AS a rifleman in the jungles of Vietnam, Neil Ordner spent a lot of time looking over his shoulder. Fifty years later he’s still looking back.
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Conscripted at 21, Mr Ordner served in C Company of the 5 Royal Australian Regiment, among the first group of draftees sent to Vietnam.
After intense training he spent almost a year at war, and the many subsequent years trying to heal.
The Koroit man served from 1965 to 1967, based at Nui Dat, which then was little more than a cleared piece of ground.
“We lived off our backs with what we had. We did have our base but there was no tents, no wire.”
Patrols were regular, with the company spending up to three weeks out in the field.
“I did a lot of walking backwards because riflemen are last in the sections, you had to look behind you all the time,” Mr Ordner said. “I just walked around and waited for something to happen, that was all you could do.”
Mentally and physically battle scarred, many veterans returned to lives they no longer recognised.
“For two years you’re a soldier, that’s all you were. Then they expect you to turn around and become a civilian by just handing the rifle in,” Mr Ordner said.
Veterans had also served in a war that was increasingly unpopular. “My first Anzac march in Melbourne I was being called a baby killer from Flinders Street to Princes Bridge. Then we had red paint thrown over us. That was my last Anzac march for 28 years. For 28 years nobody knew I was a vet.”
Everyday events brought back shocking memories. Attending the Moomba fireworks shortly after coming home, Mr Ordner unknowingly clawed at the earth in fear as the gunfire-like sounds rang through the air. Afterwards the group got up to leave, before Mr Ordner’s sister told them to wait a while. “She could see the holes that I had dug just sitting there with the fireworks.”
But the horror of war didn’t really catch up with Mr Ordner until post trumatic stress disorder hit three decades later.
“For five years I was pretty bad.” Mr Ordner suffered night terrors and angry outbursts. “I’m one of the lucky ones, my wife stuck by me, but unfortunately I lost her in April at the age of 65 with cancer, which has put me back. But I’m back to some reality now.”
Mr Ordner, along with his daughter and young grandson, were among more than 50 people who attended a Warrnambool ceremony on Tuesday to mark Vietnam Veterans’ Day. Warrnambool Vietnam Veterans Association president Don Roberts said it marked the 50th anniversary of the first major deployment of troops.
