General News
25 April, 2023
Poignant memories 15.5 on 50th anniversary
Rex Dumesny has been laying wreaths on Anzac Day for many years in honour of the men and women who fought and died in wars over the years. But this time is special. It is 50 years since the federal government pulled Australian troops out of the...
Rex Dumesny has been laying wreaths on Anzac Day for many years in honour of the men and women who fought and died in wars over the years.
But this time is special. It is 50 years since the federal government pulled Australian troops out of the Vietnam War.
Mr Dumesny, who will lay a wreath for Wimmera Legacy at Horsham's Cenotaph, knows more about wars than most, after serving in Vietnam as a mechanic with the Australian Electrical Mechanical Engineers.
He was 20 years old and just nine months off completing a five-year mechanics apprenticeship with Ansett Agricultural in Horsham when a marble with his birth date was pulled out in the lottery that determined who would be sent to compulsory national service training.
He was permitted to complete his apprenticeship before training at Puckapunyal.
A 12-week stint with intense training led to a further 12 weeks at Bandiana Training Base at Wodonga, then a return to Puckapunyal with the First Armoured Regiment Light Aid Detachment.
In October 1969 he was sent off to 106 Workshop in Nui Dat, Vietnam. He was on his own and knew no-one.
Everything was new - the language, the people, the scenery - and the climate, with its unbearable humidity.
"Especially when we were working on hot engines," he said. "And we had American rations.
"I never want to eat turkey again. There couldn't have been any bloody turkeys left in the US!
"But one good thing was that we were well protected and not under the fire of a brutal oppressor.
"And cigarettes were just five cents a packet."
After three months he was joined by Australians. Some he knew from Puckapunyal training.
Finally he was to be sent home. The plane, full with returning Australian soldiers, arrived at Sydney's Mascot Airport at 1am.
There was no-one to meet them, no-one to help them find accommodation and no-one to say, "Well done, you've done more than your part for our country".
In the end a taxi driver found them accommodation somewhere in Kings Cross, and then he was left to find the difference between a train ticket and air fare to Melbourne.
He knows many who faced trauma and rejection on their return.
"But we had gone to Vietnam to do a job and that's what we did," he said.
Nor did Mr Dumesny have the issues faced by many returning soldiers when they attempted to join an RSL club.
RSLs were rife with Second World War veterans who considered the Vietnam War to be "not a real war".
He had a relative in Horsham RSL and under his protection soon found his way into that group.
A few years later he married, set about his usual work as a mechanic, had a family, and set up R & CE Dumesny Tractor Repairs.
"We didn't really know what was happening back in Vietnam," he said.
He joined Legacy in 1996, a group which helps the families of soldiers.
At that time Wimmera Legacy helped more than 500 families. Now the number is down to fewer than 100.
He also remains secretary of Wimmera Vietnam Veterans Association.