Private Patrick Halley receives retrospective service award in Hobart, 53 years after returning from the Vietnam War

Oh yeah, bad experience. I never thought it would be was rap. If I was, I thought he’d just sit down under a gun. The then 20 year old served with a small group of Australians attached to the 135th Assault Helicopter Company, which was an experimental unit in Vietnam. Nicknamed EMU, it was made-up of pilots and aircrew from the United States Army and the Royal Australian Navy. You look at, they might get the bloody job done. And that’s exactly what they did. No more, no less. They adapted. They overcame everything that was thrown at them. And they did the job to the best of their ability. The Vietnam veteran has finally been awarded for his service and received his gunner’s wings 53 years after coming home. Congratulations, Pat. Thank you. 9 door Gunners had been recognised long ago but it took the Australian Defence Force 5 decades to find the 10th. I never realised there was such a thing until one of the blokes in the company wrote a book about memorabilia and I had a look in there and there was 9 names on the list. It just takes time for these things. So the uniqueness of the situation in a in a warlike operation. Those who served with Mr. Halley couldn’t be prouder. He’s really good. He was a good soldier and and his job wouldn’t. Yeah, I’m very pleased for him. The Fleet Air Museum in Nowra in NSW now has all 10 names on their honour Wall.