Caring for the families of those who served their country

WRITTEN BY LEWIS GENTLE

For the last 15 years, the word war, has taken many figurative forms. Shielding itself beneath
the rhetoric of ambiguity. The war on poverty, the war on terror, the war on drugs. Politicians
have hijacked the word war, polished it off, and left it to resemble an undying crusade being
waged in the name of liberty. This is not what war represents. War is no crusade for greater
good. War is the sacrifice made by young men and women, in the name of protecting their
country. It is no easy task to look at the grimacing effects of war on young Australian lives,
but it is an important one. Legacy Australia is an altruistic organisation whose sole duty has
been caring for the families of deceased or incapacitated veterans since World War One.
Through Legacy, thousands of families and children across Australia have been partly
emancipated from the economic and social grievances that arise from having a loved one
critically or fatally harmed at war. It is an organisation of great humility, which has been
making momentous differences to the lives of those facing the unthinkable for more than
ninety years. Legacys presence in current Australian society remains indispensable.
The realities of war have often been hard to uncover, and even harder to understand. Despite
the modern worlds vast access to objective and accurate reporting, a logical understanding of
war is still limited by our deficit of emotional understanding, and physical disconnect. The
nature of our emotional shortcomings is incapacitating, and can be attributed to our
desensitisation through over-exposure, and the acceptance of war as a central part of life, as
though it were a natural phenomena. Australias wartime history is riddled with many abuses
of propaganda, which have incited even the most passive young Australians, to bear arms and
fight for an unknown cause. This tendency for manipulation in the name of Australias
national security had its genesis during World War One. The media was being tightly censored
by the War Precautions Act (1914), which allowed such tragically misleading ideas to flow
freely through the minds of Australias youth. The hardship, suffering, and ultimate butchery
of the first world war, was never exposed to the people it would affect the most. TAG is a book
written by Barry Heard, which tells the true story of Jack Campbells experiences as a digger
in WWI. Heard talks of how Campbell was enticed into service through the Australian
governments use of propaganda materials; The press and government were persistent.
Already, they were hinting that those not willing to enlist werent patriotic. The pressure, the
persuasiveness, the fervour, and the excitement was a powerful mixture in a one-sided
argument, and it gradually enticed the doubters [to enlist]. Heard also conveys the nature by
which Campbell and his fellow diggers were restricted from freely recording their experiences
at war, One entry a day permitted. No private diaries - offenders will be charged Barely
one sentence could fit in the designated space for each day; every page represented a week.
The medias sensationalism - which originated from government censorship - and the
aggressive motivation of shame, were part of the reason why over 60,000 young Australians
were killed, and a further 156,000 seriously injured during this brutal war. With these
unfathomable statistics in mind, consider that this was only one war, Australias first war.
Misinformation and callous misrepresentation of war have also dragged young Australians
through the likes of World War Two, The Korean War, The Vietnam War, The Iraq War, and
more recently The Afghanistan War. More than one-hundred thousand Australians have died at
war. It is hard to enumerate how many of these young lives were mislead in their journey to
systematic annihilation. Though it is certain that on their day of enlistment, the realities of
their respective wars were not entirely made apparent.
The falsehoods of our nations wartime history are slowly being revealed, and through
firsthand accounts, being corrected. One such account is that of Barry Heard (in his autoPage 1!

biography Well Done Those Men), who was both a victim of, and witness to, propaganda in
times of warfare. In February of 1966, as part of the third intake of National Servicemen,
Heard was conscripted to fight in Vietnam - he had just turned twenty-one. In Well Done
Those Men, Heard professes the following, I had no idea what lay ahead. If I had, I might
never have hopped onto the bus. Heards conscription was approved by his father who was
pleased he would be stopping the bloody communists, which as far as Heard was concerned,
was a type of sheep. Before even leaving Australia, Heard recounts the endless abuse he
faced in recruit and infantry training. All questions about Vietnam or the war were
aggressively subdued, From day one, we were told, Dont think. Dont ask questions. Youre
not paid to. After twelve months of infantry training, Heard had been transformed from his
youthfully spirited self, to a red-blooded soldier who could now smoke, swear, and drink.
