Returning WW1 Soldiers - Adelaide, South Australia

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Model T Ford Forum: Forum 2012: Returning WW1 Soldiers - Adelaide, South Australia
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By David Chantrell - Adelaide, Australia on Sunday, October 14, 2012 - 03:08 am:

Trawling through our wonderful collections within our State Library I came across these two photos c1918 taken of returning soldiers leaving the old Adelaide Railway Station to a parade down North Terrace and what looks like Rundle Street!

I love the Renault taxi on the right. Adelaide had a number of pre-war Renault taxis; they gave years of sterling service.


Photo courtesy of the State Library of South Australia PRG280/1/15/466


Photo courtesy of the State Library of South Australia PRG280/1/15/509


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dave Huson, Berthoud, Co. on Sunday, October 14, 2012 - 03:24 am:

David Chantell:

Very interesting pictures. The really had the soldiers packed in the lead car. It sure had the steps.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Aaron Griffey, Hayward Ca. on Sunday, October 14, 2012 - 12:10 pm:

The lead car(bus}is carrying the band.
Blow it up. See the bass drum at the rear, and the drummer standing up.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dick Lodge - St Louis MO on Sunday, October 14, 2012 - 12:15 pm:

Did the band play "Waltzing Matilda"?


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Steve in Tennessee on Sunday, October 14, 2012 - 12:57 pm:

And the band played Waltzing Matilda, as they carried us down the gangway.

But nobody cheered, they just stood and stared, and they turned their faces away.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dick Lodge - St Louis MO on Sunday, October 14, 2012 - 02:15 pm:

Yep. That's what I had in mind....


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Roger Karlsson, southern Sweden on Sunday, October 14, 2012 - 05:38 pm:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GPFjToKuZQM


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Mike Garrison on Sunday, October 14, 2012 - 06:50 pm:

Man that video is something else. I've never seen it before and as always I've got a story to tell.

When I boarded the plane at Cam Rahn Bay in 1971 we took off on an overcast day. I'd always heard that when we cleared the coast of Viet Nam the guys on board would cheer and all hell would break loose. And I sat and wondered how we could cheer. We weren't even close to home. And when we looked down and saw the coast, the pilot came on and said we're leaving Viet Nam and this was our last chance to see it. And you could have heard a pin drop in the cabin of that plane. Well you could have heard it if the engines weren't so loud but you know what mean. And as we flew past the coast and out across the water we stayed quiet. I sat there and I thought about the year I'd just gone through and it felt a little sad because of memories of those we left there and the blood that we saw spilled for a country that didn't give a damn. But we had done what we were asked to do. And I thought about how strange it was that we could one day be in a place where we had to worry about being wounded or killed and the next day the worry was gone and only memories remained. So we flew. And when we finally reached the Seattle/Tacoma airport it was overcast and we had to fly into a thunder storm. As we were going through there was a lot of tension in the plane. And then we broke through the clouds and the Captain announced we were landing in a few minutes. And the soldiers in the cabin of the plane started to yell and cheer. Magazines were flying along with paper cups and anything else we could get our hands on. And the flight attendants (all women) just stood in the galley and watched and let it run it's course. We were home.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Steve in Tennessee on Sunday, October 14, 2012 - 07:38 pm:

The song is special to me. A couple of years ago I was flying out of San Antonio and noticed a very young soldier with his legs gone in a wheel chair. With him was a Staff Sergeant with a Combat Medical Badge...they were talking while most of the crowd at the gate "turned their eyes away," just as in the song. So I went over and talked to both for a bit and gave the young man (turned out to be a spec 4) my first class upgrade all the way to Atlanta...a 2.5 hour flight... woo hoo. The young man said this was his first time ever on a commercial flight and made a fuss...I told him he had probably earned a leather seat and a glass of free orange juice. It was his first trip home since returning from Iraq. The guy with the CMB was trying to get home from the Advanced NCO Course before his wife delivered...she was already in labor.

So I get on the plane and take his seat just behind first class. All these people come on and never say a word to either of the young men, but several stopped and told me I was "such a gentleman." I smiled but wanted to slap them all and tell them to turn around and go think the Spec 4, but I didn't.

The scene at Circular Key is oft repeated these days. Its a shame.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Aaron Griffey, Hayward Ca. on Sunday, October 14, 2012 - 07:56 pm:

In the pictures David posted you can be sure there was nobody there to spit at the soldiers, I'm sure.
After 'Nam there were soldiers being spit at in the San Francisco airport, and not just a few isolated cases.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Aaron Griffey, Hayward Ca. on Sunday, October 14, 2012 - 07:59 pm:

Thanks for posting the video link Roger.
Great story Mike, I have heard similar stories.
Good for you Steve, you will never regret what you did that day.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Mike Garrison on Sunday, October 14, 2012 - 09:39 pm:

Aaron, the taxi brought us into a door in the terminal where we were able to avoid the demonstrators when we went to get on our flights to our homes. He said he'd been doing it to avoid the violence. We also saw them at the gate into Ft Lewis Washington when we took the bus from SeaTac to turn down a free steak and a speech from some lifer. I went and called my family instead. I begged them not to put my Dad on the phone because I was afraid his tears would get mine started. So they put my sister on instead and she started bawling. You always hear stories from vets that came home from Nam, but you never hear any stories from the gutless draft dodgers who refused to go. I thought it was interesting to find out The Detroit City Madman (Ted Nugent) was a draft dodger. He goes on and on about being a friend of the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and that's admirable. But when it was his time to serve he ran and hid like a little girl. He's one of the reasons I won't join the NRA. And I own handguns.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dennis Halpin on Monday, October 15, 2012 - 02:35 am:

"Welcome Home Brother" Mike.
DJH
315th Air Div. USAF (C-130's)
Tan Son Nhut AB
Saigon (not Ho Chi friggin Minh City).
Viet Nam, 66-67


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By michael grady on Monday, October 15, 2012 - 08:34 pm:

And the band played Waltzing Matilda
As we stopped to bury our slain
We buried ours and the Turks buried theirs
Then it started all over again


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Mike Garrison on Tuesday, October 16, 2012 - 12:32 am:

Thanks Dennis, Same to you.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By David Chantrell - Adelaide, Australia on Tuesday, October 16, 2012 - 05:03 pm:

For the record Australia wasn't too proud either with our returning Vietnam veterans. I was very young but I can still remember the protesters at Parliament House and upon their return. It is only very recently, in the last 5-10 years or so, that they have been awarded their rightful place in Australia's military history. The National War Memorial in Canberra has a fitting inclusion.


Vietnam was still very much part of the Australian Army when I was in the Australian Army Reserves, Royal Australian Corps of Transport, 8 Sqn from 1988-93. All of our transport drills and disciplines came from the valuable experience & hard lessons learned in Vietnam.

The song "I was only 19" by Redgum (on youtube) is a great tribute to our veterans. May all the soldiers and loved ones that never made it back "Rest in Peace".


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By John Manuel, Lafayette, La. on Tuesday, October 16, 2012 - 06:08 pm:

What a heart breaking video. Reminds me of when I went to see the traveling Vietnam memorial. Looking at the names of all those poor guys that didn't come back and thinking of the ones that came home damaged was too much. I left and won't ever go again. I was one of the lucky ones that made it without any physical or emotional damage, if that's possible, but I can't help but question the wisdom of troops on the ground in most instances after going through the fruitless endeavor that was Vietnam.


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