Inner Wheel South Wairarapa

At Our August dinner meeting at the Offering our guest speaker was

My husband Brent, who spoke about his two trips to Vietnam. The first trip, all expenses paid by the NZ Government, was in December 1968 as part of a reinforcement group to 161 battery. Brent pointed out that all NZ soldiers who fought in Vietnam were volunteers, we did not have conscription like Australia or America.

He spoke about a soldiers life in Vietnam, such things as cigarettes being issued in the rations, and how cheap beer was when they were back in base. He identified that our relationship with the Australians varied but they got on very well with the Americans.

In April 2019 Brent returned to Vietnam. On the way he spent two nights in Singapore. He stayed in a very luxurious establishment, the “Hotel Fort Canning” which it transpired was on the same location as the former British Army HQ where Brent spent ten days on leave before returning home from Vietnam in 1969.

He arrived in Hanoi where the locals were found to be very friendly. They seemed to have a great love of small dogs, which some might have been Corgi’s way back.

He visited the ‘Citadel’ (emperor’s palace), where a western style beauty pageant was underway, across the road was the Communist Party HQ. In Hanoi there was a huge portrait above a building , thought to be Ho Chi Minh; no! It was Col Sanders!!

He then moved south via Hue where he visited the ‘Citadel’ and three emperor’s tombs. 

Respect is still held for the Emperors, no one is allowed through the main gates, and you are not allowed to take photos in certain areas. However at one Emperor’s tomb who sold out to the good life and the French, you could go into and despite the warnings not to take photos , everyone was taking photos.

The journey ended in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) where like Hanoi there are millions of scooters, often with 3 or so riders on, and no helmets. You had to navigate through them to cross a road.

Brent concluded with a presentation about a proposed Cenotaph in Greytown. Due to a growing community involvement in honouring ANZAC and Armistice days, the Greytown RSA is working towards the construction of a Cenotaph adjacent to the swimming pool.