The Invisible wives and partners of Vietnam Veterans | Society & culture website
The Invisible wives and partners of Vietnam Veterans
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18.01.2022 I received this message from a Vietnam Veteran- what a wonderful soldier My wife was my rock. Unfortunately I lost her in 2011. I believe that her sacrifice was more than mine , so when she passed away I put my medals on her chest as I believed she deserved them more than me.
07.01.2022 I could not cope watching television coverage of the Vietnam war, nor could I cope with well-meaning friends and relatives talking about it. I put myself on permanent night duty where I was nursing, so I could work all night, sleep all day with the help, of sleeping tablets ...completely blocking out the worry and sadness that I was feeling. Each Sunday morning my mother and I used to cook a fruit cake to send over to my husband. Once cooled I remember how we had to wrap it... in greaseproof paper, then sew it into a calico outer wrapping write the address on the calico and then take it to a post office on the Monday. Most of these found their way to the Red Cross to distribute to the troops. At one stage, I contacted the Army headquarters in our city. I asked them if they could tell me where I could contact other Vietnam Veterans wives so that I had someone who understood what I was going through. The answer was an emphatic ...no.. A few days later I received a letter in the mail from the Army stating that I was never to associate with other wives of Vietnam vets and I was not to disclose my home address to anyone. They explained in the letter that the communist party were very active in our city and were trying to find out where we women lived, upon which they would say that our husbands had been killed in Vietnam. The army explained that they would knock on our door and tell us should our husbands be killed. I went hysterical with this letter and I remember my father having to stay with me and calm me down. This letter had always stayed with me, tearing at my emotions over many years, and it was a relief to meet another woman who had received exactly the same letter. I was devoid of social interaction during my husband’s war service, his family never contacted me, nor did they contact their brother in Vietnam. His father was very involved in moratorium movement as he worked for a university...so upsetting to me and to his son who was fighting a war in Vietnam. The army delivered my husband home to me a very troubled, introverted man who showed no emotion at all. Our life has been dramatically changed by his war service, his health has deteriorated over the years. I am tired, tired of going to psychiatrist appointments, heart specialists See more
07.01.2022 Hilton was involved with the choppers as ground crew and search and destroy missions in the search of tunnel entrances from the air and also marked the area with Willy Pete’s ( white phosphorus) as an aim point for the Phantoms fighter aircraft. Other members of aviation were also involved in the same practice. This included night flying in fixed wing aircraft illuminating a fire fight from the air with flares. They were dropped over an enemy position as called in by friendly forces.
06.01.2022 Another excerpt from my book. The struggles were enormous... I was 25 years old when my husband went off to Vietnam from 1965 to 1966 for 379 long days. We had 4 children 20 months, 3 years and 8 months, 5 years and 6 years and 8 months. They were all in good health as was I while he was away. I don’t remember receiving any support while he was away. As we lived in the Wacol Army Village, a lot of neighbours were in the same place as me so we sort of supported each other. My ...family being my mother, father and my husbands family visited a couple of times as they were not living close by. I wrote to my husband on a regular basis and I waited for his letters, which I still have to this day. I was very fearful we would never see him again. Days would go by with no word from him (no such things as phones in those days). Then came that awful news about the Battle of Long Tan. My husband was with Artillery 4th Field Regiment that day and fought in that battle. Waiting for news of his well being was just unbearable. In saying that, he survived and came home to us. Life went on and we were together for 60 years when sadly he passed away. We were married for 57 years and went on to have 7 grandchildren. See more
