Ben Roberts-Smith

[facthunter]

Am I posting in invisible INK? Nev

[Grumpy Old Nasho]

3 hours ago, facthunter said:

 You didn't go there, did you, Gon. Nev

Just as well. I was already crazy enough with anger from being unable to work in my trade, they wouldn't let me. I went from being a fitter & turner working in a large Engineering factory (Hawker DeHavilland), to being a lowly driver in the idiot Army, as it was then. My trade meant everything to me.

Edited 1 hour ago by Grumpy Old Nasho

[facthunter]

Hawker-DeHav's at Bankstown? I taught at Liverpool HS and flew out of Bankstown and pitted race cars at Warwick farm and have had electroless Nickel Plating done at DeHavillands. We may have Passed like Ships in the Night .Nev

[Grumpy Old Nasho]

1 hour ago, facthunter said:

I'd say a lot didn't want to go but some volunteered. Someone more Knowledgeable may have some figures on that. Returnees were treated abominably, Even by the RS League. That was disgusting and shameful.  Nev

48 thousand were conscripted, 15 thousand went Vietnam.

 

I knew a bloke who wasn't conscripted, just joined voluntarily and then volunteered to go and fight there. Unfortunately, he was involved in a friendly fire incident where one guy was too far out in front and was mistaken for an enemy combatant ... my mate shot him, sadly. I guess it was hushed up, but I got it from the horses mouth when he was back here at home. For brave acts he performed at other times, one in particular, he received bravery medals from every Western nation involved there ... all but Australia, he went on to tell me. He was not just a little peeved about that.

[Grumpy Old Nasho]

No, Hawker DeHavillands at Lidcombe.