WEBVTT - Conversations with Cornesy - Roger Hogben 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.960 Well, hi everyone, Welcome to conversations. My guest today is 0:00:03.960 --> 0:00:07.880 a Vietnam veteran. Roger Hogman served in Vietnam in nineteen 0:00:07.920 --> 0:00:12.400 sixty eight sixty nine, and he now lives over on 0:00:12.680 --> 0:00:16.239 York Peninsula and was a little in there. He was 0:00:16.239 --> 0:00:18.840 a little bit indifferent when he came home of having 0:00:18.880 --> 0:00:23.800 served in Vietnam and the treatment that he received soldiers 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:28.560 from previous wars. But in recent years he's been motivated 0:00:28.640 --> 0:00:33.000 to recognize that there are other veterans over there who 0:00:33.040 --> 0:00:37.800 haven't been properly recognized. So he's dreamt of this project 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:42.120 at edith Burg on the York Peninsula, and sometimes dreams 0:00:42.120 --> 0:00:44.920 become reality, and we'll find out all about that the 0:00:45.000 --> 0:00:48.240 Vietnam War Memorial Walk over there at edith Burg. Roger Hogman, 0:00:48.280 --> 0:00:49.040 Welcome to the program. 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:51.640 How are you really good? Thanks Graham, good to be here. 0:00:52.080 --> 0:00:56.760 It's an amazing thing you've done. You've established this memorial 0:00:56.840 --> 0:01:01.880 walk between edith Burg and Quebek. Now I should know 0:01:01.960 --> 0:01:04.440 that I've been been to Edinsburgh, I've driven through Kabao. 0:01:04.560 --> 0:01:07.399 I don't know anything about them, but what's your association 0:01:07.520 --> 0:01:08.080 with the area. 0:01:09.280 --> 0:01:12.120 We lived in a motorhome for eight and a half years, 0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:16.160 and we thought that New York Peninsula was a good 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:19.600 place to finish up, so we retired to the York Peninsula. 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:24.000 I like fishing, there's good fishing. So that's basically how 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:24.560 it started. 0:01:24.600 --> 0:01:25.679 What happened to the motor home? 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:28.120 Unfortunately we've still got it. 0:01:29.600 --> 0:01:30.560 You just still live in it. 0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:32.880 No, no, no, no. We bought we bought a place 0:01:32.920 --> 0:01:36.280 on a very old house on York Peninsula and were 0:01:36.280 --> 0:01:37.319 gradually re storing it. 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:39.680 Oh, how wonderful does that sound? 0:01:40.560 --> 0:01:43.000 The original part of the building was put up in 0:01:43.120 --> 0:01:44.320 eighteen forty seven. 0:01:44.760 --> 0:01:48.760 Wow, we might come to that in time. Now you're 0:01:48.800 --> 0:01:52.440 in New Zealander, ki No, you're not well. How come 0:01:52.480 --> 0:01:54.720 in and serve with the New Zealand Army. 0:01:55.320 --> 0:01:58.840 It was an ANZAC battalion. It was four Roar and ZAID. 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:03.960 So we had three rifle companies Bravo, Charlie and Delda, 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:07.919 and then we had two Kiwi companies which was Victor 0:02:07.960 --> 0:02:11.560 and Whiskey. So there were actually five rifle companies in 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:15.120 four or r as they were in two and six. 0:02:16.200 --> 0:02:20.799 Okay, so did were you you controlled by New Zealand 0:02:20.919 --> 0:02:24.720 and CEOs or Kiwi and CEOs or officers. 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:28.880 No, we tried to avoid them out in the field. 0:02:29.160 --> 0:02:33.640 They were great fun in back in base, but out 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:35.639 in field, no, we would prefer to be as far 0:02:35.680 --> 0:02:37.960 away as we possibly could. 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:41.280 Because they were wild, or because they were a bit reckless. 