Bathurst veteran who fought in the Vietnam War Lyle Orreal talks about his experience in light of the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War - commemorated on August 18, 2023.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 I was in the 9th Battalion, I was an infantry soldier and we went to Vietnam expecting to
00:07 be at war, the Battle of Hat Dik and that was a 77 day battle and in that we found out
00:16 what war was all about.
00:18 It wasn't a pleasant experience but it was something that had to be done at that time.
00:22 I never necessarily wanted to go.
00:24 I thought it was a shame that we left the South Japanese people and abandoned them 50
00:31 years ago.
00:32 We live in a democratic country and people can believe what they like.
00:35 They can believe we should have been there or they can believe we shouldn't have been
00:38 there.
00:39 When I got out of the army I just took off and I've been in Bathurst ever since.
00:44 I've made this my home.
00:46 The Second and First World War soldiers treated us pretty badly.
00:51 They said you haven't been to a real war and when I asked them what he did in the war he
00:57 said he was an ordnance, he was a blanket counter.
01:01 People in Bathurst didn't appear to be very prejudiced against Vietnam veterans.
01:06 Bathurst was a very friendly place to be.
01:08 I think that's the best thing about it.
01:09 I think that's the best thing about it.
01:09 [BLANK_AUDIO]