Vietnamese Anniversary

Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan - in Vietnam.

I once put in a real effort to understand a

little more about the Vietnamese War.

I gave up.

All I can remember is that the West would take over an area,

they’d move on and the North Vietnamese would move

back into the area and take it back….

And on and on and on.

The Vietnam War saw Australians fighting in jungles and villages for ten years, from 1962 to 1972.

Around 60,000 people made up the Aussie troops.

I went to Vietnam and headed out to the Demilitarized Zone. Old stone churches still bore the bullet holes from the war. Crater holes still lay across the ground. Amazingly brave men and women still worked the fields – searching for undetonated bombs. Land mine accidents were evident in the number of amputees living in the towns and villages.

What I remember the most, are the Vinh Moc tunnels.

The entrances to the tunnels were well hidden. Watching a guide open a secret entrance to the tunnel, lowering himself through the small space before hiding the entrance again was amazing.

Life in the tunnels was so safe that no villagers lost their lives.

I was impressed that the Vietnamese villagers were clever enough to carry the tunnel soil, by boat, to an island off the coast. Several of these trips would be made by night. The beach exits were carefully hidden by dense trees and foliage. They remained undetected by the western soldiers throughout the duration of the war.

The digging of the tunnels continued over the years that they were used. The digging began in 1966 and around 60 families lived in the tunnels until early in 1972. While I walked deeper and deeper underground, the tunnels became darker. Small lights had been set into the walls. The roof became lower and my shoulders started scraping against the sides of the tunnels. Several small rooms were built along the tunnels. They were about 2m by 2m. I was stunned to hear that this was where a family would have lived for four years. While the bombs rained down, the villagers lived, taught their children and loved. One of the rooms was used as a maternity room. Seventeen children were born inside the tunnels.

So, while it is the Anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan today, it’s not just the Australians I think of.