0:02:41.720 --> 0:02:46.200 They had a different method of clearing an area than 0:02:46.240 --> 0:02:50.440 the Australian soldiers. They used to put four hundred rounds 0:02:50.480 --> 0:02:53.720 through the machine gun and then listen. And we've decided 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:55.360 that we didn't like being close to that. 0:02:56.240 --> 0:02:59.640 So they fire off four belts of ammunition into the 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:02.160 into a scrub and then. 0:03:02.520 --> 0:03:05.639 Change, change the red hot barrel, put a new barrel in, 0:03:05.680 --> 0:03:09.359 a new set of four hundred rounds, new four belts, 0:03:09.360 --> 0:03:12.800 all linked together. And if there was another noise, well, 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:14.320 same same procedure. 0:03:14.960 --> 0:03:16.480 Did you then sweep through the area. 0:03:17.040 --> 0:03:20.520 I don't know what they did. We were never there, so. 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:22.000 You didn't fragnize with much at all. 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:24.720 Only in camp, back back in the Dad or down 0:03:24.760 --> 0:03:28.200 in Vuktow they were great. But yeah, not out in 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:29.880 the not out where it was dangerous. 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:32.000 So where were you born? Where'd you grow up? 0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:37.560 I was born in Adelaide. My parents both long Their 0:03:37.600 --> 0:03:40.520 families go right back to the early settlement of South Australia. 0:03:41.200 --> 0:03:46.240 They originated in Adelaide, went to Perry and then my 0:03:46.360 --> 0:03:49.520 mum and dad returned to Adelaide where I was born 0:03:49.640 --> 0:03:51.240 up down at Malvern. 0:03:51.360 --> 0:03:55.760 So so when you say early settlement, how early. 0:03:55.960 --> 0:03:59.840 Eighteen thirty nine through to eighteen forty two. 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:05.440 So three years after the first landing you had Hogbin's here. Yes, 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:08.240 did you research that history? 0:04:09.120 --> 0:04:11.360 Yes, we've got a very good family tree of that. 0:04:12.200 --> 0:04:15.400 It goes back to the Reverend George Hogben who was 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:18.520 a Baptist preacher and he had two nephews with him. 0:04:19.120 --> 0:04:23.560 They they came out here and he was recognized. He's 0:04:23.680 --> 0:04:26.640 performed a lot of marriages in that very early part 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:27.320 of the settlement. 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:30.200 He was a man of religion. 0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:30.520 Yes he was. 0:04:30.680 --> 0:04:32.480 Did that flow through to the family. 0:04:33.240 --> 0:04:39.080 Not particularly? No, having said that my brother is a preacher, 0:04:39.120 --> 0:04:40.320 so I guess there's some of it. 0:04:40.320 --> 0:04:43.440 Still definitely hasn't it. So he grew up at Melbourne. 0:04:43.440 --> 0:04:45.720 What was what was the malvin of your childhood? 0:04:45.920 --> 0:04:50.720 Like great place? The end of Adelaide was Mitcham, which 0:04:50.800 --> 0:04:54.440 was only a mile and a half three kilometers away 0:04:54.960 --> 0:04:59.200 the Freedom. We would ride to Glenelg for a swim 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:03.040 on our push bikes. People wouldn't understand now, But the 0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:04.640 mate and I used to do a lot of fishing 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:06.920 in the West Beach sand dunes. 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:07.799 Fishing in the sand hills. 0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:10.080 No, sorry, I meant shooting. 0:05:10.279 --> 0:05:10.719 Shooting. 0:05:10.839 --> 0:05:13.680 Yes, yes, we just go shooting in the sandhills. We'd 0:05:13.920 --> 0:05:16.960 ride our push bikes down to West Beach. There was 0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:18.400 no airport there in those days. 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:19.680 How did you get your rifle down there? 