Time helps to heal Vietnam vets

A GROUP of Vietnam veterans yesterday chose to focus on the good times rather than the bloodshed.

TAS_MER_NEWS_VETS_18AUG14.

WHEN a group of Vietnam veterans got together after a service at the Hobart cenotaph yesterday they focused on the good times rather than the bloodshed.

“We joked and laughed about the good times, not the bad times, I’ve had enough of those over the years,” said Bob Ramsay, who served 12 months in Vietnam in 1970-71 when he was 20.

Mr Ramsay, 64, of Acton Park, and several of his fellow conscripts shared a few beers at the Lindisfarne RSL after the service to mark Vietnam
Veterans Day.

Events were held around Tasmania to honour the Australians and New Zealanders who served in the war,
including the men of D Company, 6RAR who fought in the battle of Long Tan on August 18, 1966.

Eighteen Australians were killed in the battle and 24 wounded.

Up to 1800 Tasmanians served in Vietnam and 17 were killed.

Mr Ramsay said it had taken him many years to come to terms with the carnage he saw as
an artillery forward
observer.

“It was a horrible place to be in and I’ve got horrible memories,” he said. “We were over there for 12 months, there was far too much pressure for far too long.”

When he returned, Mr Ramsay resumed his old work life and settled down but never forgot the war.

“I met a girl and got married and got back into where I was working and I wasn’t happy, my word I wasn’t,” he said.

He said it took years of hard work on a
personal level to recover.

“It was a big, big thing to get over it, but I have.”