By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
KEVIN Stayner’s first reaction to being conscripted to the Vietnam War could best be described as bemusement: “What’s all this about?”
The carpentry apprentice’s reaction turned to deeper shock in his first humid days as a soldier in Vietnam’s Phuoc Thuy province in March 1971.
In a supposedly safe training zone, Mr Stayner’s Delta Company was ambushed by North Vietnamese troops on their third night.
Fighting ensued for seven hours. Mr Stayner said his knees “wouldn’t stop rattling”.
“The fact the ambush happened shows no one had a clue. In our induction, we were told what the country was like and what to expect but you don’t know what it’s like to go into a war zone ’til you get there.”
This Anzac Day, 42 years later, there will be a national reunion of 60 members of Delta Company — also known as The Delta Devils — in Melbourne.
They will march at Melbourne’s Anzac Day parade carrying two Australian flags in memory of their fallen brethren, and a banner of their devil mascot ‘Hot Shot’.
The company can expect appreciative crowds, in contrast to when it returned to Australia in October 1971.
Vietnam veterans were shunned by many, including some RSLs.
Ex-service personnel from older wars would say Vietnam wasn’t a real war because the soldiers were ferried in and out by helicopters, Mr Stayner said.
The Endeavour Hills veteran said the close-knit company was traumatised by the initial hostilities in Vietnam. Regardless, it patrolled Phuoc Thuy for seven months putting up with mud, leeches, ticks, dysentery, bamboo wound infections, mosquito infections, trench foot and American ration packs.
“We were wet almost constantly due to monsoonal rains and sweat. Our uniforms rotted.” However, the enemy didn’t fare much better, he said.
“I didn’t realise I had post-traumatic stress disorder myself at first. If I have one regret, I just wish the government of the day offered more help.”
The company is part of the 3rd Battalion Royal Australian Regiment (3RAR) lineage.
It will hold a service at Dandenong RSL on Wednesday at 11am, commemorating a previous incarnation of 3RAR’s efforts in the Battle of Kapyong during the Korean War.
The four-day reunion would be a chance to “tell a few lies” and drink a few beers, Mr Stayner said.
Anzac Day services Dandenong
ON Anzac Day, a dawn service will be held at the Pillars of Freedom memorial in Clow Street, Dandenong, from 5.30.
■ South Vietnamese ex-service personnel from throughout Australia will hold a service at the Dandenong RSL’s memorial from 9am.
■ A veterans march from the RSL at 10.30am for a service at 11am.
■ A free return bus service will take Greater Dandenong residents to the Anzac Day dawn service at the Shrine of Remembrance. Bookings close today (Monday). Call Ventura Charter on 9575 4823 between 9am-4pm.
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