Heard arrived in Vietnam as a vessel of anxiety and fear. When he arrived at his station, Heard
could not believe how much alcohol his new platoon were drinking. Within a few minutes of
his arrival a loud blast went off, yet Heard was the only one petrified by its magnitude, the rest
of his platoon remained unfazed, continuing to drink. The longer Heard was in Vietnam, the
more accustomed he became to his violent surroundings. The daily regiment of entering the
jungle in small groups, murdering people, stripping their bodies, and drinking himself to sleep,
was psychologically cataclysmic for Heard. Well Done Those Men was published in 2005,
thirty years after the end of the Vietnam War. In terms of understanding the humanity of
Vietnam veterans, Heard provides a level of insight that was suppressed upon returned
soldiers arrival home. It is this insight that has allowed us to re-align our decadent retellings
of history with truth and legitimacy. Yet there are events in Australian history whose precedent
is so strong, that no-matter how many damaging facts come to light, its original stoicism will
remain untouched.
The public perception of returned soldiers over the last one-hundred years has often, at times,
been wildly at odds with the reality of these changed people. Upon the return of the Australian
soldiers who fought at Gallipoli, reverence and recognition were abundant, and ANZAC Day
became a yearly event of significance and remembrance. The returned soldiers were perceived
to be tough and enduring - for many, merely having survived the war meant that a soldiers
personal wellbeing was favourable. The authenticity of these hopeful perceptions proved to be
majorly false. In truth, the returned soldiers of World War One had been irrevocably changed.
Depression, violence, alcoholism, and suicide were of the most commonly found
circumstances that returned soldiers and their families endured. These problems were labeled
as shellshock, which at the time, had very few open avenues of rehabilitation. With World
War Two, this same pattern of prestige and recognition, being followed by physiological
suffering, repeated itself. Upon the initial return of Vietnams Australian soldiers, our nation
had a different perspective. Vietnam was Australias first war to be televised to the homes of
Australian citizens. To our modern society, access to legitimate imagery of a war is seen as
commonplace, yet to Australians of the 60s, it was revolutionary, and confronting. The raw
realities of this war were being expressed to the masses, through black and white footage that
flickered with grain on millions of CRT television sets. Brutalist imagery of the United States
and Australias overwhelmingly superior firepower flooded the media. As the war continued,
Australians grew more and more resentful with their nations presence in Vietnam. By 1970,
Vietnam was Australias longest military engagement since federation. Following protests in
America, thousands of Australians came together in moratorium to demonstrate discontent
with the realities of the Vietnam war. The unrest grew rapidly, Heard recalls having the phrase
Killer, murderer! Shame, Shame! screamed at him, after being recognised by protestors as a
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returned soldier of Vietnam. While Heard was routinely perceived to be a living instrument of
vitriol and violence, his own mental wellbeing began to accelerate into deterioration. As
symptoms of shellshock and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder began to set in (I had some
dreadful nightmares. I woke the lady next door one night with screams and shouting, waking
up wet, shaking, and in total fear., I got debilitating pains in crowds and trains, and inside
large places.) Heards anguish was amplified by shame, I was very hard on myself,
ashamed that I wasnt coping What right did I have to feel bad?. Even Australias most
recognisable institution for returned soldiers - The Returned Services League - abandoned the
welfare of Heard and all other returned diggers of Vietnam. The phrase, Sorry, you cant
become a member, was truly evidential of Australias changing perspectives of returned
soldiers. Indeed, the nature of the Vietnam War was vastly different from its historical
precedents, though, regardless of these differences, the negative effects this war had upon
those who served, were of equal severity. The experiences of Barry Heard demonstrate how
returned soldiers became the publics outlet for emotional protest against the realities of this
war. It was the first war where returned soldiers were not recognised for their stoicism and
bravery, which lead to amplifying the already intense nature of shellshock. Yet, despite how
truly adverse the effects of war had been for Vietnams returned soldiers, many simply
expected those young men to continue with life as they had done previously. With these
aspects of a returned soldiers life in mind, it only stands to reason why a suicide rate of 23%
was a reality among these isolated men. All of these elements support the fact that opinions
and perspectives of returned soldiers, have at times, been truly at odds with the realities of
who Australias returned soldiers were and what they endured once back in Australia. The
hardships of returned soldiers was not limited to themselves, as families were shaken by the
deaths and or impairment of loved ones, one organisation - Legacy - stood to genuinely care
for these families.
The role of Legacy in supporting the families of those who have been killed or injured in
service, is sadly more important now, than it has ever been. Legacy began in World War One,
and found its true calling - assisting the families of deceased or incapacitated servicemen - in
1925. Legacy is a private organisation, whose continued operation relies entirely on
contribution by the Australian community. These contributions come in the forms of corporate
and individual donations, fundraising through events like Legacy Week, and voluntary work.
