Certified Legendary Thread Remembering fallen mates - Peter Chant

[Lockhart Road]

This is worth reading. Being in The Guardian, which I read every day, there is no paywall.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/20...kie-the-day-that-stopped-the-clock-in-vietnam


'Everyone is Frankie': the day that stopped the clock in Vietnam

For some of the Australian soldiers fighting in Vietnam, it was the worst day of their lives. It was also the inspiration for Redgum’s classic I Was Only 19.

[IMG='width:620px;']https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/694b88bc78a3c27ed1f20923b7060dbac58004de/0_0_2441_1627/master/2441.jpg?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=11317815964291d664078bc1a696717a[/IMG]
John Schumann with the guitar he used to write I Was Only 19 on at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra in June 2016. Photograph: Rashida Yosufzai/AAP

... Frank Hunt lives on the far south coast of New South Wales. He didn’t kick the mine himself – that was Hines – but was written into the role by Schumann, with consent. “Everyone is Frankie,” he told the ABC in 2015.

These days Schumann is a little tired of talking about 19. He has written a new song, Graduation Day, about police suffering from PTSD. It hits a similar nerve to his classic, and he finds himself fielding unusual media invitations from the likes of Alan Jones and Ray Hadley.

“Having a song like 19 in your catalogue is like having five kids, and you love all of them equally, but one of them plays AFL footy – and the only kid of yours that anyone outside the family wants to talk about is the AFL footy player,” he says now.

But he’s also proud. “A songwriter gets to write something like 19, if they’re lucky, once in their life. I researched it really well and I thought about it a lot, but it was one of those songs I wrote in five minutes … I look back and I go, ‘Wow, that was something else.’”

In 2010 Wilcox revisited the site where he nearly lost his life. This year he hopes to go back on 21 July, for the 50th anniversary of something more significant than the moon landing. At 2.20pm, his stopped watch will be right again.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Lockhart Road from page 13 of the AFL Record. There were 2 pages 12 and 13 and both had a left and right had column of names that had 5 headings -
NAME, CLUB(S), CAREER, DIED and DATE.

This is an enlargement of the right and column on page 13, and I thought I would start with George Quinn seeing as you and the 9RAR colleagues Mick, John and others saw to his service medals being appropriately mounted in that box with Bob's. If you want a copy of both pages let me know.

Peter is the only known league footballer from the 4 big footy states who was killed in Vietnam and Bryan Ludscombe from Claremont is the only known footballer killed in Korea.

 

[Lockhart Road]

Lockhart Road from page 13 of the AFL Record. There were 2 pages 12 and 13 and both had a left and right had column of names that had 5 headings -
NAME, CLUB(S), CAREER, DIED and DATE.

This is an enlargement of the right and column on page 13, and I thought I would start with George Quinn seeing as you and the 9RAR colleagues Mick, John and others saw to his service medals being appropriately mounted in that box with Bob's. If you want a copy of both pages let me know.

Peter is the only known league footballer from the 4 big footy states who was killed in Vietnam and Bryan Ludscombe from Claremont is the only known footballer killed in Vietnam.

View attachment 662925

Many thanks REH.

I had my own ANZAC party last night, with my daughter, down in Pro Drinkers Corner, Happy Valley Bar & Grill.

The Adelaide Oval came on the TV at 5:30 HK time. No sound, as my Spotify playlist was on the hifi, loud, and I didn’t want that to change.

Looked up at the screen, still fifteen minutes before the bounce and saw something awful - Chairman Moi in his beige Moi overcoat ... waited until nausea subsided, looked again ... there he was again, same beige Moi overcoat ... then it got worse ... flashback to Riverbank goalsquare round 2 2015 ... Farriss Bros. and Moi in the square, blocking the goal umpire’s view of the first bounce ... the actual moment that announced the end of the 2013-2014 recovery on field, the start of the 2015 onwards decay under Moi ... the actual moment acknowledged by the Club as not their best promo experiment ... and there it is again, up on the screen, four years later ...

