Barry Chamberlain did not choose a life of military service.

Like more than 15,000 other Australians, he was conscripted to the Army.

He had not long turned 21, and Vietnam was his destination.

And while his experience was littered with risk and death, and resulted in long-lasting medical complications he’s still grappling with today, it did trigger a commitment to the RSL Sub-branch and helping others with similar experiences.

Barry became a member of the RSL immediately on his return to his hometown of Deniliquin in 1971, and he later became a member of the Sub-branch.

His involvement grew once he and wife Lyn sold the family business, Deniliquin Steam Laundry, in 2000.

“I joined (the Sub-branch) in 2001, and I was voted on to the committee.

“I’ve been there ever since in various roles - pensions officer, vice president, president and trustee.

“I've had a lot of pleasure out of being on the Sub-branch, but especially doing (pensions) claims.”

Mr Chamberlain said quite a lot of veterans, especially World War II veterans, missed out on their pensions because of the claims process, as did many widows.

But he championed their rights, and found some success.

“Some of those original claims went in back in the 1970s, and nothing was done about them.

“I would get a lot of pleasure getting those up (and approved).

“I also spent 25 years as a legatee for Legacy.”

Barry’s own war service was launched in 1969, 12 months after he received his conscription notice.

He was able to defer deployment for a year because he was an economics student at the Australian National University in Canberra.

But before he had a chance to finish his degree - which he completed after the war - his time came.

“To be honest, I didn't mind being called up,” Barry said.

“I think most conscripts thought that way. They thought they were just doing the right thing.

“It's just what was expected of them, and did it willingly.

“On call up, you had 10 weeks recruitment training and then another 10 weeks of infantry training.

“I did recruitment at Kapooka and then infantry at Singleton.

“Then you went to the Ingleburn Infantry Center for further training and any specialist training. I did a mortar course.

“The last one was three weeks of jungle training.”

Barry flew into Saigon, on a commercial flight out of Sydney, on November 16, 1969 and was stationed at Nui Dat.

Part of what they called the reinforcement wing, he was assigned to the 5th Batallion for the first four months of his service.

When the 5th was sent back to Australia, he was transferred to the 8th Battalion.

He remained with them until the end of his tour, sent home one week short of spending a full year in Vietnam.

With the 5th, Barry arrived just as their intelligence officer’s tour was coming to an end.

He was appointed to replace him, and in charge of creating topographical maps.

But it turned out it would also lead to his first experience with death during his tour.

“He was to go home, so they pulled him out and put me in.

“They sent him back to Nui Dat to do his paperwork and return all his gear, but he had to wait another week before going home.

“They had him just raking up leaves around the lines - the leaves and the rubbish get very thick at certain times of year - but he raked up a hand grenade.

“The tine must have gone through the pin and he pulled it, and he was killed just waiting to go home.”

Unfortunately, more death followed.

“I lost some good mates over there,” Barry lamented.

“One bloke, I was talking to him in the morning .... he swung past intelligence to pick up some maps.

“He was a mate from Canberra. We knew each other before we went over - he was a Canberra boy, and I had been studying in Canberra and we went the 5RAR and 8RAR together.

“I saw him about 10 o'clock in the morning, then by mid-afternoon, I heard he was dead.

“The team walked into a minefield. We lost seven soldiers, and Phil was one of them.

“Another two engineers were killed, and 22 another were injured.

“That was at Long Hai, on January 28, 1970.”

Barry also had a near-death experience of his own, but not as a result of combat or at the hands of the ‘enemy’.

“I was at the fire base and one night I woke to a tiger at my feet,” he said.

“Just prior to that, a corporal come over and took my rifles.

“He said ‘can I borrow your rifle? I’ve only got a pistol’. I said ‘what do you want for?’ and he told me there had been reports of a tiger coming through the wire the next post down.

“I just laid back down, and next minute the flare went up. I sat half up in bed, and there was the tiger at my feet, looking straight at me.

“We're eyeballing each other, and then the light flickered out; I didn't know what to do.

“I bounded up towards where the picket post was, and the tiger went the other way.

“Anyway, every night he still hung around and would disappear into the scrub every day.

“We hand an interpreter, a Vietnamese bloke, with us and one day he said ‘come with me, we'll go and shoot the bloody tiger’.

“We were creeping in there, and he stopped. Next thing, he went flying past me. I called out ‘what's going on?’ and he said ‘the tigers coming’, and he left me for dead.

“He came around next night and grabbed a bloke by the trouser leg and started to pull him away. They had to send him home a week later (because of the trauma).

“The tiger was only about the size of a small dog, but it was all reported in the newspapers back home.

“Funnily enough, our battalion mascot was a tiger, and it must have just taken a liking to us.”

Barry said the other memories that stand out most from his time in Vietnam relate to the mateship that the Australian forces are renowned for.

He highlighted that Deni’s commitment to protecting home and country was something to be proud of.

“We just form lifelong friendships with our mates.

“Even now, we still catch up with mates every year at the Gold Coast - they come from Brisbane and Sydney and Melbourne, everywhere.

“Deni’s got a proud record of people who served in Vietnam.

“We had at least one bloke serve in each of the nine battalions that went there.

“We covered every infantry battalion, plus all the others - including artillery, transport, armoured and cavalry.”

Due to opposition to the war at the time, not all Vietnam veterans received a hero’s welcome when they made it home.

Barry’s experience sailing into Brisbane was a supportive one, but it would still take until 1987 before the veterans would be officially honoured for their service.

Barry attended the official ‘Welcome Home March’ in Sydney in 1987 and said it - and the commemorative services that have followed every year since, on the Battle of Long Tan Day (now known as Vietnam Veterans Day) - was “therapeutic”.

Barry has been back to Vietnam twice since his wartime service - once in 2005, and again in June this year.

During this year’s trip, Barry and Lyn were taken to the battlegrounds of Long Hai where Barry lost his friend Phil and the Long Tan Cross.

Vietnam Veterans Day will be commemorated in Deniliquin today with a service at the Vietnam War Memorial (adjacent the Deniliquin Cenotaph) from 11am.

Everyone is invited to attend.

Joining the local community at this year’s service will be almost 40 members of the 86 Transport Platoon - the last platoon to leave Vietnam after the war.

Deniliquin Pastoral Times Google News Panels

Friday, 27th July 2029

Your Morning Headlines

Select Stories

Publish Panels