On Friday morning, which was August 3rd I drove down to a small city called Sale. Sale is on the South Coast of Victoria and is a sea port. It was also home to an Australian Royal Australian Air Force base during the Second World War. My uncle was a gunnery instructor there. I believe it is still a RAAF base and is soon to include an officer training school. It's a three hour drive for me and I went by the Melbourne Airport, Tullamarine, to pay for a hire car that my friend Garry Cooper is to use when he arrives next week. I was supposed to arrive there in time for a meeting at 12:30 pm but I didn't arrive until 1:00 pm.
The meeting was for sub-branch presidents of the Victorian Vietnam Veterans Association of Australia. We are trying to arrive at plan for the future of the organization. It's difficult to get a bunch of veterans to agree about anything. They're like economists, if you have ten together you will have ten different opinions. The organization has been around for 25 years and was formed so veterans could mutually support each other. The Australian returned and Services League couldn't do anything for us after the divisive Vietnam War ended in 1975. In fact they were hopeless and more a part of the problem than the solution.
I stayed overnight in Sale and attended the Victorians Vietnam Veterans State Congress. I found Sale to be a very clean and tidy and a friendly country town. The Council meeting ended about 3:00 pm and I departed for the long drive home. The weather was overcast but not raining. The road is reasonably good and I had a good run and was home by 6:45 pm. On my way home I thought to myself that we have not learnt much in 4 000 years as we are still having wars across the world. There must be money in war otherwise we wouldn't do it.
Tomorrow I will be selling badges to raise money for the welfare of Vietnam veterans. The Australian public get behind us and we use the money to help veterans in need. The picture at the top of this post is this year's Long Tan Cross badge. We get a donation of five dollars each for them. The Australian Government looks after us well but the little extra helps us to do a better job.
The meeting was for sub-branch presidents of the Victorian Vietnam Veterans Association of Australia. We are trying to arrive at plan for the future of the organization. It's difficult to get a bunch of veterans to agree about anything. They're like economists, if you have ten together you will have ten different opinions. The organization has been around for 25 years and was formed so veterans could mutually support each other. The Australian returned and Services League couldn't do anything for us after the divisive Vietnam War ended in 1975. In fact they were hopeless and more a part of the problem than the solution.
I stayed overnight in Sale and attended the Victorians Vietnam Veterans State Congress. I found Sale to be a very clean and tidy and a friendly country town. The Council meeting ended about 3:00 pm and I departed for the long drive home. The weather was overcast but not raining. The road is reasonably good and I had a good run and was home by 6:45 pm. On my way home I thought to myself that we have not learnt much in 4 000 years as we are still having wars across the world. There must be money in war otherwise we wouldn't do it.
Tomorrow I will be selling badges to raise money for the welfare of Vietnam veterans. The Australian public get behind us and we use the money to help veterans in need. The picture at the top of this post is this year's Long Tan Cross badge. We get a donation of five dollars each for them. The Australian Government looks after us well but the little extra helps us to do a better job.
No comments:
Post a Comment