0:05:19.920 --> 0:05:25.640 Slung over me? Two young blakes riding from cross roads 0:05:25.720 --> 0:05:28.719 down cross roads and heading off to the How would 0:05:28.760 --> 0:05:32.200 you have been there fifteen sixteen. 0:05:31.800 --> 0:05:37.039 And you've got a twenty two rifle And it was Dad, 0:05:38.440 --> 0:05:40.680 and what you after? Rabbits? 0:05:40.680 --> 0:05:43.080 I guess, yeah, yeah, just rabbits. It was a good 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:45.120 place to go and get a couple of rabbits. Yeah, 0:05:45.200 --> 0:05:45.880 that's good fun. 0:05:46.200 --> 0:05:50.000 So what ambition did you have in terms of leaving school? 0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:53.479 I was told by the woodwork teacher at on the 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:56.760 High school, mister Tulk, that I should never go anywhere 0:05:56.760 --> 0:06:01.880 near wood. So I left school at fifteen and Dad 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:03.080 said to me, what are you going to do? And 0:06:03.120 --> 0:06:05.039 I said, I'm coming to you to work with you. 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:08.880 Dad was a very good carpenter. He was a craftsman's 0:06:09.160 --> 0:06:14.760 craftsman carpenter. So I became a carpenter. 0:06:16.320 --> 0:06:18.640 What did you What did the old school teacher think 0:06:18.680 --> 0:06:18.960 of that? 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:21.479 I never met him again. I would have loved to 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:26.279 have met him, because I went on. When I went 0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:30.720 to Vietnam, I went in, I completed my apprenticeship. When 0:06:30.720 --> 0:06:36.240 I came back out, I didn't didn't put my enrollment off. 0:06:37.240 --> 0:06:41.960 I completed my apprenticeship, became a carpenter with the same company, 0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:45.440 and became the building supervisor three years later. So twenty 0:06:45.480 --> 0:06:47.880 three years of age or less than that. At twenty 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:50.880 three years of the age, I was a building supervisor 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:52.839 for a company turning off sixty hourses a year. 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:59.919 Wow, we were a good carpenter, come on, not particular. 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:03.240 So the school teacher maybe was right. 0:07:04.080 --> 0:07:08.360 The school teacher was probably right. I was a proficient carpenter, 0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:15.480 but I was mentored by some extremely good people building 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:20.760 inspectors my own employer, and became a proficient handler of 0:07:20.880 --> 0:07:25.840 staff and capable of coordinating work. Over that. 0:07:26.160 --> 0:07:29.160 Do you think we're seeing the same degree of proficiency 0:07:29.280 --> 0:07:31.160 with tradesmen these days. 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:34.960 My last work was as a training coordinator with a 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:43.280 register training organization, and the apprenticeships are totally degraded. What 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:46.280 took us five years to get to the stage where 0:07:46.320 --> 0:07:49.600 we were beginning to learn about the building industry is 0:07:49.680 --> 0:07:53.800 now cut back. An apprenticeship doing a carpentry. We'll have 0:07:54.680 --> 0:08:02.800 carpentry and in brackets rufa or foundations or whatever. So 0:08:02.880 --> 0:08:06.080 they're divided into very tiny segments. So it's changed dramatically, 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:07.080 and I'm not impressed. 0:08:07.560 --> 0:08:11.400 Okay, so you're working as a carpenter, then your number 0:08:11.440 --> 0:08:14.720 gets drawn out and if you go into the army, 0:08:14.760 --> 0:08:17.200 we'll talk about that when we come back. Roger Hogben 0:08:17.320 --> 0:08:21.080 is my guest, Folks, Vietnam veteran who's been involved in 0:08:21.520 --> 0:08:24.960 an amazing project over the Edithburgh on the York Peninsula. 