Tour company shocked that logo used to desecrate Long Tan Memorial Cross

VETERANS of the Battle of Long Tan in Vietnam 49 years ago and visitors to the Memorial Cross were disgusted by a corporate sign stuck to the memorial.

The Long Tan memorial cross in Vietnam, showing an advertising sign attached. Picture: Ron Bowes

EXCLUSIVE

Veterans of the Battle of Long Tan in Vietnam 49 years ago and visitors to a Memorial Cross at the battle site have been left shocked and disgusted by a corporate sign stuck to the memorial.

Ron and Irena Bowes from Adelaide were on a private battlefield tour on October 11 when their local guide and driver took them to the Long Tan Cross Memorial that is located on private property. Visitors to the site require a permit.

Tour group leaves their mark ... An earlier APT sponsored wreath at the Long Tan Memorial Cross. Picture: Supplied.

Mr Bowes said he was horrified when he saw a sign advertising the tour company APT (Australian Pacific Touring) desecrating the cross.

“It was atrocious and attached with the words Lest We Forget as well,” Mr Bowes said.

“I tried to remove it but I couldn’t because it was well stuck with double sided tape. Our Vietnamese driver became extremely upset and literally tore the sign off the cross,” he said.

Mrs Bowes said she was quite emotional when she saw the APT sign.

She knew the first young man from South Australia who was killed in the war and was keen to pay her respects.

“I was bit teary actually,” Mrs Bowes said.

Ultimate sacrifice ... The piper's lament for the dead of Long Tan at the laying of a concrete cross memorial on 18 Aug. 1969. Picture: AAP, courtesy Australian War Memorial 1987

Mr Bowes said he had contacted both APT and the RSL to express his disappointment about the sign but neither organisation had responded to his emails.

When contacted by News Corp Australia, APT said it was shocked and saddened to learn of the desecration.

APT takes about 800 visitors a year to Long Tan and lists the Memorial on the highlights page of its website.

The company said neither its guide or guests were responsible for defacing The Monument.

Managing director Chris Hall said it was the first time ever someone had defaced a special memorial using its logo from an APT-sponsored wreath.

A place to remember ... Long Tan veterans Dave Sabben and Bob Buick at the Long Tan Cross Memorial. Picture: Supplied.

“To say we are shocked is an understatement. This is vandalism, plain and simple, and has nothing to do with APT or the respectful group of travellers we hosted at Long Tan that day. It is disrespectful and unacceptable,” he said.

“APT will remove its logo from wreaths left at the site in the future.”

The memorial stands where 18 Australian soldiers and hundreds of Vietnamese troops fell during a ferocious four-hour firefight near the task-force base at Nui Dat on August 18, 1966.

The battle involved 108 diggers from Delta Company of the 6th Battalion supported by Alpha Company, RAAF Iroquois helicopters and Australian and New Zealand artillery and armoured vehicles from 3 Troop 1 APC Squadron.

Hard battle ... Delta Company CSM Jack Kirby and Major Harry Smith with a captured enemy machine gun following the Battle of Long Tan. Picture: Supplied

After seeing the photograph the commanding officer of Delta Company Harry Smith said he was appalled by the desecration of a memorial to his men and 503 other Australians killed in Vietnam.

“It leaves me very cold that someone would desecrate a memorial erected to commemorate all the men we lost,” he said.

“It is a despicable act by whoever did it.”

RSL National President Rear Admiral Ken Doolan said veterans would be appalled by the vandalism.

“Regardless that this desecration of a war memorial has occurred in another country, members of the RSL are appalled at the lack of respect for our fallen by the person or persons who besmirched this homage to brave Australians who fell in battle,” he said.

Paying their respects ... A modern day tour group at the Long Tan Memorial Cross. Picture: Supplied.

Chairman of the committee that raised the funds to build the memorial Vietnam Veteran Kel Ryan said the sign controversy reminded him of the Sunrise TV program ‘fake’ Dawn Service debacle in 2007.

“It is only one of two foreign memorials in the entire country and this shows complete disrespect for a very special place,” he said.

A cross was first erected at the site by D Company to commemorate the battle and the sacrifice on August 18, 1969.

The original concrete cross is displayed in a museum at Bien Hoa and the replica was erected on a permanent memorial and improved access works funded mostly by veterans that was unveiled by the Long Dat People’s Committee in April 2002.

Remembering those lost ... Former Governor-general Quentin Bryce and retired Lt. Colonel Harry Smith SG, former commanding officer of "D" Company, 6RAR, at the unveiling of the Long Tan Cross at the Australia War Memorial in Canberra. Picture: Supplied.