The setting might have been a little bit different, but for a group of ex-servicemen a reunion 50 years in the making was well worth the wait.
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Five Tasmanian members of the Australian Army’s national service 13th intake reunited on Tuesday evening, 50 years to the day since they were enlisted.
The get together was organised by Launceston’s David Carswell, who was 20 years old when his “magic number’ saw him enlisted for national service.
“No one knew at the time what number was going to come out of that barrel,” he said.
“You just had to go with it and just thought – well duty calls.
“It was like any other job, where you have a job to do and you should hopefully do it to the best of your ability.”
National service was reintroduced in Australia for the fourth time in 1964 and adjusted in May 1965 to send national servicemen overseas.
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This included the Vietnman War, with all men aged 20 registered for a birthday ballot designed to randomly select them for service based on their date of birth.
For Mr Carswell it was February 5. He was enlisted on July 17, 1968 and sent to an Australian Army training facility at Pakapunyal.
Here he would spend 10 weeks taking part in intensive training camp designed to test his mental and physical aptitude, and enforce some discipline.
Mr Carswell was one of about 60 Tasmanian men enlisted as part of the 13th intake – four of which joined him for the reunion on Tuesday night.
The men along with their wives and partners, came together at Steve’s Grill where they reflected on their time at Pakapunyal.
Brian Roles of Deloraine said he could still remember the cold Victorian mornings.
“One of the first things I can remember happening was the boiler blowing up,” he said.
“We had to have cold showers for weeks and it was the middle of winter.
“It wasn’t easy, but it was all part of the experience.
“It certainly made us toughen up, because it was much colder than Tasmania.”
After their time at Pakapunyal, Mr Carswell said the men “went their separate ways” into different core groups.
Mr Carswell continued his infantry training and after a stint at the Enoggera Barracks in Queensland, was sent to Vietnam where he served for the entirety of 1969.
After returning to Australia he said it was a difficult transition to everyday life, but he still considered himself “one of the lucky ones”.
“I came home to a wonderful lady who had waited for me. We have now been married for 47 years,” he said.