0:08:25.120 --> 0:08:27.640 All about that when we come back. Welcome back to conversations. 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:31.720 Everybody in the studio with me is Roger Hogben, a 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:35.640 carpenter by trade, gets called up and goes off to Vietnam. 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:38.560 We'll talk about that. He's been involved in a significant 0:08:38.600 --> 0:08:41.000 project over there on York Peninsula which has come to 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:44.079 fruition and will come to fruition in August this year, 0:08:44.080 --> 0:08:47.840 August the eighteenth, the Vietnam War Memorial Walk. But there's 0:08:47.840 --> 0:08:51.960 so much to talk about. You get drafted. What was 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:53.080 the emotion like? 0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:53.800 What would you? 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:54.600 What are you thinking? 0:08:55.600 --> 0:08:59.280 Look if we were young and silly, it was a 0:08:59.320 --> 0:09:01.480 great advance, It was a huge adventure. 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:05.480 How long did it last? The sense of adventure, though, 0:09:05.679 --> 0:09:09.040 I had the same feeling, but evaporate after two days 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:09.920 of recruit training. 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:15.560 They said about the recruit training, it would make men 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:18.560 out of boys and boys out of men. I think 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:22.000 you had to survive that. You had to have a 0:09:22.240 --> 0:09:27.800 very strong values in your own life. And I found 0:09:27.840 --> 0:09:32.120 it interesting more more than anything else. I'd never been 0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:36.760 dealt with that way. Standing in line at a inspection 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:39.480 and having the corporal cut the buttons off the back 0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:43.960 pockety of the trousers hanging, handing it to the sergeant 0:09:44.320 --> 0:09:48.080 and saying this soldier is undressed came with a bit 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:52.520 of a shock. It was quite a different era. It 0:09:52.559 --> 0:09:56.320 would never happen that way today, But in that era, 0:09:56.960 --> 0:10:00.280 I guess that was to some extent seen as an 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:04.520 easy way to enforce people to do to follow the rules. 0:10:05.280 --> 0:10:08.520 Yeah, I've often contemplated this. I mean, you're talking about 0:10:08.640 --> 0:10:12.960 that's just making boys out of men. With some everyone 0:10:13.040 --> 0:10:16.240 is so different. The brutality with which they tried to 0:10:16.600 --> 0:10:20.319 enforce discipline. Some people weren't just they weren't wired for that. 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:22.440 And I don't know how many times. I don't know 0:10:22.440 --> 0:10:26.679 what the suicide rate would have been, but there's definitely 0:10:26.679 --> 0:10:29.920 would have been a consideration. I look back on those 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:34.880 few weeks of recruit training with such disdain that those 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:38.520 guys jumped up Lance corporals and corporals could be. 0:10:40.240 --> 0:10:40.320 No. 0:10:40.559 --> 0:10:42.160 We had to copy it, and we did, and we 0:10:42.200 --> 0:10:45.080 did cop it, but it was just so disrespectful. 0:10:45.679 --> 0:10:50.600 Absolutely it was. It was by today standards, absolutely disgraceful. 