I stewed on this thru the night, was pissed off with the one goal ten point margin, sent a Red Adair text to Richo asking him what gives re the Farriss Bros reprise ...

Good old Richo. He ignored INXS and Moi and 1:10 and sent a long text telling me how the Club had pre match honoured Pete in great style again ... which was the absolute priority, of course.

Exchanged a couple more texts with Richo, made my night into a late night as I sat on my throne listening to my Spotify playlist until midnight, thinking ... remembering ... remembering ...

Lest we forget.

This morning I feel just great, like you do after a good party, not OTT, just ... good.

 

[Lockhart Road]

Peter Chant - Lest We Forget



Bring Back The Bars.

Don’t let the quiet little bloke down.

 

[Ford Fairlane]

Lest We Forget

 

[Ford Fairlane]

 

[Lockhart Road]

This piece by Joseph Lam - about another quiet little digger who had to wait a long time, posthumously, to be recognised - was published today in the South China Morning Post:

The Chinese-Australian war hero who shot dead over 200 enemies but was whitewashed and forgotten for half a century.

https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/ente...alian-war-hero-who-shot-dead-over-200-enemies

... (Billy) Sing died in 1943 after moving to Brisbane to be closer to his sister. He was buried in a pauper’s grave at the city’s Lutwyche Cemetery, which remained unmarked for 50 years. It was not until 2015 that a memorial was erected in the cemetery and Sing’s legacy was honoured.

Stirrings of remembrance had begun in the 1990s. In 1993, 50 years after his death, a bronze plaque was placed on the building now occupying the site of the boarding house where he died. In 1995, a statue was unveiled in his hometown of Clermont. In 2004, an Australian sniper team in Baghdad named their mess hall Billy Sing’s Bar & Grill.

“Today little is known of the Chinese men who fought for their country, putting aside the abuse and racism they and their families had endured since their arrival in Australia,” Davies writes in his book. “They returned to an unsympathetic country.”

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Lockhart Road in post #177 above last year I scanned the AFL Record for ANZAC round and part of the 2 pages that had Peter Chant's details listed as well as all players from the 4 big state leagues.

AFL record since Rd 2 has continued publishing a digital version, with stories for each round and proposed games. Pages 30-31 of the Rd 6 AFL Record has reproduced the list from last year.You can view it but you can't download it. Have to pay $1.99 on the SEN or AFL app.

AFL Record – Week 6, 2020

The Week 6 edition includes: To commemorate Anzac Day, BEN COLLINS recounts the remarkable military careers of former stars Hughie James (Richmond) and Joe Slater (Geelong) who both served during World War I; It is 25 years since two greats of the game in Michael O’Loughlin and Jason Akermanis...

issuu.com

 

[Ford Fairlane]

 

[Lockhart Road]

Rest easy, Pete ... ...


We’ll get the Bars back for ANZAC Round in your honour, mate.


If not this year ... then as soon as we can ... and then for good.


LEST WE FORGET

 

[Lockhart Road]

Hey, Pete. How’re things up there?

Down here, we’re a year older, those of us who are still down here. Our numbers are inevitably starting to decline. A few months ago we lost Mick the Bushman. Alias Mick the buffalo hunter. Alias Mick the M-60 gunner. Natural causes; his pancreas let him down. You’ll recollect the Bushman. The 1968 Melbourne Cup, remember? At Woodside you told Mick about your minor syndicate share in Rain Lover, thanks to your inside as an ex-jockey. He backed your bay each-way and made a small packet when the Lover won by eight lengths. A week later we set sail for South Vietnam via Freo, past Krakatoa (what’s left of it) and through the Sunda Strait upon whose sand lies HMAS Perth. A year later you were gone, from down here at least, and the Bushman was back up in the Top End, a month after our discharge from the Army. He was lying awake late at night wondering what to do with his accumulated tax-free danger money … when it started to rain.

