Dennis Clarke to take part in Doncaster RSL service on 50th anniversary of Long Tan

IT HAS been almost 50 years, but the memories of serving in Vietnam have never left Dennis Clarke.

THE simple sound of a helicopter can take Dennis Clarke back, the whirring blades setting his mind racing into the past, across oceans and continents, to a conflict he has spent decades trying to forget.

“If a helicopter passes overhead it might make me think about it. Choppers just always remind us of Vietnam because there were so many of them around,” he told Leader this week.

He was only 21 when his number came up, his life in 1960s suburban Melbourne turned upside down when a Warrant Officer knocked on his door and told him to pack his bags.

“I didn’t fight it because I figured if I didn’t go someone else would have to, and it was my number that came up,” he said.

Just seven months in though, Clarke got polio and had to come home.

“I was told I was going to die but the work of the nurses was unbelievable.”

The transition back to normal life wasn’t easy, however.

“It was a bit challenging I tried to go back to my old job but it wasn’t quite the same. I ended up employed by an ex-army officer,” Clarke said.

The lingering effects of his short stint in Vietnam remain, the ongoing battle with post-traumatic stress disorder never quite won.

But for as much he wants to forget, Clarke, now 69, also wants to talk.

The Doncaster RSL vice-president will take part in the organisation’s service to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Long Tan on August 14.

The service, like all he takes part in, will be an emotional experience as he thinks about mates who came back from Vietnam as broken men, struggling to adjust back to normal life and those who didn’t come back at all.

“It’ll be slightly emotional, yes. I always lay a wreath,” he said. “We have to think about those who were less fortunate than us.”

Clarke went over as a mechanic but it wasn’t long before he had a rifle in his hands.

“We weren’t a combatant corps but we had to make up numbers. Whether you like it or not you end up fighting sooner or later,” he said.

“I don’t think I ever suffered from real chronic nerves. Hyped was the best way to describe that time.”

On one occasion though the tension did give way to downright fear.

“We were on guard duty watching a firefight and all of a sudden there were rounds exploding over the top of us,” Clarke said.

“When you hear that zing, zing, you head straight down into the bunker but we could still hear them through that.”

These days the traumatic memories motivate Clarke to reach out to a new generation of service personnel.

“We interact with them. I gave a talk at Victoria Barracks a couple of months ago,” he said.

“I can see it in their faces. They often can’t tell me that they’re suffering but I know.”

Clarke said he didn’t like to advise returned service men and women but he wanted them to know help was available.

“I still take medication at night time and the sooner you do that the better your sleeping habits will be,” he said.

And he does urge them to talk.

“War is cruel and what people do in war is cruel,” Clarke said.

■ The Battle of Long Tan (August 18, 1966) took place in a rubber plantation near Long Tan, in South Vietnam when the Viet Cong tried to encircle the Australians.

Eighteen Australians were killed and 24 wounded, while the Viet Cong lost at least 245.