The Memorial Statue Project has now been completed. Well done to all involved. Ossie Kleinig (Dec 57) has compiled his last report that provides the current situation in relation to the project.
Thank you Ossie for all your efforts and for being the driving force behind the project.
You can read that report here.
On behalf of the Class of Dec 76, well done gentlemen. It’s a great credit to those directly involved and its popularity is reflected in the speed with which the Fund were raised. Can’t wait to get back down there for closer inspection. On a related note, I was doing some research for the Virtual War Memorial Australia (on which any of our gradates with active service should be recorded – and once the Nominal Rolls are uploaded for all States later this year, you / they will be http://www.vwma.org.au ) when I discovered that three of the men named on our Memorial wall and on the statue were killed in the same incident in Vietnam – when a booby trap detonated among the Company Headquarters group of C Company 5th Battalion The Royal Australian Regiment. The Company Commander (Bourne) Company 2IC (Milligan) and the Forward Observer (Williams – NZ) were all OCS graduates albeit in different classes. That point was never made as far as I can recall when I was a Cadet.
Hi Steve,
It has almost been a year since your post on the deaths of three of our graduates on the same day in SVN, now so many years ago. I served with Don “Slim” Bourne as a fellow training Platoon Commander at 1 RTB, Kapooka, before he was reposted. Following my reposting to 2 RAR in 1960, I met Bruce Milligan when he was serving in the unit as a Corporal. He applied and was accepted as an Officer Cadet while serving with 2 RAR. Bruce excelled at Portsea. I never met our NZ graduate Williams, but in my tour in SVN (1967/8), our Direct Support Battery was 161 Field Battery, RNZA. This was a thoroughly professional Artillery sub-unit, and I am sure he was extremely well-trained and an efficient officer who did his unit, corps and country proud. RIP.