“A Voice for the Men Australia Forgot”
Nasho’s Stories
Imagine You Were A Nasho
Close your eyes and imagine. You’re a twenty-year-old National Service recruit, standing rigidly to attention, while an eighteen-year-old Lance Corporal drill instructor is screaming abuse at you, because you stuffed up again, didn’t you? His nose is 25mm from yours. You can smell his tobacco breath and little flecks of his spittle hit you in the face. If you do that again, he tells you, he is going forcibly insert you back into your mother and copulate you out of existence. Yes, Corporal, you shout back. You didn’t volunteer to be here but know you must accept this or face the consequences.
Welcome to basic army training at Kapooka, NSW, army Training Barracks, .
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Now you are now twenty-two and discharged back into civilian life. Your pre-National Service girlfriend has moved on and is engaged to another bloke. They kept your job for you, because they had to, but you’ll need to be retrained and others have moved ahead of you in seniority. Some of your old mates are now in different friendship groups or moved away. If you go to a party, do not, under any circumstances, talk about your National Service or what a shitty deal you got. You’ll be told to get over it or be ignored. No-one wants to know about it, mate. Get over it.
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Finally, imagine you’re a young man who has just been pardoned for a crime you didn’t commit. You served two years in prison. Are you going to claim compensation for the two years of your youth, wrongfully taken from you? You bet you are. What’s two years liberty worth? Half a million, more?
The survivors of the 48,000 National Servicemen who were conscripted between 1965 and 1972, but did not serve in a war zone, have received no thanks, acknowledgement, benefits or compensation for the two years of their youth taken from them, under threat of imprisonment.
Do you think that’s fair? We don’t, and that’s why we are now pushing for compensation. A DVA Gold Health Card would give us the comfort of knowing our medical needs would be looked after in our old age and security for our partners.
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These are real stories from our members in their own words.
We’ll be adding more as they come.
Story by Peter G
I went into National Service, 3rd intake in 1970 (8th July) in Melbourne, Basic Training Puckapunyal and to Singleton for Infantry Corp Training. Posted to 9 RAR, Enoggera Brisbane where we trained hard to eventually be on 24 hour standby to go to Vietnam. After...
Story by Geoff P
National Service started screwing up my life even before I was called up, on 7 July 1971. I was living a very happy life in Deniliquin, NSW. I turned 20 in February that year, and had been working for the CSIRO, Riverina Laboratory as a Technical Assistant for three...
Story by Ross M
Here is my story. I had finished Infantry Corp Training at Singleton and had been posted to 8RAR who were at Terendak Garrison about 14 clicks south of Malacca. We were sent on pre-embarkation leave, and had to return to Holsworthy, NSW. My parents saw me off from my...
Story by John S
For so many years now I have learned to keep my memories of the time spent in the army to myself due to the fact that in the past when it was raised most people were not interested in my experiences and said you didn’t go to Vietnam so what’s your problem. The bus...
Story by John H
I was in the 17th Intake at RTB3 Puckapunyal, July 1969 We did our Infantry Corp training at Singleton Oct 69 and then onto Holdsworthy Dec 69 on our way to Vietnam. Warned for active service, last wills and testaments etc etc. A last-minute change was that 70 Nashos...
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