Tag Archives: writing

The Heuy door gunner

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In the 1990s I was working up on an iron ore mine, I was not drinking on site, I hit the gym hard and read books in my off-time. I was not going down the wet mess much, I was not socialising with the guys, why would I as I spent over 12 hours a day with them. I did not dislike them, spending time alone was good, they drank a lot back then, they drank a lot.

However, I was getting some grief for not socialising, so on a shift change from nightshift to dayshift, I ended up down the wet mess for drinks. I was chatting with the leading hand from the mill control room, there was beer and music on the juke box. He said to me, watch this and went up to the juke box and put the Cold Chisel classic song Khe Sahn on. This 1978 country-rock song is about an Australian Vietnam vet returning home and facing disillusionment to his life back in Australia.

We had this older unassuming 992B loader operator get up and walk out of the room, he returned when the song was over. This was not a toilet break, the favourite song of most Australians young and old had a pretty big effect on him. Clearly this had happened earlier, the mill control room leading hand was a pretty bright guy, he was very observant as well, he noticed something that the other guys had not. He pointed this out to me, he went and played Khe Sahn on purpose, clearly this song had a pretty big effect on him, that was for sure.

So I wandered over to this guy and asked him what just happened, he sat in silence for what seemed like ages and then said “The Australian Government used to pay me to kill Gooks.” Now I apologise for my blatantly racist sentence, for historical accuracy, I needed to write it exactly as he told me. I was sitting there in silence too, my facial expression was enough for him. The term Gook was a racist and highly degrotary term used for the Vietiamise in the Vietnam War, pretty sure it was an American term that was picked up by the Australians too.

I was trying to work out exactly what he had said, the Australian Government sent forces to Vietnam in the 1960s to support the United States in the Vietnam War. I understood that, but the Australian Government was doing exactly what he had stated, sending soldiers overseas to kill the people defending their country. That really surprised me, here was this skinny old guy whom I used to speak to on the job. I was always respectful to him but I never paid him much attention. The other sentence that stuck with me was “you don’t bring ammo back” and this is why I recalled this story was when I was discussing with a lawyer. We were preparing a response and I recounted this story to him, I did not want to hold back, if we had the ammo [we did] then we were going to expend it.

He broke his silence to tell me he was a door gunner on a Bell Huey in the Vietnam War. He spoke about how he fired a M60 machine gun, he showed me the damage to his hands from the vibration and recoil. This was a pretty dangerous job, here you were in the open hanging on the side of a Huey helicopter coming in for hot insertions and extractions, when I say hot, I mean coming in under fire and either dropping off or picking up soldiers and/or wounded. Whilst I was not too impressed with his language, I kept my mouth shut as I wanted to listen to his story, he had never spoken of it before and this was the one and only time he did.

A day at the Perth Cup

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I keep a pretty quiet new year’s eve most times now, Perth can be a bit crowded on new year’s eve. Especially after 1 am, the nightlife at Northbridge and Perth city can get a bit alcohol fuelled and dangerous. There have been plenty of examples where violence has flared and innocent people cop a coward punch and end up in hospital with a brain bleed, I do not want that to be me.

I like to be out during the day, so I reckon the best place to be on new year’s day is the Perth Cup at Ascot Racecourse. Whilst not exactly the social event of the year, you would expect to see around 25,000 people attend. As I am getting older now, I cannot have a big night out on new year’s eve and bounce back for a day in the sun in the middle of summer. The Perth Cup is typically a hot day, so it is not the place I want to be with a hangover, I will do that on the 2nd where I can lock myself inside with the air-conditioner on.

This year was no exception, a good day was had, it was warm but not too hot and the sparkling wine flowed freely. I do not bet on horse racing, I just go for the social side. I might like to watch the race when I am there, but that is pretty much it. For me, the best fun is to wander around and see different views of the racecourse, sure, I will watch the race, I like to get over to the mounting/dismount area where I can see the trainer parade the horse, the jockey mount before the race and then come back in later for the weigh-in. It makes for a fun day out, as I sail in summer, this is the only chance I get to get to the races.

Finally saw the Goo Goo Dolls live

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So, after a twenty year absence, the Goo Goo Dolls finally returned to Perth. So their last trip must have been in 2014, I vaguely remember being overseas at the time. I could not go and see them back then, I had missed my chance to see the Goo Goo Dolls in concert and was pretty annoyed with the timing.

So I was pretty happy to be finally able to see the Goo Goo Dolls, even if they were not the main act. As the lead-in to Matchbox Twenty, the Goo Goo Dolls started at 7.30, we could see their countdown timers from our seats, we were in the back rows of the stadium so we looked down from our high vantage point. Our seats were way back so we had a pretty high view of the arena so we could see everything going on down on the stage.

I thought it might be just a thirty minute set when they started with Slide as their second song, one of their better known songs. The Goo Goo Dolls are known worldwide for their hit song Iris from the Dizzy up the Girl album. I gave this album to my then girlfriend at Perth International Airport just as she was leaving me to return to her country. Her name was Iris, so it really struck a chord with her, this was her favourite album.

So this was a big concert for me, I waited years for the Goo Goo Dolls to return to Perth. I was overseas when they were here last time so this was a big deal for me. I was excited to be there, I could have left after the Goo Goo Dolls walked off, however, Matchbox Twenty was the headline act so I was happy to hang around for the next show. As it turned out, the Goo Goo Dolls played 15 songs with their last song of the evening being Iris, we had all their hits from Black Balloon, Here is Gone, Symphony, Name, Better Days, and Broadway.