0:10:50.600 --> 0:10:55.040 It was disgraceful then. But there were no options for 0:10:55.200 --> 0:10:59.960 us as recruits, regardless I would think, whether we're National Service, 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:04.040 whether we were regular recruits, there was no option. Once 0:11:04.080 --> 0:11:06.920 you're in there, you did as they did and as 0:11:07.000 --> 0:11:11.040 they said. It's interesting about the Lance corporal. After I'd 0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:13.320 been to Vietnam and came back, my brother in law 0:11:13.600 --> 0:11:17.640 marched out of Puckerpaniel and I went down to see 0:11:17.720 --> 0:11:21.480 him march out, and I was hauled up. I had 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:28.600 a red lanyard on my right shoulder, and he yelled 0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:31.400 out at me, Hey, soldier, what are you doing. We're 0:11:31.440 --> 0:11:33.720 in your lanyard. I turned around and had ribbons, and 0:11:33.760 --> 0:11:35.160 he nearly went through the bitchmen. 0:11:36.240 --> 0:11:37.840 I see how Lance corporal tried. 0:11:37.679 --> 0:11:39.840 To Yes, Lance corporal tried to jump on me because 0:11:40.240 --> 0:11:42.680 recruits prior to the march out were not allowed to 0:11:42.679 --> 0:11:46.000 wear the lanyards. I, on the other hand, was a 0:11:46.040 --> 0:11:50.040 return serviceman, which came as one terrible shock to this 0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:53.480 poor young lance corporal who was seen as one stage 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:54.280 below God. 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:58.559 Now your march out of recruit training, did you nominate 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:02.360 a call given the fact you had a trade? Normally 0:12:02.480 --> 0:12:05.360 they make good use of guys with trades. 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:09.200 Yes, they do, This was the message we got. So 0:12:09.280 --> 0:12:14.000 I applied for engineers, which would be the obvious thing 0:12:14.040 --> 0:12:17.640 to do. But of course, as with ninety percent of 0:12:17.640 --> 0:12:20.120 the people who applied for to be working in their 0:12:20.160 --> 0:12:25.200 own trade, I finished up in infantry. Sometimes I wondered 0:12:25.200 --> 0:12:29.600 whether it was because as trades we knew more than 0:12:29.640 --> 0:12:32.920 some of the junior officers who were running those units. 0:12:33.480 --> 0:12:35.800 I certainly got into trouble for that. In Vietnam, I 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:39.559 suggest the way they were pouring concrete was not quite 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:40.640 the best way to do it. 0:12:42.160 --> 0:12:45.120 So if you go to core training to learn how 0:12:45.120 --> 0:12:47.760 to be an infantry soldier in a bit more Where 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:49.520 did you Where did you do that? 0:12:49.520 --> 0:12:56.959 That was Singletent, Wales, New South Wales really interesting. Having 0:12:57.000 --> 0:12:59.720 done a lot of rabbit and kangaroo shooting over my 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:03.160 younger years, I was interested in how the rifles work 0:13:04.520 --> 0:13:09.560 and I couldn't make marksmen. You couldn't really interesting just 0:13:09.840 --> 0:13:13.320 the totally different total difference of the weapons that were using. 0:13:13.840 --> 0:13:15.920 But having said that, it was a very interesting time. 0:13:16.000 --> 0:13:20.160 That was it was far more oriented towards training for 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:22.920 what you were going to be doing in future, which 0:13:22.960 --> 0:13:25.560 made it totally different to recruit training, which was just 0:13:25.720 --> 0:13:30.920 discipline and enforcing rules. I found infantry training to be 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:31.880 much more interesting. 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:35.280 Did you go over with the battalion or did you 0:13:35.360 --> 0:13:36.640 join them as a reinforcement? 0:13:36.920 --> 0:13:40.480 I joined as a reinforcement through Rio wing it at Engelburn. 