Mr Adamowicz’s family mourns. (From left) nephew Paul Froiland, brother-in-law John Froiland, sister Halena Froiland, and mother Nadia.
By Shaun Inguanzo
DANDENONG’S Peter Adamowicz was born in Ukraine but laid his life on the line for Australia with distinction in the Vietnam War.
The Dandenong RSL Club member will be missed by his family and friends after he died on Sunday, 4 June, just one month before his 64th birthday.
But funeral celebrant Ken Woodburn told the crowd of friends, family and fellow war veterans that Mr Adamowicz would “wish that we not cry because he has gone, but smile because he was here”.
Mr Woodburn said Mr Adamowicz arrived in Australia aged six after spending time in a German refugee camp, and lived in Garfield North where his family turned a bush block into a successful dairy farm.
Mr Adamowicz served in the Australian Army for almost 30 years between 1968 and 1997, during which he completed several tours of duty in Vietnam.
Fellow veteran and close friend John Wells told the crowd “for whatever reason, Peter didn’t want to return to Australia on completion of his initial tour of duty in 1969, and it was only after some strenuous pleading and efforts by Nadia, myself and others that he eventually came back mid-1972”.
In his own time, Mr Adamowicz enjoyed having a beer and spending time with friends at the RSL.
He remained passionate about his commitment to Australia’s armed forces and Mr Woodburn told the crowd he “had a great distaste for those who tended to run the country down and who spoke in a derogatory manner” of the military. It was only a battle with cancer, diagnosed in May this year, that could stop Mr Adamowicz.
But he is immortalised in his wartime efforts, having earned the Vietnam Medal, the Defence Force Medal with 1st and 2nd Class Clasps, the Vietnam Campaign Medal, the Infantry Combat Badge and the Returned from Active Service Badge.
