This year marks half a century since Australia ended its involvement in the Vietnam War, a conflict in which 60,000 Australians served, more than 3000 were wounded and 523 died.
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But for the members of the Vietnam Veterans Association of Australia, the campaign has never completely ended as they work for those who feel its impact to this day.
One especially busy NSW sub-branch is the St Mary's Vietnam Veterans' Outpost in Sydney's west.
Based in a converted train that was once part of a McDonald's restaurant, its support service has been helping veterans and their families for about 30 years.
It does everything from submitting service-related injury claims to the Department of Veterans Affairs - more than 100 a month, on average - to helping veterans access a range of government and/or community services.
Together with the St Marys RSL Sub-Branch across the carpark, its latest initiative is a wellbeing program offering 12-15 activities to all veterans and their families.
Secretary Sam Vecchio said the program enables veterans to "come and sit with other veterans and share stories and experiences with like-minded people".
In doing so, they improve their own lifestyle, said Sam, who spent 10 months in Vietnam as a "galloping grocer", driving trucks for the Royal Australian Army Service Corps.
Most mornings up to a dozen vets meet on the train verandah for a chat over coffee. Other activities include guitar sessions, day trips, exercise classes and voluntary work such as packing care boxes for troops overseas.
There is a similar group called the Merrie Widows for the partners of late veterans.
For Reno Ciantar, who was an infantryman in Vietnam for 12 months who "remembers everything", the camaraderie is priceless.
"If we were ever to lose this place here, half of us would turn into a blithering mess,'' he said.
"We come down here in the morning, drink coffee and talk crap. It might be repetitive but we say it's the best thing we've got.
"But there's always new problems in the world to solve. We're getting good at it!"
Tony Fryer, honorary secretary of the St Mary's RSL Sub-Branch, said that over the years the two groups have formed a close and productive association.
Together they offer services to all former service personnel, not just Vietnam veterans.
"It's open to anyone who wore the uniform, regardless of when or where they served. They don't even have to have gone overseas."
Tony, who commanded an armoured personnel carrier in Vietnam, said the association has "done wonders to let us arrive at where we are".
This includes the establishment of the Vietnam Veterans Counselling Service, now called Open Arms.
"The government started that as a result of the Vietnam Veterans Association knocking on the door and saying you've got to do more for the veterans," he said.
Sam said the association came about in part because many veterans were suffering post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and had no one to talk to.
A key figure was volunteer Dr Frank Donovan, its first qualified counsellor. "Before he came on board, it was just Vietnam veterans like me talking to each other," Sam said. "They didn't actually have any professional experience."
Tony said another notable achievement was instigating the Welcome Home Parade in 1987, when 22,000 Vietnam veterans marched through the streets of Sydney.
It was a belated acknowledgement.
"Many diggers came back with no welcome home whatsoever," he said.
"People would come in off planes and get changed into their civilian gear because there were protests going on outside the airport."
Reno went to Vietnam as a reinforcement and then, when his time was up, was brought home by plane.
"I can remember being at Mascot about 4.30 in the morning and all that was there was my wife, her father and her mother.
"And that was it. Just me and a couple of other blokes who were going elsewhere.
"The thing that I really remember was being taken into this little room at the back of the aerodrome where they paid me and said I had such and such leave accumulated.
"And as I turned to walk away, they said, by the way, don't forget, you're still under the Official Secrets Act."
The St Marys vets also see education as imperative.
A group of them regularly visit schools to discuss the war with year 10 and 12 students who choose it as an elective subject. Learning areas include how the war began, what happened in the field, Agent Orange, PTSD and what was happening back in Australia.
Each year the team sees about 2000 students, some of whom dress in Australian and South Vietnamese uniforms brought for the talk.
The group is proud of its ties with the local Vietnamese community. Evidence of this can be seen when it sought $20,000 in funding from the Department of Veterans' Affairs and received just $2000.
The Armed Forces of the Republic of Vietnam Veterans Association jumped in and began a fundraising drive. In one night at Crystal Palace Restaurant in Canley Vale, it raised $70,000.
The St Marys Vietnam Veterans Outpost is located at The Train, corner Hall Street and Mamre Road. Contact them at 02-9833-4711 or 02-9833-4700, or visit vvaastmarys.org.au
There are Vietnam Veterans Association sub-branches in Bathurst, the Far North Coast, Hunter and Central Coast, Jervis Bay and district, Macarthur, and South-West NSW and Wagga. For more information visit vvaansw.org.au
