IT’S been a very long time coming, but finally the remains of 33 Vietnam veterans and dependants are coming home – 50 years after they died.
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The remains will be flown into Richmond RAAF Base on Thursday, June 2 in two RAAF C17 Globemasters.
The remains are being brought back from cemeteries in Malaysia and Singapore. The Department of Veterans Affairs said it will be one of the largest single repatriations of Australian service men and dependants in Australian history.
The C17s will do a flyover at 10am and are expected to land at 10.30am, to be greeted by a formal military repatriation ramp ceremony.
Veterans of the Vietnam War, including some who served with the returning service men, will also be in attendance. The formal ceremony will be followed by a private memorial service for the families of those being returned.
At midday 33 hearses will exit the base in an 800m-long motorcade on a predetermined route to the centre of Parramatta. Those wanting to pay their respects will be encouraged to line the route, which will be publicised closer to the date on the Veteran Affairs website.
The remains are being brought back in response to a change.org campaign signed by more than 40,000 people.
The Abbott government offered to bring back the remains of 24 Australian service personnel from the Vietnam War, three other soldiers and eight dependants of soldiers who died while they were based at Terendak, and to the family of a Vietnam War soldier buried in Kranji War Cemetery in Singapore. A total of 33 families responded positively.
The Gazette contacted the Department of Veterans Affairs as to whether any of the repatriated remains were of people from the Hawkesbury. A spokeswoman replied “we can confirm that none of the Australians being returned from Terendak will be reinterred to the Hawkesbury area”.
Two veterans from the Blue Mountains are amongst the 33 as are the remains of Bob Bowtell, whose family lived at Holsworthy when they got the news of his death. Bob’s son Michael Bowtell, 55, of Orange said his mother was given the option of having her husband’s remains returned but it was going to cost £500.
“Mum had three kids, was carrying the fourth and the army had taken her accommodation away from her. Her priorities needed to be somewhere else,” Mr Bowtell said. He was buried in a Commonwealth cemetery at Terendak in Malaysia.
He said the return of his father’s remains would be “a great release”. "I can't help but think about the return as a coping mechanism. I think we all have kept a lot bottled up.
"I'm just so grateful that this is happening. I am grateful to the Australian public and to everyone that signed that petition and to Bob Shewring from the Vietnam Veterans' Association of Australia who organised it. All the families will be indebted to him forever.”