Harold 'Bon' Phefley suffered nightmares. Not just 'wake-up-with-a-jolt' nightmares.

He would wake up screaming. Given his mate was killed in front of him by the Japanese, it's little wonder.

Phefley was leaning over his mate trying to stop the blood flow when a Japanese soldier shot Bon.

The bullet went through the right side of his back and went out the left side, so across the body.

The wound forced him out of action for a brief time at Gona in New Guinea.

"He didn't speak about his mate, ever. In fact, Bon rarely spoke about the war at all. He certainly never spoke about the actual incident, but there were visible scars," Phefley's wife Val, who still lives in Wodonga, said this week.

It wasn't the only nightmare-like scare he had on the Kododa Trail.

"Bon was leading a group of about 18 men, trying to get to a rest point. They came across a group of Japanese soldiers (about 16 of them) who were eating their food so loudly and talking amongst themselves that they didn't hear the men passing," Val said.

"A mate of Bon's told me one time that Bon should have received a Military Medal for that act."

He might have missed out there, but Phefley didn't miss out too often.

He had the Africa Star Medal, the Pacific Star Medal. In fact, he had 11.

But years in New Guinea with the 2/14 Australian Infantry Battalion took its toll as he battled malaria.

"It was very debilitating," Val said.

"His mother had told me that at times she would have to change his bedding three or four times a night. The sheets would be wringing wet from the perspiration. Bon suffered terribly from about 1946 to '48."

The 2/14 Battalion was part of the 21^st Brigade 7^th Division, with volunteers mainly from Victoria.

The group fought in a number of campaigns, including Syria-Lebanon and New Guinea.

After fighting in Lebanon, the men re-trained in Australia to prepare for the mentally and physically draining jungle warfare.

The battalion arrived in Port Moresby in August, 1942 and started the Kokoda campaign with 546 men. At one stage it was down to 88.

By December 8, reinforcements had arrived and in brutal hand-to-hand fighting against the numerically superior force, 90 Japanese were killed or wounded. Six men from the 2/14 were wounded.

Gona was subsequently taken the next day. The battalion remained in the area for another month by which time only 21 fit personnel were left.

The impact of Kokoda can never be underestimated.

A number of historians say the Allies' success saved Australia from invasion and possible surrender.

Sergeant Phefley survived the horrors of the Kokoda Trail and was discharged on December 20, 1945.

In 1948, Phefley met Val, who was seven years younger..

"I was about 19 years of age and after Mass one Sunday morning, Bon said, hello Val, 'can I walk you home'?," Val said.

"He then asked the most important question, 'who did I barrack for'? Of course I said Collingwood, Bon was highly delighted. We went out a few times, but then I got a new boyfriend. About six months later Bon started calling me at work, and asked me out again. I said yes, and we were engaged by the time I was 20 and married at the age of 21 in 1949."

But after just three months, tragedy stuck.

Phefley's father (also Harold) was one of the three Wodonga Football Club players or officials killed when the team bus struck a fruit truck, which had broken down near Chiltern.

His father was only 50, while Bon was just 28.

Given he had already survived the horrors of New Guinea and now lost his dad, it would be enough to crush many. And Bon and Val had also just discovered they were expecting the first of five children.

"Bon was a very strong man. I suppose he got through it because he was faced with death from the war. He was obviously upset that his father passed away at a relatively young age. He just got on with life and made sure that his mother was cared for," he said.

To "just get on with life" is such a simple phrase, but, in reality, so difficult to do at times. But Phefley had shown enormous courage on the battlefield and he would just do it again with his family.

Footy was his other love.

"The Wodonga Football Club meant everything to Bon. It was the world to him. He spent many hours at the club, even in his later years, watching them train, going to meetings and, of course, going to games," Val said.

Phefley played for the Bulldogs, but it was off-field where he made the biggest impact, serving as secretary in the 1950s and on the committee for many years.

"Bon Phefley was perhaps the most committed official in the history of our club," Wodonga life member Lloyd Deane proclaimed.

"He gave a lifetime of service to our club. If he was on holidays the club would get a phone call from anywhere in Australia within five minutes of the expected final siren from Bon, wanting to know how we went.

"Bon was always donating money to the club and lending the club money when we were short.

"Wodonga's reserves best and fairest is called the Bon Phefley Memorial Trophy.

"Bon only retired from the club committee due to ill health about 10 days before he died."

Sport was his passion and he sent a number of articles to the-then The Border Morning Mail.

He had a link there too, fighting with Melbourne Mott in the Middle East.

The Motts were the original owners of the newspaper. Melbourne was chairman of the board, while Cliff was the editor.

"They bonded because of comradeship and perhaps because they were both local men. They were both in Palestine together," Val said.

Both Melbourne and Cliff Mott knew the type of man they were getting and Phefley threw himself into his new role, but technology wasn't his friend.

"You know, he was a two finger typist on the old typewriter back then," Val laughed. And a work colleague can vouch for that.

"He wasn't particularly quick on the typewriter and one of the funniest things was taking football teams on a Thursday night," Mark Mulcahy explained.

"I'd have a head-set on, but he'd just have the phone and someone would ring up and he'd say, 'backs' and the official would give the three names and Bon would put down the phone and tap in the three names, then he would pick the phone back up and take the next line and repeat it for every line on the field. I reckon I could get five teams to his one (laughs)."

But what he lacked in technical expertise, he made up for in integrity which, as we all know in footy, isn't that easy, particularly given his love of the Bulldogs.

"He was extremely well respected right throughout the Ovens and Murray, he was a very strong supporter of Wodonga, but highly respected by all the other football clubs," Mulcahy said.

The fact footy officials were prepared to wait for Phefley to finish each line was testament to his standing.

And he loved kids sport.

"Bon loved sports so much. He especially took an interest in young people and followed and encouraged them in their chosen sport. He encouraged many young people to follow their dreams," Val said.

"Bon and Des Martin would travel to schools and give talks on sports and also the history of Wodonga.

"Bon was also president of the Wodonga Historical Society for a couple of years."

And Mulcahy saw that passion first-hand.

"He started the Sanyo Junior Sports Award and he negotiated with Sanyo, which was a big company in Wodonga, they would run a junior sports award each year and have a weekly winner," he said.

Some people reading this will, no doubt, fondly recall winning that junior sports award and it was all because a sports journo had an idea to promote kids.

Phefley retired from the newspaper game in the 1980s as the computer age kicked off.

"Bon hated technology and he felt that he was too old to learn," Val said.

There's a certain irony in that Phefley was so courageous in battle and faced so many frightening situations during some of the bloodiest and most difficult land fighting of the Pacific War, yet was intimidated by technology.

Mind you, plenty of people of that vintage faced the same issues as life was changing before their eyes.

But some things never change in life. Like mateship and helping others.

"Bon made friends very easily and got on well with most people. He was a very intelligent man, who was thoughtful and very generous," Val said.

He showed that many times in battle, as well as during the long service with his beloved Wodonga Football Club.

"Perhaps Bon's committment to our club can be summed up by the following example. Our player David Greenhill had been hurt and Bon, Neil Murray and myself, plus others, had a roster to take David to rehabilitation in Lavington," Deane recalled of another sad moment in the club's proud history.

IN OTHER NEWS:

"One morning in 1993 I had a phone call from Val Phefley who said, 'Bon can't take David to rehabilitation this morning as Bon died overnight'.

"Only death could stop Bon Phefley from helping the Wodonga Football Club."