When The Thirty Three Came Home
Posted: Sat Oct 09, 2021 6:37 am
After so many years it was decided that thirty three services personal from the Vietnam conflict would
be returned home to be buried in Australian soil
WHEN THE THIRTY THREE CAME HOME
There were hundreds on the tarmac as the thirty three came home
and they watched the flag draped coffins carried from the aerodrome.
For so many it was closure after fifty years of pain
as remains of long lost loved ones were now welcomed home again.
They were fathers, sons and lovers who had sailed off to that war
and had died there serving country and were not seen any more.
While among them where two spouses and six children left behind,
laid in Terendak and Kranji where they had been confined.
Kevin Conway died in Nam Dong back in nineteen sixty four;
he was first to die in battle in that long and costly war.
There was no repatriation for the fallen way back then
and despite the plea from fam’lies, yes heard time and time agen.
But in time the politicians they would right the wrong at last,
after years of consultation and the struggles from the past.
We are mindful as a Nation and each one of us reflects
on the sacrifice they offered and we pay our last respects
How the tears and mixed emotions from the fam’lies could be seen,
as they lingered over mem’ries of those long years in between.
But you sensed they knew the fallen were at last now here to stay
when the thirty three came home at last on that momentous day.
Merv Webster
be returned home to be buried in Australian soil
WHEN THE THIRTY THREE CAME HOME
There were hundreds on the tarmac as the thirty three came home
and they watched the flag draped coffins carried from the aerodrome.
For so many it was closure after fifty years of pain
as remains of long lost loved ones were now welcomed home again.
They were fathers, sons and lovers who had sailed off to that war
and had died there serving country and were not seen any more.
While among them where two spouses and six children left behind,
laid in Terendak and Kranji where they had been confined.
Kevin Conway died in Nam Dong back in nineteen sixty four;
he was first to die in battle in that long and costly war.
There was no repatriation for the fallen way back then
and despite the plea from fam’lies, yes heard time and time agen.
But in time the politicians they would right the wrong at last,
after years of consultation and the struggles from the past.
We are mindful as a Nation and each one of us reflects
on the sacrifice they offered and we pay our last respects
How the tears and mixed emotions from the fam’lies could be seen,
as they lingered over mem’ries of those long years in between.
But you sensed they knew the fallen were at last now here to stay
when the thirty three came home at last on that momentous day.
Merv Webster