Pictured in front of the Vietnam Cross at the Moama RSL sub-branch memorial garden were, from left: Moama RSL sub-branch chaplain Fr John Tinkler, Campaspe Mayor Chrissy Weller, Victorian leader of The Nationals and Member for Murray Plains Peter Walsh, Moama RSL sub-branch president Ken Jones, Major William ‘Yank’ Akell and NSW RSL president Ray James OAM.
The 250-plus people who turned out for Friday’s official dedication and opening of the Moama RSL sub-branch’s Memorial Garden also shared in an unexpected, poignant and deeply personal connection.
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After officially declaring the garden open, guest of honour and Vietnam veteran and Battle of Long Tan hero, Major William ‘Yank’ Akell CSM (retired), shared a service story stretching across 50 years but with a direct link to Moama — after the garden was blessed by sub-branch chaplain Father John Tinkler.
A section of the more than 250 locals and visitors from as far as Sydney at Friday’s opening of the Moama RSL sub-branch memorial garden.
Major Akell told guests Father ‘Tink’ had baptised his son David while the battalion, in which both were serving, was posted in Singapore in 1972 and that he was “delighted to catch up with Tink again and find out what he has been up to in recent years”.
If Moama sub-branch president Ken Jones had been looking for confirmation about his address on the history and tradition of the military reaching down through the generations, he couldn’t have planned it better had he even been remotely aware of the connection.
“Both Yank and Tink are Vietnam veterans; but I was as gobsmacked as everyone else when Yank took the microphone and told everyone here today about the history of their relationship,” Ken says.
“And they weren’t the only history makers either,” he says.
“Ray James OAM, who was good enough to travel from Sydney to be here today, is the first Royal Australian Navy veteran in the 106 years of the NSW RSL to be its state president.
“The son of a WWII veteran, he joined the Navy as a 15-year-old recruit and completed 20 years full-time, including Vietnam, and a further 26 years in the Royal Australian Navy Reserve, before retiring with the rank of Chief Petty Officer.”
Campaspe Shire Mayor Chrissy Weller laying a wreath at Friday’s opening of the Moama RSL sub-branch’s Memorial Garden.
Major Akell, whose Long Tan heroics were included in the movie Danger Close, has always insisted he was doing nothing other than his role in his platoon.
During that battle the 10 Platoon radio controller had been wounded, a bullet going straight through his body and damaging his radio set. Akell, then a 21-year-old army private, and signaller for Delta company, was ordered to try and find the platoon to re-establish radio communication amid the mud and shattered trees of the rubber plantation in which the battle was being fought.
“People have asked me about what I did but I didn't think anything of it, simply because it was my role,” he says.
“I was a signaller, and I knew the platoon had no communication, it was as simple as that,” he says.
“It wasn’t until I left headquarters that I thought, ‘where is the 10th platoon?’ ... I knew roughly where they could be. All I could see was the backs of guys who were fighting ... it’s something you just do automatically. My job.”
Retired army Major William ‘Yank’ Akell (right), keynote speaker at the service, and Moama RSL sub-branch president Ken Jones.
By the time the 1966 battle ended, the 108 Australians of Delta Company has lost 18 men killed and 24 wounded while it is estimated the 2500 Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops had lost 600 killed and a further 1000 wounded.
Victorian leader of The Nationals and Member for Murray Plains Peter Walsh pays his respects after laying his wreath at the opening of the Moama RSL sub-branch memorial garden.
Ken says the Memorial Garden now belongs to the whole community, and he would love to see it used by everything from school groups to private individuals on top of RSL members.
He says the garden is “seriously different” from many war memorials in that it clearly represents all three arms of the military — Army, RAN and RAAF — and exhibits also include extensive data from World War I to the present day.
“Oh, yes, in case you were wondering about Major Akell’s nickname, well like many Australians he is a migrant. Born in Boston in the US, his parents brought him to Australia as a toddler,” Ken added.
“The rest, as they say, is history — and a very heroic history,” he said.
