45th anniversary of Long Tan

[Falkirion]

Finally the men who fought there are getting the recognition they deserve. I don't understand why Korean/Vietnam vets are overlooked in favor of the older vets of WW1 & 2. I guess its just the fact that WW1 & 2 sound bigger and better than wars that were isolated to just one country.

Slightly off topic but do any aussie members here know if there are any surviving WW1 vets left?

[Stealhead]

Originally Posted by Falkirion

Finally the men who fought there are getting the recognition they deserve. I don't understand why Korean/Vietnam vets are overlooked in favor of the older vets of WW1 & 2. I guess its just the fact that WW1 & 2 sound bigger and better than wars that were isolated to just one country.

Slightly off topic but do any aussie members here know if there are any surviving WW1 vets left?

I think that Vietnam and Korea get ignored because they where different wars than the likes of WWI and WWII Korea went poorly because China got involved and in the end no side made any gains at all in fact most of the Korean had combat much like WWI.

Vietnam was a real let down for guys who fought over there they did jobs well and in open battle the NVA Viet Cong never defeated us they managed to win the physiological war because we let them.Media made a big deal about TET in 1968 and it did show that we where not as successful up to that point but we soundly defeated the NVA and the Viet Cong sappers never even made it inside the US Embassy people back home just say that on TV and that was that.The North knew that they could take advantage of the general public and they did that combined with poor strategy is what cost us that war.You know that they never really openly bombed the North fully until 1972 and that got them to the table in days.People got upset about going into Cambodia in 1970 bust we had allowed that to happen for years how can you defeat an enemy when you allow him to evaporate to a safe haven when he so desires(a Group called the Taliban does the same thing today in a place called Pakistan history repeating)A tiger can kill an elephant.

My dad was a LRRP in Vietnam and sometimes the SAS regiment would send a few guys to see how the LRRPs did things he said that they carried FNFALs which fire 7.62x51mm which only was available in linked belts for the M-60 in most US Army units by that time so the Aussies either had to carry a Car-15 or M-16 or take apart M-60 belts by hand and then load their FAL mags the Aussies never carried M-16s(well some did you can see so in pictures but the SAS boys disliked them) so they would spend the hours after a mission drinking beer and de linking ammo belts.