Once a family has been recognised as being in need of Legacys service, a voluntary legatee often an ex-serviceman - dedicates themselves to providing direct care and support for the
family. Legacy aids widowed mothers through legal advocation for pensions, by relieving
financial hardships, combatting social isolation, and providing medical and respite care.
Children are especially supported through the provision of scholarships, assistance with school
fees and costs, and opportunities such as camps and outward bound programs. Through a
legatee, children who have lost either their mother or father can find comfort in knowing that
there is someone looking out for them. Legacy has helped save countless kids from lives of
isolation and loneliness by offering a support framework that inspires personal development
and greater wellbeing. In helping the families of incapacitated or deceased service men and
women, Legacy not only caters to the consequences of previous wars, but also looks towards
accomodating the needs of future generations, who may require Legacys support.
Unfortunately, the requirement of Legacys compassion has only risen in recent times. The
organisation currently stands to assist and nurture more than 90,000 widows, and a further
2100 children. Four out of every thousand people have had their lives directly impacted by
Legacys sense of duty and care. It is important to recognise that Legacy also caters for the
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future because over the last decade, more than 40,000 Australian troops have been deployed
into active service, and should any one of those forty thousand Australians be injured or killed,
the flame of Legacy will be available to shine for those who are in need of its warmth and
assistance.
As an institution that is selflessly dedicated to the needs of its beneficiaries, Legacy remains
loyal to its key values of respect, sense of duty, and resilience. The value of respect comes
from Legacys congruity with national service. This value manifests itself within the ideal that
all people deserve respect. Sense of duty is best symbolised by the iconic Badge of Legacy.
The torch is representative of the undying flame of sacrifice, handed down to Legatees by
their deceased comrades. It is this same spirit of duty that Legacy inspires within its
beneficiaries, allowing the work of Legacy to continue through generations, as the flame is
past on from one generation to another. Barry Heard felt the sense of duty passed to him in his
middle age. As Heards father had died during WWII, Heards mother was greatly assisted by
Legacy in overcoming the adversity facing not only herself, but her family. Heard answered
his sense of duty by becoming a Legatee, and was eventually responsible for twelve individual
widows. Finally, it is the value of resilience that Legacy is most notable for. To Legacy,
building resilience within its beneficiaries is vitally important. Stuart Smith - a Major General
in the Australian Army, and a child beneficiary of Legacy - spoke of the resilience that Legacy
imbued within him, at Legacys 79th National Conference; Through the weekly meetings at
the Legacy Club, and through the yearly camps I was made resilient. It is through diligent
dedication to these values by which Legacys work can transcend the generations, and
continue to help the tens of thousands who are in vital need of its assistance, support, and care.
The often horrific realities of war have historically been subdued and glorified by
governments, with the intention of coercing young men and women into national service. It is
sometimes this callous misrepresentation of war that has lead thousands of Australian service
men and women to premature demise. These misrepresentations have been uncovered in a
myriad of ways, which has allowed Australians to re-aligning their decorated understandings
of warfare, with truthful recount. One such truthful recount is that of Barry Heard, who was
conscripted into the Vietnam War. Heard speaks truth of this merciless war, and goes on to
convey the grief associated with being a returned soldier. This grief stood to be amplified by
the anti-war protests, which often directed their outcry towards the returned diggers of
Vietnam. Australias perspective on returned soldiers had greatly changed since the first world
war, where diggers were congratulated and honoured for their service. For the families of
those who lost a loved one to circumstances of war, Legacys torch of compassion shines
brightly. Since 1925, Legacy has been providing undying support for the children and families
of incapacitated/deceased service men and women. It is through pension advocacy, combatting
social isolation, providing financial support and medical care, that Legacy can significantly
support these families through their time of hardship. More than 90,000 widows, and 2100
children are current beneficiaries of Legacys noble work. What is perhaps most astounding
about Legacy, is the nature by which their work can continue. Their three key values of
respect, sense of duty, and resilience are what make Legacys work so sustainable. It is
because of these three values, and Legacys desire help, that Legacy has been able to nurture
and monumentally help thousands of lives impacted by the effects of war on Australian lives.
Legacys work continues to this day, and under circumstances of darkness, the torch of Legacy
shines brightly upon those who need it most.
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