With Anzac Day just two days away, one of the most decorated soldiers in Australian history is calling for Aussie schools to improve lessons about our nation’s military past.
Keith Payne, 89, appeared on 2GB radio on Monday morning where he spoke to host Alan Jones about his heroic efforts in the Vietnam War. He also said he doesn’t believe primary school children today appreciate or fully understand what happened in Australia’s wartime past and how important it is to keep the memory alive for those who were lost on the battlefield.
Payne, who was presented with the Victoria Cross – the highest award that can be honoured for bravery in times of war, is just one of 100 Australians to have been awarded the VC. He’s part of a new program, Bears for School, where 10 uniformed soldiers help primary school kids learn more about the war.
When asked whether he thought younger generations appreciated or abused the freedom he and so many soldiers fought for, Payne said schools needed to do more to education youngsters on the importance of their contribution.
“Well, the generation in between Vietnam and now, didn’t learn about Vietnam and didn’t appreciate what occurs in wars, whether it’s Vietnam or Korea or anywhere else,” he said. “The thing is now we say it’s time for the younger generation, through the bears and escorts to schools, to bring about an understanding of what the nation went through in the early years.”
The Vietnam vets were treated notoriously poorly when they returned home from the deployment, thanks in large to the protest movement against Australia’s involvement in the war. Many were spat on in the street and jeered at when they first walked in Anzac Day parades.
“Initially when I came home, it was a divided nation,” Payne recalled. “It was terrible for the Vietnam veteran and of course, we were blamed for a lot of things we never did. The proof of this is if they go back to Vietnam today, the Australians are thought of very highly because of the way we conducted ourselves in the war and everything.”
He explained to Jones that while many Vietnam veterans don’t talk about their time at war, he often thinks back at the many lives lost.
“Well, there’s a lot of things in the back of my mind I keep,” he explained. “The big thing at this part of the year is the poor buggers who lost their lives in defence of the nation, but how we and they have given us a free nation.”
It’s hoped that the new school program will help young kids learn more about the history of Australia’s military contribution.
“I think the bears are a good training aid for teachers to teach the younger generation about the development of our nation and how we lost so many people and thought about the immigration laws and everything else like that because we just needed men to develop the nation.”
Payne said he was “somewhat shocked” when the Queen herself presented him with his VC in Brisbane. During the war, he was credited for saving many lives when, under fire himself from the enemy, he somehow organised his men into a defensive perimeter and scanned the area for other wounded soldiers. He saved all of them.