By BRIDGET SCOTT
WHEN Ray Heathcote fought in Vietnam his wife wrote to him every day.
The Veteran said mail was important back then – the soldier’s didn’t have the technology of today.
“It was very important for all soldier’s to get mail,” he said.
“We had no way of calling anyone.”
The current president of the Berwick RSL was 21 when he was first posted to Vietnam in the November of 1967.
He was a driver for 12 months, and the Berwick resident has no doubt in his mind that his year spent overseas fighting for his country, changed his attitudes and the personality he has today.
“It had a very big impact on me, probably one of the biggest impacts,” he said.
After he arrived home, Mr Heathcote said he was most focused on getting back into the normal swing of things, with some bad attitudes about the war floating around.
“At that stage in 1968 there was a lot of ill-feeling towards our commitment in Vietnam,” he said.
“It had become a real political football and I wasn’t interested in being involved in that.”
After 40 years in the education department, to this day one of the most important aspects of this veterans life, is to remember the sacrifice that many before and after him made, including members of his own family.
“I have a very strong connection to Anzac Day,” he said.
“My mother and father both served in World War II, and my uncle was killed in PNG,” he said.
Mr Heathcote said he has always looked at Anzac Day from one perspective.
“Commemoration,” he said.
“The ‘com’ stands for community and the ‘memoration’… memory.”
“It’s about maintaining a community memory of those people who were prepared to go and fight for their country.”
Mr Heathcote said that the importance of remembering Anzac Day has become more prominent in the past 10 years, and it’s a huge occasion for the Berwick RSL.
“We’re more interested in remembering the individuals and people who at that time, believed totally that they were doing something important for Australia,” he said.
“I think about the fact that those people didn’t get letters every day and we complain about how email goes down.”
Mr Heathcote encouraged anyone to become part of the Berwick RSL, particularly those who have come back from recent conflict.
With a service to be held in Berwick this Friday, the veteran said there is nothing like the feeling when you turn the corner onto High Street during the march.
“The crowds are lining the street and they start to clap, and it really getsya’,” he said.
“And they’re not just clapping us, they’re clapping and cheering all the people that served for this country.”
