Bill Wilcox feels like a chapter in his life has ended after returning last week to the site where he was critically injured in the Vietnam War 41 years ago.
Bill and his wife Sue spent eight days in Vietnam touring areas where Australian soldiers served during the war, and where Bill served at the age of 21.
The couple travelled with a group of 14 people, including five ex-veterans of the Vietnam War. One of the most emotional parts of Bill's tour was entering the jungle where he was injured, which is now a Viet Cong training camp. The group were only allowed access because they were involved in the incident that occurred there 40 years ago.
Bill was among a group of soldiers sent in to rescue Lieutenant Peter Hines, Commander of Three Platoon, Alpha Company of 6RAR/NZ, and a group of engineers from a land mine area.
Lieutenant Hines was killed and 17 were injured when a land mine exploded.
Bill can remember getting dropped off by helicopter and seeing Lieutenant Hines' body lying by the road. Bill was only a metre from another landmine when it exploded, killing Corporal John Needs and flinging shrapnel at Bill and two other soldiers.
Bill was hit with shrapnel from the ribs to his lower legs, barring a square on his upper leg where the battery for the mine detector sat. “That battery probably saved me from losing my leg,” he said.
Bill said thankfully the mine exploded underground, and it was this fact that he is here today. He was critically injured and was transported to an American Hospital, where he was operated on to remove some of the shrapnel.
After 10 days, Bill was sent home to Australia, and spent six months in hospital, unable to walk for three months.
Bill said pieces of shrapnel continued to appear for years after he was injured, and to this day he still has shrapnel in his knee and up his left side.
The only possession Bill brought home with him from the war was the watch he was wearing when he was hit with the land mine, and he made sure he took it when he returned.
"To be able to find the exact spot, it was unreal," he said.
Bill also visited his camping site, which was found with the use of some army maps and GPS, but mostly his memory.
"I went to two spots I hadn't seen for 40 years," he said Bill and Sue also attended the memorial of the Battle of Long Tan while in Vietnam, which was attended by 450 people, including Vietnamese, Australian and New Zealanders.
It was at this memorial that Bill met up with Father Tom Shanahan, 1 ATF 1969/1970, the Chaplain who visited him when he was in the American
hospital.
Bill was also able to bring home some items that he was unable to bring with him during the war, including a "tunnel rat" torch, a switch for a Claymore mine, a Viet Cong uniform and a compass.
Bill said he never thought he would return to these war sites from his past, but that it was a DVD he saw while at a Vietnam reunion last year that made him go.
Bill said now that he has returned to Vietnam, it is like a chapter of his life has ended.
"It feels like it has finished," he said.
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