Long Tan service to honour Aussies, Kiwis

From smh.com.au: Long Tan service to honour Aussies, Kiwis
War veterans will be among a 300-strong crowd attending a commemorative service at the site of Australia's biggest battle in the Vietnam War this week.

The joint Australian and New Zealand service, being held on Thursday, will honour those who fought in the 1966 battle of Long Tan in southern Vietnam.

Eighteen Australians were killed in the battle, which took place in a rubber plantation, when Australians and New Zealanders defied what experts say were huge odds to defeat the North Vietnamese.
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More than 300 people are expected to the ceremony on Thursday afternoon, including the Australian consulate-general and a representative from the New Zealand consulate in Ho Chi Minh City.

The Australian military attache, the only person allowed by the Vietnamese government to attend in military uniform, will also travel from the capital Hanoi.

Many Australian veterans are also expected to attend.

Carl Robinson, an American who worked for the Associated Press during the war and later settled in Brisbane with his Vietnamese wife, has brought groups of vets back to Vietnam for the past nine years.

This year, he will be accompanying a group of retired New Zealand journalists and diplomats who worked in wartime Vietnam.

"For veterans, coming back to Vietnam is about the best thing they can do to move beyond the experience of the war," Mr Robinson told AAP.

"In less than 24 hours all those years of anger and resentment disappear. It's an amazing process to watch.

"They also see how much Vietnam has changed - but is also still very much the same. The people are as friendly as ever and make them feel welcome."

Seaside Vung Tau - formerly known as Phuoc Tuy - has become a pilgrimage point for veterans, and some Australian vets have moved back to live there in recent years.

It is also the only site where the Vietnamese authorities have allowed a memorial cross for the allied side to be erected.

The memorial is the site of the Long Tan Day ceremony, known as Vietnam Veterans Day in Australia, as well as a ceremony to mark Anzac Day in April.