0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:43.439 What was that? Like me? You haven't trained with these 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:47.320 guys and you just you just sort of dropped into them. 0:13:47.640 --> 0:13:51.920 Look, I think that the Australian Army training in that 0:13:52.040 --> 0:13:56.839 era was exceptionally good. If you were trade trained into 0:13:56.840 --> 0:14:00.840 a corps, you were given all of the all of 0:14:00.880 --> 0:14:06.120 the information that you would require. We fired everything, I 0:14:06.160 --> 0:14:13.320 think except for the rocket propel armored armory. They can't 0:14:13.320 --> 0:14:15.520 remember which one it was. We didn't fire those, but 0:14:15.559 --> 0:14:19.520 we fired pretty much everything else from grenades to handguns 0:14:19.960 --> 0:14:20.880 through that training. 0:14:21.080 --> 0:14:24.520 The RPG was the one that the plastic onages extended. 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:27.600 Yeah, that was that was the one. A bit expensive 0:14:27.960 --> 0:14:28.400 to play with. 0:14:28.560 --> 0:14:31.400 They didn't even look like a weapon, didn't They looked 0:14:31.440 --> 0:14:34.640 like a toy bit of down That's what it looked like. 0:14:36.360 --> 0:14:40.040 However, they did a lot of damage, but the look 0:14:40.760 --> 0:14:44.240 we were exceptionally well trained and by the time we 0:14:44.320 --> 0:14:46.960 got to Ingleburn. At Engelburn we did a lot more 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:52.400 weapons training. Is the security on us was much easier. 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:54.840 We were allowed to leave camp when we wanted. We 0:14:54.880 --> 0:14:56.920 had to be there all the time during daytime, all 0:14:56.920 --> 0:14:58.400 that sort of stuff, but we had a lot more 0:14:58.440 --> 0:15:01.920 free time in My parents never knew, but I volunteered 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:07.960 for Vietnam. To me, if I was going to get 0:15:08.000 --> 0:15:10.840 anything out of that two years, it would be war service. 0:15:11.080 --> 0:15:13.119 War service or the War Service Liane. 0:15:13.000 --> 0:15:16.080 War Service loan. There is a difference. 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:19.800 It was good for a while, it lasted. 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:23.240 By the time I wanted to do it, I was 0:15:23.320 --> 0:15:26.360 told that I was that I was certainly had the 0:15:27.280 --> 0:15:30.160 met the requirements for it, but I couldn't do it 0:15:30.160 --> 0:15:33.720 because I already owned a couple of investment properties and 0:15:33.840 --> 0:15:36.400 therefore was ineligible for a war service. 0:15:36.120 --> 0:15:37.640 Loan, so it should be there. 0:15:39.320 --> 0:15:40.440 So it worked hard for them. 0:15:40.720 --> 0:15:42.720 So I guess you flew over into Vietnam. 0:15:43.040 --> 0:15:48.640 Yes, flew over with the QUANTUS people, landed in Singapore 0:15:48.680 --> 0:15:54.480 for refueling. Singapore was really interesting because we before we 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:56.280 left the plane or before we got on the plane, 0:15:56.320 --> 0:15:59.520 we were told to have a civilian shirt, preferably bright, 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:04.240 bright colored, and so we took off our army shirts 0:16:04.320 --> 0:16:07.560 and put on civilian shirts. We were ushered into the 0:16:07.600 --> 0:16:11.160 Singapore terminal, which wasn't a particularly interesting place at that stage, 0:16:11.280 --> 0:16:14.080 not like it is today, and we were put behind 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:17.360 a rope barrier with armed guards, and nobody knew we 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:20.000 were in the army because we had We all had 0:16:20.000 --> 0:16:25.040 the same khaki strides on, shiny shiny boots and short haircuts, 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:27.880 so we wouldn't have been obvious with it because we 0:16:27.960 --> 0:16:29.640 had wonderful flowering shirts. 0:16:30.480 --> 0:16:31.800 Obviously, don't join the unit. 0:16:31.960 --> 0:16:35.680 It went through one IRU, the Australian Reinforcement Unit at 0:16:36.280 --> 0:16:40.400 vun At Nui Dat, and that was an acclimatization period, So. 0:16:40.600 --> 0:16:41.560 Doing patrols and. 0:16:43.560 --> 0:16:45.960 A little bit of patrol work just outside the wire 0:16:45.960 --> 0:16:50.160 and back in again. Lost a mate in that first 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:50.840 couple of weeks. 