It hadn’t rained in the Top End for a helluva long time. The Bushman sucked in the night air scented with wet Arnhem dust, listened to the orgasmic rhythm of the downpour on his roof, and thought: Rain Lover! And he remembered you again, Pete, and he bet on your stallion again even though it started top-weight. The Lover won again, by a neck - first back-to-back Cup winner since Archer 1861-1862. Mick told me this story when we got together in Asia again, Hanoi this time, November 2013, when he was on a 9RAR/WTFRW battlefield tour and I flew across from Hong Kong to join the group for a few days. Writing this, I realise how bloody glad I am that I did. Too good to miss, those three days of rebonding, those late nights and antics in Le Bar at the Metropole.

2013 was, of course, the same year, during its footy season, that you were officially recognised by the Club as their last senior footballer to fall in action, the last Cockle Diver to be killed serving your country. It happened in round 5, ANZAC round, you recall, your recognition I mean, versus Weagles at Footy Park. This year we play them again in ANZAC round, ‘cept it’s round 6 and it’s at Adelaide Oval. In 2013 we won that contest, after you came on the ground in spirit in the third and took us from 41 points down to five in front at the final siren.

You recall at halftime, when heads were down, me beelining Koch as he tried to hide in a corner of the function room dreading the crowd that was soon to descend and the questions they’d be asking him. You recall me giving him your WTFRW tie. Shocked he was, nonplussed he was, looked down his copious conk at me, not knowing what to say, what to do with a black and yellow and red tie covered in American Indian heads each wearing a bent feather. Whatever he did do with your tie, mate, it didn’t stop you from carrying out your footy magic. Port Adelaide turned it on more and more as the second half progressed and we went 5 and 0.

We were fit then under Burgo, we were fresh and Hinkley was a fresh face, sort of - painful to look at nowadays, but - and the players were totally turned on by their dinkum Aussie drive to play out of their skins because J-Mac was watching.

So were you.

This year, though the no-hopers, the ‘officers’, remain rusted-on in situ - Koch and Hinkley - the story’s a bit different. We ain’t 5 and 0.

Even so, mate, it’s the time of year to remember you. This year you might look around and see if you can catch sight of the Bushman. He would’ve been looking out for you so you’ve probably met up already.

You might look around, too, for the Great Man. He’s somewhere about, perhaps wearing his Bars, like you used to do. He left us down here, too, a few months ago. Things come in threes, they say.

Russell wore the Bars for the first time in 1968, a fistful of years after you laced them up at Alberton. You and I were at Woodside that year, training for Vietnam. We had a few weekends off; on ANZAC Day I watched the Great Man play his third game vs. Sturt in the annual GF replay. No doubt, Pete, you saw him play too that year, before they shipped us off to war. Bushman and I stood on the grass south-east of the scoreboard to watch the 1968 grand final. Port lost to Sturt, third time in a row. It was the Great Man’s first grand final. He had to wait another nine years before he could lift the cup high and announce how bloody good it felt to win a premiership after so long a drought. We have a longer drought now, mate. No end in sight. No Rain Lover on the horizon. It’s a drought to wear out proud hearts and aggravate minds that have known real success enough to quiz the Club hard, ask what they reckon they stand for these days.

Do they believe in premierships any more at Alberton?

Do they believe in wearing the Bars any more?

Are they still Port Adelaide?

Below is my favourite photo from 2013: yes, that year again, the first year of your memorial at the Club - (there was a follow-up at Adelaide Oval in 2014 at which your plucky sister stood before the room and gave a speech that would’ve made you proud). The photo below was taken in Hong Kong when Russell Ebert flew up for the last weekend in September as Club ambassador, a dinky-die Club ambassador not a phoney like ambassadors of other so-called clubs.

It could be said, and it wouldn’t be wrong, that what set in motion the Great Man’s mission to Hong Kong that year, plus all that followed re the Club and China, was you, mate. Your recognition by the Club in 2013 is what ultimately put the MG octagon on our livery. Long may it stay parked there.

