The Aftermath Part 2

       
Charlie Company Huey The Goon Platoon Banner, displaying the RAR Corps Badge, Infantry Combat Badge, Medal Bar, US Presidential Citation & the Rat emblem of the Goon Platoon
1972 - The Aftermath, Australia
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1972 saw me living in a caravan with Mick and Chris Wrigley. I was drinking all day, then getting stuck into the grog with Mick when he got home from work and keeping him up all night. After a month or so of this Christine had enough ... Mick was struggling with the lack of sleep and the amount of grog. I shifted out to live in another caravan at the Swanston's house in Hughes. This was where my ex-girlfriend (Mick's sister) used to live. I started going out with Mrs Swanston's daughter Trish.

After a couple of months drinking myself into oblivion, I figured that maybe I should do something. We had been approached in Sydney to fight with Mad Mike Hoare's Mercenaries in South Africa and a couple of blokes had headed off there ... some blokes were going on a cruise, some blokes travelling around Australia ... but most had just headed back to their former jobs. So one Monday I headed off to the bank ... when I had left Australia I was working for the ES&A bank, but it had been taken over by the ANZ bank. I fronted up wearing the last civilian clothes that I could find ... skin tight black trousers, elastic sided riding boots with 6 inch cuban heels and Santa Fe stitching, a pink shirt and a thin knitted black tie ... the tellers looked at me as if I had just walked out of a 60's musuem.

"Gooday. The boss in?" I drawled ... I was soon to learn that you don't just talk to the Manager in the ANZ bank. I was shown into the Accountant's office instead. Under the National Service Act my employer had to keep my job for me ... but with the change over from the ES&A, they had no idea who I was. After some checking with their Head Office, they finally found out that they owed me a job.

And so I settled back into civvie street ... No one wanted to know about Vietnam, so I shut up and tried to forget about it ... but the dreams kept coming. I felt lost, floundering around. I got engaged to Trish Swanston. Towards the end of '72 we went up to Garden Island again ... this time to meet her brother (Bob) who was returning on the HMAS Sydney from Vietnam. Bob was also in 3 RAR and transferred to 4 RAR when we left. Driving back to Canberra that afternoon I had my last visit from my Mum. Mum had visited me in Vietnam, and she must have sensed my troubles again. It was a very hot summer's day and I was telling Trish how Mum had visited me in Vietnam ... suddenly it became freezing cold and we had to wind the windows up and turn the heater on. Ten minutes later it was boiling hot again. I can't explain it in any other way ... my Mum had died when I was ten.

Bob & Trish's Wedding In December '72 I married Trish.
Also in December '72 the Whitlam Labour Government was elected ... this was the party that had fought so hard against the Vietnam Vets ... it felt like the ultimate betrayal.

But worse was coming ...


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Disclaimer:This site has no official links with the Army, Department of Defence, The Royal Australian Regiment or 3 RAR. The site is purely a personal page of recollections & photos of our great adventure and the blokes that shared that adventure. Any errors or omissions are accidental and regretted. Please email the Author and they will be corrected.