0:16:51.560 --> 0:16:57.760 Yeah, it's just doing just a just a what a contact. No. 0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:02.480 No, we were coming back in and we'd gone outside 0:17:02.560 --> 0:17:06.000 the wire, through the out into the scrub, did a circuit, 0:17:06.000 --> 0:17:07.920 and we were coming back at the next entry point 0:17:08.840 --> 0:17:14.199 and they spotted a mine of some sort. Whether it 0:17:14.320 --> 0:17:17.800 was I've got no idea what it was. But the 0:17:17.800 --> 0:17:21.639 corporal and two soldiers stopped and they were supposed to 0:17:21.640 --> 0:17:24.800 build a pyramid of sticks to market so that the 0:17:24.840 --> 0:17:28.119 engineers could go out and blow it away. But instead 0:17:28.119 --> 0:17:31.760 of building the pyramid adjacent to the explosive, they built 0:17:31.760 --> 0:17:37.080 it over it, and it collapsed onto the explosive. And 0:17:37.240 --> 0:17:40.919 my mate was killed at that, just instantly. He was 0:17:41.400 --> 0:17:42.400 putting sticks over it. 0:17:42.680 --> 0:17:44.600 And he's barely been there days. 0:17:44.440 --> 0:17:47.800 Only Oh maybe, I guess we would have been there 0:17:47.800 --> 0:17:54.919 ten days. Yeah, just frightening stuff. I often wondered about 0:17:54.960 --> 0:17:55.560 his parents. 0:17:55.920 --> 0:18:01.520 So it's national service and goes over it two weeks nationaler. 0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:06.440 That one ira was both National service and. 0:18:06.480 --> 0:18:10.240 Regular Roger Hogman, it's my guest, Folks, we're talking about 0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:14.240 his time in Vietnam. But he's done an amazing job 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:19.360 in recent years establishing the Vietnam War Memorial Walk over 0:18:19.359 --> 0:18:22.720 there at Edithburg on New York Peninsula. And there'll be 0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:25.880 a big reveal of that, I guess and a big 0:18:25.920 --> 0:18:29.160 opening of that on August the eighteenth, twenty twenty five. 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:32.720 So back shortly, we are talking with Roger Hogman. Folks. 0:18:32.760 --> 0:18:36.959 If you just tuned in, Roger's a Vietnam veteran, retired 0:18:37.000 --> 0:18:41.359 after touring around Australia and a significant career. Has started 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:43.960 off as a tradee, got called up Whent to Vietnam. 0:18:44.480 --> 0:18:47.760 He's established or been one of the parties who's established 0:18:47.960 --> 0:18:51.600 the Vietnam War Memorial walk over there at Edithburg. But 0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:53.880 if you just tuned in, he's gone up to Vietnam. 0:18:54.000 --> 0:18:57.200 He's gone in as a reinforcement. You were a bit 0:18:57.240 --> 0:19:00.199 of a You're a little bit lucky because you're the 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:04.320 unitude joined came came home not that long after you. 0:19:04.400 --> 0:19:05.160 After you got there. 0:19:06.200 --> 0:19:09.320 Four RII was due to come home, and both the 0:19:09.359 --> 0:19:13.160 sixth and the seventh intakes of National Servicemen were due 0:19:13.240 --> 0:19:15.960 to get out of the Army before the army, before 0:19:15.960 --> 0:19:19.399 the unit reformed. So their expectation was one hundred and 0:19:19.400 --> 0:19:22.119 thirty soldiers to reform a battalion that should have been 0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:25.760 around six hundred people. So anybody that joined, with the 0:19:25.800 --> 0:19:31.120 exception of officers in the latter half of that period, 0:19:31.960 --> 0:19:35.320 came home with the battalion. So I joined them, and 0:19:36.000 --> 0:19:39.239 I came home with them on the Hma Sydney, the 0:19:39.240 --> 0:19:40.399 old Vuntaw Ferry. 0:19:40.560 --> 0:19:42.440 What a fun trip they would have been coming home. 0:19:42.800 --> 0:19:45.840 I'm surprise they wouldn't have transferred you out another unit 0:19:45.880 --> 0:19:47.880 that the needed reinforcements. 