Veteran’s call for Diggers to check on their mates this Anzac Day
Vietnam veteran Neville Cullen wants Diggers to find creative ways to connect this Anzac Day, following the cancellation of services due to COVID-19.
Moreton
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Vietnam veteran and Redcliffe RSL president Neville Cullen wants Diggers to find creative ways to connect this Anzac Day, following the cancellation of the dawn and midmorning services due to COVID-19.
Mr Cullen said while a radio broadcast of the dawn service on community station 99.7fm at 5.15am and pausing for a minute’s silence on your driveway at 6am were ways residents could still commemorate Anzac Day, these initiatives sadly would not replace an important reunion that also usually took place on the day.
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Diggers will not be able to see their mates, but Mr Cullen said they should still make an effort to connect by picking up the phone and ensuring no one feels alone.
“I think it’s vitally important that we still keep an eye on our younger vets because they’re going through hell at the moment,” he said.
The radio dawn service will feature poetry from Rupert McCall, hymns by David Taylor, prayers from the Salvation Army, an address from Mr Cullen and will be hosted by vice-president Cheryl Barrett.
It will be prerecorded to ensure those taking part are not at risk of contracting COVID-19.
“Cheryl may be the only person in the studio,” Mr Cullen said.
This year’s service was to focus on nurses and medics in times of war, so the Herald asked Mr Cullen to share his service as a medic during the Vietnam War.
He joined the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps in 1964, aged 17¾, after his grandmother gave her consent.
His grandfather Edward Denis Neven was a Light Horseman in WWI, his mother served in the women’s air force in WWII and his father was a trooper in Papua New Guinea during WWII.
Mr Cullen felt drawn to serve his country and did two tours of Vietnam – the first from 1966-67 as a medic with the First Armoured Personnel Carriers Squadron (1APC) and then with 2 Field Ambulance, and the second from 1971-72 as a Sergeant with 8 Field Ambulance.
He was in charge of the medics used as dust-off medics.
“These are the medics that go out in the helicopter and pick up the wounded from the field and bring them back. It was pretty dangerous because we used to have to go in where they were fighting and do ‘hot extractions’ while they were still under fire,” Mr Cullen explains.
“We virtually became the doctor and that’s what they called you, Doc.”
His service in Vietnam had a lasting impact and shaped the man he has become.
“One thing I wanted to do was to become a registered nurse. I didn’t have the educational background to go on to become a doctor or something like that.”
And so, when Mr Cullen returned home he became a hospital orderly, studying for the nursing entrance exam at night school.
He became a charge nurse at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Sydney and quickly rose through the ranks to deputy director of nursing at Mt Druitt Hospital, before accepting a job as director of nursing at an Ipswich private hospital.
Before his retirement in 1987, he was a principal policy officer with Queensland Health.
He visited Redcliffe for the first time when he was on leave from exercise with the Army. He remembers travelling on the old Hornibrook Bridge and thinking how beautiful the Peninsula was.
When he was working at Ipswich, he and a friend opened a restaurant at Margate and so he moved to the Peninsula in 1982, joining Redcliffe RSL soon after.
It was his first contact with the RSL and he’s now Redcliffe’s longest-serving president, clocking up more than 14 years in the role.
“At that time, it was after the big march in Canberra for the Vietnam Veterans, I could see the RSL was changing because we weren’t welcomed by the RSL when we first got back,” Mr Cullen said.
He is glad he decided to connect with Redcliffe RSL all those years ago and grateful for the 20 years he’s been on the board of directors.
“I’ve loved the job thoroughly and I wouldn’t change it for the world,” Mr Cullen said.
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