EVERY year on Anzac Day, Bill Wilcox stands in the dark, watching the Australian flag flutter against the first streaks of daylight in the eastern sky and listening to the haunting strains of The Last Post.
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Mr Wilcox, standing side-by-side with Oberon locals and visitors in the dawn, remembers the courage and sacrifice made by Australian and New Zealand soldiers on the beaches of Gallipoli, as well as on battlefields across the world.
But Mr Wilcox also remembers a very personal experience of war – his own, in the jungles of Vietnam.
Mr Wilcox, whose father was a World War Two veteran, is now the president of the Oberon RSL Sub Branch.
But his life was changed forever in 1968 when he was called up to serve in the Vietnam War.
He was 20 years old.
Mr Wilcox spent three months training at Kapooka in Wagga Wagga, and then headed home to spend Christmas with his family.
From there he went to the School of Military Engineering at Moorebank in Sydney for another three months of training and then to Canungra in Queensland for reinforcement training.
He was only home for one week before he got word that he was off to war.
In April of 1969, with his family watching, Mr Wilcox boarded a plane at Mascot airport, bound for Ho Chi Minh City. He was then flown by Caribou plane to Nui Dat, to begin operations the next day.
Mr Wilcox was a field engineer, which meant he was in charge of checking villages, tunnels and bridges, as well as seeking out mines.
“If they found a mine that hadn’t exploded, we had to explode it,” he said.
Once he found a massive unexploded B52 bomb which had been dropped from an American bomber and carried it down a hill so it could be disposed of safely.
The day that changed Mr Wilcox’s life was July 21, 1969, when he and his team of engineers were called out on an urgent mission.
“We got word that the 6th Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment, had walked into a minefield and we had to go and rescue the soldiers and replace the engineers,” he said.
Mr Wilcox and his team were winched in by helicopter, and they began the terrifying task of picking their way towards the wounded through the minefield.
“We found a marker on a tree with three prongs, which meant there were three mines,” Mr Wilcox said.
One mine had already exploded, killing one soldier and wounding others.
Another mine had been found and exploded, leaving only one to find.
The engineers had laid “safe lanes” on the ground to the wounded, so it was clear where it was safe to walk.
As they made their way carefully to help the wounded men, a medical officer stepped outside the safe lane and directly onto the hidden mine.
The only thing that saved Mr Wilcox’s life was the fact the mine had malfunctioned – it exploded under the soil rather than popping up above ground.
The officer who stepped on the mine was flung to one side, and Mr Wilcox and others were knocked off their feet and showered with shrapnel and dirt.
The explosion took the life of Mr Wilcox’s friend Private Johnny Needs.
Mr Wilcox lay on the ground with around 60 shrapnel wounds on his left side and his hand and knee smashed.
He said he remembers the intense heat of the wounds.
“Only one spot on my left side was untouched, and that was where the battery pack for the mine detector I was carrying sat on my upper leg,” he said.
Mr Wilcox was put on a stretcher strapped to the skid of a helicopter. He remembers seeing the trees as he was flown over the jungle.
He was read his last rites on the way to hospital and again at the hospital.
“They didn’t think I would live,” he said.
When the news of the mine incident got out, it shared the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald with the news that American astronauts has landed on the moon.
Mr Wilcox spent six days in intensive care in an American hospital at Vung Tau, and was then sent to an Australian hospital for a week before flying home to Australia.
He couldn’t walk for three months.
Mr Wilcox still had six months of his deployment left, and despite his injuries, he insisted on finishing his service.
He spent his time driving trucks and carrying out tasks for the Australian military.
In 2010, Mr Wilcox returned to Vietnam with his wife Sue to the exact spot where he was injured 41 years before.
He has carried the scars of Vietnam with him over the decades, with many pieces of shrapnel still lodged in his body.
In 2011, he had a knee replacement where the surgeon was able to remove pieces of metal he had carried for more than 40 years.
Mr Wilcox proudly keeps them in a small glass bottle.
Despite the passing of years, Mr Wilcox’s dedication has remained the same.
As well as being president of the Oberon branch, he is also president of Blue Mountains RSL.
Mr Wilcox and secretary of the Oberon branch Neville Stapleton have worked tirelessly to build the branch building, and today it is the home of countless war artifacts, uniforms, weapons, letters and medals.
Mr Wilcox has also worked to establish a sister city relationship with Eceabat in Turkey in 2005, and has built a very special relationship with the city on the Gallipoli Peninsular.
In 2010, after many visits and returned visits, the Oberon RSL Sub Branch unveiled a moving monument in its grounds. The monument was a replica of the Ataturk Stone in Gallipoli, which records the words of the first president of Turkey, Kemal Ataturk, where he comforted the mothers of the soldiers lost at war that their sons were at rest in the soil of a friendly country.
Mr Wilcox and other volunteers also take care of Legacy war widows in the community, doing odd jobs and even taking them out on outings.
He also leads memorial services at the branch every Anzac Day and Remembrance Day, as well as holding them in surrounding villages and schools.
Mr Wilcox said it was still an emotional experience to lead these services, even after all these years.
“When you do get up to do these speeches, it is hard to get through it,” he said.
Mr Wilcox said it was very heartening to see young people getting involved in Anzac Day ceremonies.
“It is so great to see. Especially the way school kids are taking it on,” he said.
Mr Wilcox said he was worried about the spirit being kept alive after veterans like himself were too old to hold services.
He is encouraging Oberon community members to join the RSL Sub Branch as affiliate members, which are people who have not served personally but have family members or ancestors who have served in any war.
These members could help the branch with its museum, help war widows and help with services.
Despite Mr Wilcox’s enormous contribution to his community, he merely sees it as doing his job, and honouring those who have fought, and died, for our country.
But like all brave servicemen and women who have defended our country in all wars, and especially today, he deserves our respect and thanks for his dedication and courage.
Lest we forget.