0:19:48.800 --> 0:19:52.000 If we'd objected to coming home. I guess they would 0:19:52.000 --> 0:19:57.679 have transferred this. But they needed on re establishment at Anaugraa. 0:19:58.080 --> 0:20:03.280 They needed to have the author of return serviceman. I 0:20:03.320 --> 0:20:08.159 think they wanted people with experience to come back to 0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:09.320 reform a battalion. 0:20:10.240 --> 0:20:12.840 Now this is where life gets a bit interesting for you. 0:20:13.040 --> 0:20:16.520 Maybe one of the reasons that you've delved into this 0:20:17.320 --> 0:20:21.480 memorial and the way that Vietnam veterans are recognized. Tell 0:20:21.560 --> 0:20:24.400 us about your experiences coming back, particularly when you tried 0:20:24.440 --> 0:20:26.680 to join the RSL Well. 0:20:26.680 --> 0:20:29.560 I returned to Port Lincoln, where I'd been called up 0:20:29.600 --> 0:20:31.400 from and went. 0:20:31.200 --> 0:20:32.639 To what are you doing over there? 0:20:32.840 --> 0:20:36.960 I was working as a builder over there, back to 0:20:37.000 --> 0:20:40.000 being an apprentice carpenter when I got out, But I 0:20:40.040 --> 0:20:44.400 was actually in uniform on an ANZAC day and went 0:20:44.480 --> 0:20:48.119 to the dawn service at the RSL, and then walked 0:20:48.160 --> 0:20:51.840 back into the RSL after the service and was told 0:20:51.880 --> 0:20:55.320 by a fellow who had had too much to drink, 0:20:55.960 --> 0:20:57.879 that I had no right to be in the RSL, 0:20:57.920 --> 0:21:00.560 that I hadn't been to a proper war and that 0:21:00.640 --> 0:21:06.200 I should remove myself, so I did. I also removed 0:21:06.200 --> 0:21:08.880 the RSL badge that I had that went in the gutter, 0:21:09.720 --> 0:21:13.320 and until very recently, i'd never grossed the. 0:21:13.800 --> 0:21:18.640 Yeah, I've heard these stories before, I didn't experience it myself. 0:21:19.520 --> 0:21:20.800 How did you feel. 0:21:22.320 --> 0:21:26.240 Discussed? Was what I felt? It wasn't. I didn't feel 0:21:26.280 --> 0:21:31.920 rejected when we marched back into Brisbane with the battalion. 0:21:32.040 --> 0:21:35.000 We arrived back in Brisbane and we were fortunate we 0:21:35.080 --> 0:21:37.800 had what I believe was the last ticket tape welcome 0:21:38.359 --> 0:21:42.440 into Australia. The march was absolutely fantastic, but we had 0:21:42.520 --> 0:21:45.920 been warned off if we were attacked on the march, 0:21:46.040 --> 0:21:48.760 we would be given the order to disperse so the 0:21:48.920 --> 0:21:51.560 march would break up. We would melt into the crowd 0:21:51.640 --> 0:21:55.320 and then go to our port for departure to leave, 0:21:55.400 --> 0:21:58.959 because immediately after the march we were on leave. It 0:21:59.000 --> 0:22:02.560 never happened, had a fantastic march, but there was this 0:22:02.720 --> 0:22:06.800 fear of people attacking the march. 0:22:07.520 --> 0:22:09.280 Well that would have I mean, I don't think I 0:22:09.320 --> 0:22:11.639 would have dispersed that ease. I think there would have 0:22:11.640 --> 0:22:13.400 been fights everywhere. 0:22:13.520 --> 0:22:16.679 We were all in uniform. It wouldn't have worked. It was, 0:22:16.760 --> 0:22:20.960 it was. It was ridiculous, but the army didn't know 0:22:21.000 --> 0:22:24.919 how to deal with it. Looking back on it. The 0:22:24.960 --> 0:22:30.119 young woman who attacked the one ra when they came 0:22:30.200 --> 0:22:36.679 back and she covered herself in paint, Yes, and how 0:22:36.760 --> 0:22:41.280 brave was she to do that on her own volish 0:22:41.600 --> 0:22:44.760 She wasn't part of a group. She just that was 0:22:44.800 --> 0:22:49.120 what she believed in. My sister didn't wasn't happy thought 0:22:49.160 --> 0:22:51.399 that I was annoyed with her because she'd been in 0:22:51.440 --> 0:22:57.000 the moratory marches. Isn't that what we should be fighting for? 0:22:57.040 --> 0:22:59.199 That we have the ability to do that? 0:23:00.960 --> 0:23:04.879 And you Sando back in Port Lincoln, disin chanted with 0:23:05.440 --> 0:23:06.360 the RSL. 0:23:07.040 --> 0:23:09.439 When I got out, which was not long after that, 0:23:09.720 --> 0:23:13.120 I returned to my employment in Port Lincoln, and life 0:23:13.200 --> 0:23:17.440