A HMAS Bataan Veterans Association event in Noble Park raised more than $2000 to help kids with cancer.
National secretary John Laughton said more than 90 people attended the luncheon at Noble Park RSL on Friday 13 May and that donations to charity Challenge were still pouring in.
Former Fitzroy Football Club president and Olympian Leon Wiegard and comedian Oscar Swarv were the day’s guest speakers.
Among the guests were the most senior naval officer in Victoria HMAS Cerberus Commanding Officer Captain Stephen Bowater, Challenge CEO David Rogers, HMAS Bataan Veterans Association national vice-president and Victorian president George Daniel, and Noble Park RSL president John Meehan.
HMAS Bataan was a tribal-class destroyer that, alongside HMAS Warramunga, took part in one of the most dangerous naval operations of the Korean War.
In December 1950 the ships sailed through heavy seas and snow storms into the Taedong River to rescue wounded UN troops and Korean refugees from Pyongyang, under siege from Chinese forces.
The ships avoided mine fields and destroyed enemy positions during the successful seven-hour action.
