Peter Dealy was only 19 when he joined the army, before celebrating his 21st birthday during the Vietnam War

On the day he turned 21 — in June 1968 — he didn’t even realise what date it was until it was well past.

Instead of having birthday cake and a few beers with his family, he was too busy fighting a war.

On the day he reached that traditional coming of age birthday he was involved in the 35-day Battle of Coral-Balmoral, one of the big battles of the Vietnam War.

“When we got back to base there was a birthday cake waiting,” he said.

“I hadn’t realised it, but I’d turned 21.

“You lose track of time out there.”

The delayed birthday celebrations were no doubt subdued after returning from what Mr Dealy describes as his “baptism of fire” in the war.

While in Vietnam, Mr Dealy’s role was working on listening posts.

He would be among a group of people who would watch where enemy fire was coming from and work together to help map the coordinates so the Australians would know exactly where the enemy was.

The information would be fed to headquarters and a gun battery could then be brought in to fire on that location.

Those in the listening posts had pretty basic equipment.

They had a board in front of them with north, south, east and west on it, a set of binoculars around their neck and a pair of night goggles.

“Your eyes and your ears were your main thing,” Mr Dealy said.

While much of Mr Dealy’s work was done around the perimeter of the base camp at Nui Dat, those from the listening post would also be sent to fire support bases out in the field.

It was at one of these fire support bases that the Battle of Coral-Balmoral took place.

While they were out patrolling for the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army, on that occasion Mr Dealy said the one Australian battalion he was with “just happened to lumber into the direct path of the North Vietnamese on their way to Saigon”.

The Australian guns were overrun, as was the mortar section.

And lives were lost.

It was the time when the enemy “got right up close” for Mr Dealy.

It is not a battle he likes to talk about even all these years later.

And it was definitely the biggest he was involved in while working out at fire support bases.

It was also the way he marked the actual date of his 21st birthday.

In a time when many young Australians were conscripted into national service and went to war, Mr Dealy was among those who chose the army life.

In similarities to the famous Redgum song about the Vietnam War, I was only 19, Mr Dealy was also only 19 when he enlisted in the Australian army.

As a young man, Mr Dealy wanted to go to war.

Part of a unit that was not going to be sent to war, Mr Dealy asked for a transfer to another unit that would go to Vietnam.

He was moved to the 131 Divisional Locating Battery, whose work centred around radar listening posts.

By February 1968 he was on his way to a 12-month stint in the Vietnam War.

By the time he returned to Australia, he had just six months left until he could leave the army after a three-year stint.

He was posted to the Proof and Experiment unit at Graytown, near Nagambie, where — under strict conditions — they would test bullets and mortars to ensure they worked correctly.

His unit had several Vietnam veterans in it and Mr Dealy said it was a “great unit to ease yourself back” into regular life.

A Numurkah boy, Graytown was close enough to allow him to again play football for his home town and slowly east his way back into life outside a war zone.

When his three years in the army was up, Mr Dealy was keen to do something different.

“I got asked to stay,” he said.

“But I’d done my three years. I survived Vietnam. And I said ‘I’m out of here’.”

Despite that, the decision to join the army is not one he regrets.

“You’re trained to do war and I wanted to find out if I could handle it,” Mr Dealy said.

“I know you put your life at risk, but I’ve got no regrets,”

On Friday, August 18, Australians will commemorate Vietnam Veteran’s Day.

This year will see the commemoration incorporate 50 years since the withdrawal of Australian troops from the Vietnam War.

“It’s a day to remember the people you were with, and those that got killed in Vietnam,” Mr Dealy said.

“It’s also a time for Vietnam veterans to just get together with each other.”

Mr Dealy said everyone was invited to commemorate the day and he encouraged people to do so.

A commemoration ceremony will be held at the Shepparton war memorial, on the corner of Welsford and Fryers Sts, at 11am on Friday, August 18.

The service is a tribute to the 525 Australians who died in the Vietnam War, as well as all those who fought.