Vietnam vets gather to remember

REMEMBRANCE: Veterans of Victor Company, stand during the service: Gary Malcolm, Taranaki (left); Percy Blundell, Whangarei; and Neil Ure, Rolleston.

Masterton hosted the Vietnam War veterans of Victor 5 rifle company for their Queen's Birthday reunion and remembrance yesterday.

The get-together for the company was to have been held at Anzac Day in Australia, but when that fell through veteran Tweet Bird organised Masterton for their biennial event.

Victor 5 veterans last met in Masterton in 1989.

The reunion included a remembrance parade and service at the Cenotaph at Queen Elizabeth Park, with about 30 veterans marching.

Minister Jonathan Hooker led the service, while Masterton RSA president Bob Hill, who served in Vietnam in Victor 2, read the Vietnam Veterans' Poem.

Cadets from Masterton's 21 squadron Air Training Corp formed a catafalque guard around the cenotaph as veterans came forward to lay poppies.

New Zealand committed troops to the Vietnam War from 1965 to 1972, with nine rifle companies rotated.