Aged 20 and 21, respectively, they were part of the Australian war effort in Vietnam from April 1966 to May 1967.

They came to the same place through different pathways.

Wodonga-raised Ross had joined the military as part of the National Service scheme.

Wangaratta-born Eric had enlisted as a soldier in the Australian Army, convinced he would have been balloted in for the Vietnam War if he'd left it to chance anyway. (Coincidentally, his birth date was not drawn out.)

Private Leask and Private Hore were stationed at Nui Dat, which was a 1st Australian Task Force base now part of Ba Ria city. Nui Dat loosely translates to "dirt hill".

They were part of Delta Company, 5th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (5 RAR), which was based above the rubber plantation that became infamous for the Battle of Long Tan.

It was only through sheer luck that Private Leask missed that battle, which is still regarded as one of the most savage in Australian military history, gaining both US and South Vietnamese Presidential Unit Citations for gallantry.

"We had already been out the night before the 6RAR went out," Private Leask says.

"We went back out the next morning and it was the remains of a battle field; we had to bury all of the enemy dead."

At Nui Dat, Private Leask and Private Hore did day patrols in the plantation, overnight ambush missions and search and destroy missions routinely.

Eric remembers it still like it was yesterday.

"We were living in an area that was about as big as this shopping complex," Private Leask says, sitting out the front of Platinum Brew Cafe in Southside Terrace in Wodonga, recently.

"There were 140-odd blokes all living there together.

"We were all working together in the scrub.

"We were working seven days a week; sometimes you'd get Sundays off to do your washing!"

Private Hore says the conditions in Vietnam were consistently inhospitable, the daily downpour arriving like clockwork.

"At 3 o'clock every day it would pour rain; you could see it coming in," he says.

"We were wet all of the time; the skin was peeling off our feet.

"But you'd never take off your boots in case you had to move quickly and didn't have time to get them back on!"

Short of equipment and supplies in general, Private Leask says the shortage of socks stands out in his memory.

"We couldn't get proper supplies of socks," he recalls.

"I had to write home to Mum to send more woollen work socks.

"We were in wet clothes 99 per cent of the time and every day at dusk around 5pm, we'd be shivering, freezing cold!"

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Private Leask says Australians generally didn't like working with the Americans soldiers.

"They had never walked around in the bush at home," he says.

"The Americans walked around high or wasted most of the time; they made a lot of noise and then they relied on pure firepower.

"We knew how to walk around in the bush, quietly. We got a good reputation up there, like the Diggers of old!"

With limited resources at their disposal, Private Hore says the Australians had to rely on their wits, commonsense and resilience.

"We were short of equipment," he says.

"We had World War II gear and our Owen guns were from New Guinea!"

Private Leask's younger brother also served in the Vietnam War, coincidentally with overlapping posts.

Stationed in Saigon, now renamed Ho Chi Minh City, Private Leask says he took his chances to reunite with his brother.

"I thought I'd got away with it until I was asked to fall out on parade one morning by an officer a few weeks later," he said.

"Word had got back from Saigon!"

The Vietnam War was politically unpopular, further compounded by Australia's reliance on conscription.

"It was a waste of time and good men!" says Private Leask, matter-of-factly.

"The government's national service against the wishes of the people had generated a lot of hatred at home."

Private Hore agrees the war was political point-scoring for the Americans with the Australians staying true to their ally.

He says the response from the public when they returned home from their tour of duty is etched in his memory.

"When we marched through Sydney, people were throwing paint and spitting," he recalls.

"We came back in 1967 in an aircraft carrier, we marched through Sydney, I got on a train to Wodonga, then I went on leave and never returned to service."

Having served together in Vietnam for their 12-month tour, Private Leask and Private Hore lost touch for almost two decades.

Now living in Wodonga, they are in regular contact and join reunions to coincide with the Battle of Long Tan in August every other year.

With a shared experience of having served in a politically unpopular war amid unimaginable conditions, connection with other ex-servicemen is vital.

"The camaraderie is important; we all gel, we talk the same language," Private Leask says.

Both ex-servicemen with families of their own say the war fallout lives on in inter-generational health problems worldwide.

Private Leask says the impact of Agent Orange is still being felt.

"Agent Orange was there; there is no way you could get around it," he says.

"You know there is something in it but when you start to look into it you keep hitting brick walls."

Private Hore believes civilians often pay the highest price in wars.

"There was so much deformation in the local population in Vietnam there has to be a link (with Agent Orange)," he says.

With no Anzac Day march in Wodonga on Sunday, they will still reflect on the nation's history of service.

Lest we forget.

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