Darwin digger nominated for Pride of Australia medal after successfully lobbying to bring home bodies of 25 Australian Vietnam veterans

A DARWIN digger who successfully lobbied to bring home the bodies of 25 Australian Vietnam veterans has been nominated for a Pride of Australia Medal.

POA - Bob Shewring

A DARWIN Digger who successfully lobbied the Federal Government to bring home the bodies of 25 Aussie Vietnam veterans buried overseas after they were killed in the line of duty about 50 years ago has been nominated for a Pride of Australia Medal.

Northern Territory Veterans Association vice president Bob Shewring, 69, founded operation Bring Them Home in 2011.

Mr Shewring spent years researching war history and relevant legislation and garnered more than 40,000 signatures on a web petition to lobby state and federal governments before the landmark decision was made.

He led the campaign to victory with the government announcing in May it would repatriate the bodies from cemeteries in Malaysia and Singapore to Australia next year.

“It was all with the help of a small team,” Mr Shewring said.

The bodies, including that of Mr Shewring’s mate and the only Territorian killed in the Vietnam War Reg Hillier, are expected to be repatriated to Australia mid-2016 with the approval of their next of kin.

“Of the 60,000 Vietnam veterans community, the general public was mostly unaware that 25 of the 521 Australians killed in the Vietnam War hadn’t made it home,” Mr Shewring said.

“I think bringing them home will give all the families closure and they can go and sit beside a grave that they were never allowed to or couldn’t afford to before.

“It rights a terrible wrong in the Vietnam War.”

Mr Shewring said the dead will receive full military honours at “one of the biggest ramp ceremonies in Australia’s history” once returned home.

He said he expected his mate Mr Hillier, who was killed in battle, will finally be laid to rest at the Adelaide River War Cemetery.

“He worked in Adelaide River prior to going to Vietnam and had a great association with it,” he said.

“It will take red tape to do as it’s a recognised war grave but we believe it’s not insurmountable.

“Irrespective of rank all war debt is treated with the same respect.”

Mr Shewring said Mr Hillier would be proud if he knew how long and hard he had fought for him and other veterans to bring them home.

“Being an ex-stockman like Reg was he’d probably say ‘bloody good job’ or ‘about bloody time’,” Mr Shewring said.

“He was a character as a lot of us Territorians are.”

Mr Shewring has been nominated for a Pride of Australia Medal in the Community Spirit category for his work with the Bring Them Home operation.

“I am extremely humbled,” he said.

“I’m just overwhelmed that people had the faith we could actually pull this off because a lot of families tried (before the operation) to no avail.

“But being recognised was never a requirement … just getting them home is reward enough.”