“You could hear the rounds getting fired, but you could hear that all the time,” Mr Yovkoff told Star.
“All of a sudden the mortars landed right in front of us.”
More than 300 people were killed in the battle that ensued in what became known as the Battle of Long Tan.
“We lost 18 odd guys and we kept firing through the rain and the smoke,” Mr Yovkoff said.
“But when the stories come out the Australian Artillery doesn’t get mentioned much at all.
“We got no recognition that we were even there really.”
Mr Yovkoff stayed in the army and the army reserves for another 35 years and his son and daughter have since joined the army and have served in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, East Timor and the Solomon Islands.
But it took 20 years before the Australian people and government recognised the sacrifices people like Mr Yovkoff had made.
“There was abuse at different times. The army unit that I was in in Adelaide was put into lockdown because of the protests.
“It just made us all mad.”
On Saturday 18 August members of the Vietnam Veteran Association of Australia’s Melbourne West Sub-branch will hold a dawn service at the Werribee cenotaph, starting at 7am.