That’s me and my son Nick (Port Woolwich) sitting with Russ. I was just sixty-six then, and Nick had just got married. He now has a daughter plus a son named Zachary Russell. He wouldn’t let me add ‘Pete’ and ‘Mick’ when names were decided. Too ordinary, he said. Too common. I dunno. Kids these days like to be quirky. They go for a name that starts with ‘X’ or ‘Y’ or ‘Z’. I call my three-year-old grandson ‘Rascal’ and make it sound like ‘Russell’.

Rest in peace, you three. I’ll never forget any of you, not for a single moment. Thank you all for knowing me, for being there, where I was, at unforgettable times in my life.

 

[Rexie J]

Shall always be thankful for the many wonderful memories throughout our lives.

 

[glitch01]

I know that right now it’s fashionable on here that people want us to lose so we are closer to sacking Ken.

This is one game I don’t want us to lose.
It is an honour to host a game for Anzac Day and remember those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for Australia.

Maybe it’s an old fashioned view but so be it.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

I know that right now it’s fashionable on here that people want us to lose so we are closer to sacking Ken.

This is one game I don’t want us to lose.
It is an honour to host a game for Anzac Day and remember those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for Australia.

Maybe it’s an old fashioned view but so be it.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

"Winning is everything. Somebody else tells you something else, they're not Port Adelaide. They don't think like Port Adelaide. That's all we accept." Tim Ginever guernsey presentation, bowels of MCG before Rd 1 2013 game.

This is the game we win. It's everything. This coach and his coaches and playing group disgraced themselves at the Russell Ebert tribute game. Do the same in this game, and the lot of them can get shipped off to the Donbas.

 

[Ford Fairlane]

 

[Lockhart Road]

I know that right now it’s fashionable on here that people want us to lose so we are closer to sacking Ken.

This is one game I don’t want us to lose.
It is an honour to host a game for Anzac Day and remember those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for Australia.

Maybe it’s an old fashioned view but so be it.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

Hopefully we can win in such a manner that it both does us ANZAC proud and shows up Hinkley for what he is at the same time.

For example:

 

[Ford Fairlane]

 

[Ford Fairlane]

 

[Rexie J]

A notice in the latest VETAFFAIRS Newspaper.

"55th Birthday Reunion of 9 RAR (67/73) 10-14 November 2022 Sunshine Coast QLD"

 

[Ford Fairlane]

Lest we Forget

 

[raptalia]

Lockhart Road from page 13 of the AFL Record. There were 2 pages 12 and 13 and both had a left and right had column of names that had 5 headings -
NAME, CLUB(S), CAREER, DIED and DATE.

This is an enlargement of the right and column on page 13, and I thought I would start with George Quinn seeing as you and the 9RAR colleagues Mick, John and others saw to his service medals being appropriately mounted in that box with Bob's. If you want a copy of both pages let me know.

Peter is the only known league footballer from the 4 big footy states who was killed in Vietnam and Bryan Ludscombe from Claremont is the only known footballer killed in Korea.

View attachment 662925

Cannot see Max Carmichael on the above list.

Lt Max Carmichael played on the wing for Port in the 1939 Premiership and was killed in action on Bouganville on July 2nd 1945 just two months to the day before Japan signed the articles of surrender. Max served with the 2/27 Battalion.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Cannot see Max Carmichael on the above list.

Lt Max Carmichael played on the wing for Port in the 1939 Premiership and was killed in action on Bouganville on July 2nd 1945 just two months to the day before Japan signed the articles of surrender. Max served with the 2/27 Battalion.

That's because he was in the left hand column of page 13. Its in alphabetical order.

Page 12, had 3 past players who died the Boer the other 2 columns were those from WWI and about 40% of the left hand column from page 13 were also WWI footballers who served and lost their lives.

I only scanned the bottom half of the right hand column of page 13, starting with George Quinn and going down to Peter Chant, who was the last state league footballer who was killed serving in a war.

The names of all WAFL, SANFL, VFL and some Tasmanian from their 2 or 3 leagues are in these lists.

It was repeated in pages 14 and 15 of this year's ANZAC round Record.