Latest Galley
Memoir
Australian History
Happy living life as an ordinary young Aussie bloke of 19, bank teller Peter Collins' life is thrown into chaos when he finds himself a ?lucky' winner in Australia's National Service Scheme lottery of 1967. Passing the medical with flying colours, he is plucked from civilian life - complete with family, fledgling career, mates, and a girlfriend - to spend the next two years in the Australian Army.
Follow Peter's journey as a Nasho as he undergoes Recruit and Infantry Training at 3TB Singleton where the often funny, sometimes humiliating, spit and polish tactics of army personnel leave him with a greater understanding of the importance of discipline and mateship which he carries into Battle Efficiency Training with the 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (6RAR) at Townsville's Lavarack Barracks and beyond.
Selected as part of the 6th Battalion's advance party to Vietnam in May 1969, Peter gets a crash course not only in jungle warfare but in the pub trade as he becomes the new steward of the Seldom Seen Inn, 6RAR Delta Company's (DCoy) boozer in Nui Dat. Life is not all beer and darts though. As a Company Sig (radio operator) Peter plays a key role in several jungle operations which are ultimately to leave him with recurring harrowing memories.
As he attempts to resume civilian life as an initially shunned Vietnam Veteran, Peter finds out that war cannot fail to scar the psyche or to have an insidious impact on all aspects of life.
This book is a recollection that may be a little bit off the mark as far as time, dates and names are concerned, but the essential memories of fifty-seven years ago are correct. Several books have been written about Vietnam, but this is essentially about my National Service commitment for two years from 1967 to 1969. I hope to show the impact of this on a twenty-year-old male plucked out of "civvie" life to serve two years in the Army and also the impact it had on family. I hope to recall the funny stuff, the difficult stuff, the frustrating stuff, the ridiculous stuff, the scary stuff and other stuff that comes to me as I travel back through this period of my life.
It is a memory of my call-up into the Australian Army, the induction, recruit training at 3rd Training Battalion (3TB), Singleton, New South Wales, and battle efficiency training at Lavarack Barracks, Townsville in north Queensland with the 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (6RAR).
As an integral part of 6RAR, myself and others of my intake were unexpectedly sent to Vietnam in 1969. It will be necessary to finish this book, not only with a recollection of my time in Vietnam, but with the later effects of that deployment.
This version is a second attempt following the loss of a previous manuscript to computer malfunction, or perhaps it was an operator malfunction.
My hope is that this will satisfy my wish to write a book on a subject that is important to me and had a dramatic effect on my life. I also hope it will sell a million copies and I can forget the Lotto.
I must warn you, though, that it contains coarse language and culturally offensive idioms for which I apologise in advance. I am writing about a completely male environment where all involved are young and participating in a new and strange life. I don't believe I can relate the story properly without this coarse and offensive language. Our Army trainers used this type of language to emphasise the Army point and as an attention tool. I hope you understand. It was very much part of the life I am attempting to describe.
I hope you enjoy my story.