Bernie Shea
b.1947
Excerpt from Story Board
Everyone would react at my commands. If I went down on one leg, everyone would stop. I remember I knelt down one time and I heard: ‘Psst, psst, Bluey, what’s going on?’ from my corporal behind me. I said: ‘What’s wrong?’ And he said: ‘What have you gone down for?’ I replied: ‘I’m doing my shoelace up, you idiot!’ Funny things like that can break everyone up.
I felt proud at the time, I still do. I had a grandfather and a father in the war, my son was an officer in the Air Force and there was me in Vietnam for 12 months and 26 days. For my mother it was one of the hardest things – her whole life had been about war. After she passed away, I found out she had kept every letter. Believe it or not, you had plenty of time out in the bush during an ambush. So every day I could, I would write a letter.
Service No. 3793417