The night Murray McCooke left for Vietnam in 1969 “was like a scene from a Pommy war movie”.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The mist had rolled in at the Albury railway station and it was sleeting with rain as his mum, dad and brother bid farewell to the 21-year-old from Balldale.
“There was no one there – I was the only passenger to get on,” he recalled.
“The train just slowed, the doors opened, I threw in my kit bag and jumped in … and that was it.”
That platform holds poignant memories for Mr McCooke.
A year earlier – on May 1, 1968 – the fresh-faced farm lad joined nine other rookies bound for Kapooka Army Training Centre.
On Wednesday those men who became lifelong mates will mark the 50th reunion of that fateful meeting as part of Albury’s Anzac Day celebrations.
Sadly two of the original number have gone – Ray "Tubby" O'Bryan and Henry "Killer" Karwowski.
But seven of the remaining eight will attend the dawn service, breakfast at the SS&A club and march in the Anzac parade down Dean Street to the monument.
Mr McCooke will then proudly lead the RSL formalities of the traditional rival footy clash between Albury and North Albury.
It’s a time for old friends to reminisce and to reflect on the journeys they’ve taken since the call-up came.
Of the 10 men called into service, six were sent to Vietnam, Mr McCooke said.
It was an “unpopular war in Australia” and soldiers never expected the treatment they’d receive on their return home.
“It was the first war without uniforms – the Viet Cong were men, women and children,” he said.
“What happened on the battlefield during the day was on the TV news at night.
“The impression was of a massacre by the US.”
When his family met the returned soldier at Albury airport, not a word was said.
“By lunch time I was on a tractor ploughing a paddock,” Mr McCooke said.
“When I came home I re-commenced playing football for Corowa.
“In one of the games when I ran on to the ground, I was spat on by some women and called a child killer.”
Mr McCooke spent the next decades battling the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder.
He is the first to admit he put his wife and children through hell during those lonely years struggling with the trauma of what he saw and experienced.
“You carry home massive baggage and it’s there until you die, no matter how much treatment you get,” he said.
But he looks forward to Anzac Day each year as a chance to “pay our respects to our forebears and current serving defence forces”.
“It’s not just about those serving or those who have been killed – it’s also about their families,” Mr McCooke added.
For him personally, it’s also a time to give thanks.
“I’m lucky to be here,” said the grandfather who marks four years since a successful stem cell transplant to fight an aggressive cancer.
In March, he and wife Therese also celebrated their 47th wedding anniversary.
The pair had their first date at Mick and Judy O’Callaghan’s wedding after the two mates returned from Vietnam.
Now they are memories worth fighting for.