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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-09-09 Daily Xml
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CONDOLENCE MOTION: FLYING OFFICER MICHAEL HERBERT

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Small Business) (14:19): I move:

That the Legislative Council expresses its sincere regret at the death of Flying Officer Michael Herbert, the last South Australian Vietnam veteran to be returned home, and gives thanks for the courage and sacrifice of a young man who died in the service of our nation and, as a mark of respect to his memory, the sitting of the council be suspended until the ringing of the bells.

On Monday last, I attended, along with a large number of other South Australians, including many from this parliament, a pontifical concelebration mass at St Francis Xavier's Cathedral to commemorate the return to South Australia of Flying Officer Michael Herbert.

Flying Officer Herbert was aged just 24 when, along with his navigator, Pilot Officer Robert Carver from Toowoomba, he failed to return from a mission in Vietnam on 3 November 1970. For almost four decades, the family and friends of Michael Herbert awaited news of his fate. The aircraft wreckage was eventually found near the border with Laos in April this year. Our last brave son who was lost in Vietnam has returned to us, and his funeral service closes a poignant chapter of a painful conflict.

The war in Vietnam continues to hold a central, challenging place in our collective memories. It divided the Vietnamese people for whom it was fought, and it brought suffering and loss to warrior, widow and orphaned child.

For thousands of Vietnamese families, the war precipitated a perilous voyage aboard flimsy craft, across rolling seas to this continent. Theirs is a story of immeasurable courage and commitment to their children and their new home. For thousands of Australian servicemen, the war brought unfair and undeserved blame and derision at home. Their courage and service to our nation was at first neither recognised nor honoured.

In 2006, this state took a significant step to full and proper recognition and reconciliation when the Premier unveiled the Vietnam War Memorial at the Torrens Parade Ground. It represented the first occasion that we as a state had formally honoured the 58 South Australians who lost their life in Vietnam and expressed sorrow to their families for their great loss. The memorial itself commemorates an alliance and a mateship shared by two very different peoples, which was forged by bravery and compassion and an honest, decent quest for freedom.

Fittingly, the two soldiers stand by side in perpetuity, dignified and resolute, proud and unbroken. For the next-of-kin and for both Vietnamese and Australian veterans, the memorial has become a place where they can sit and reflect and remember and find some measure of solace. I trust that Michael's return to the state of his birth, to his loved ones, school friends and fellow servicemen also brings resolution and peace.

Michael Herbert was born in Freeling in 1946. His parents, Jack and Joan, both served our nation during World War II—his mother in a searchlight battery with the Army; his father in the Royal Australian Air Force. Michael quickly developed his dad's affinity for the Air Force. As a schoolboy, Michael joined the Air Training Corps where, at one time, his father also served as his commanding officer.

Michael gained his civil private pilot's licence at age 16 while he was still a student at Sacred Heart College, and the following year he was appointed as a cadet at the Royal Australian Air Force Academy. Upon graduating with his pilot's wings, he was posted to No. 2 Squadron as a Canberra bomber pilot. Michael arrived in Vietnam on 25 February 1970. He knew that service in Vietnam involved significant risks. The 2nd Squadron flew in support of all the forces that were fighting in that part of Vietnam, but he accepted the risk because his goal was to serve his country in combat.

At 7pm on Tuesday 3 November of that year, Michael Herbert and Robert Carver took off for what was expected to be a routine mission. The weather was clear, the aircraft was flying well above the range of known anti-aircraft artillery, and there were no known enemy surface-to-air missiles in the area. Having delivered their payload, they turned for home and received confirmation from the radar operator of the successful completion of their mission. A minute later their plane vanished from the radar screen and the two young men were lost without a trace.

It has since emerged that the plane was discovered by local people in the region some time in 1978, but the find remained a secret until January of this year. The first Australian servicemen to set eyes on it were taken to the wreck site, located in dense jungle not far from where it was reported missing on 14 April all those years ago. The remains of Flying Officer Michael Herbert and Pilot Officer Robert Carver were formally located on 18 July. Flying was Michael's life—a life he gave in the service of Australia.

Sadly, Joan Herbert, who devoted countless hours to writing hundreds of letters asking for help to locate her missing son, passed away in 2003. We were told at Monday's mass that she described the ceremony held to dedicate the memorial gates erected in Michael's honour at the main entrance to Sacred Heart College in 2002 as 'the funeral Michael never had'. The other members of Michael's family—father Jack, sister Kerryn and brother Shane—were together when Michael finally returned home.

Ceremonies such as Monday's are important for Australia's soul. They mark an everlasting companionship between the living and the dead—a handshake across the void. As the Premier said at Monday's service, so often we visit the war graves and try to touch with our minds the relatives who sometimes we did not even know—the ordinary heroes who made us proud. We sing hymns and raise the flag; we fire the guns in salute and hope that somewhere, somehow, they can hear us in our acknowledgement of the magnitude of what they did and what they lost on our behalf.

On behalf of the people of South Australia, we offer the family and friends of Michael Herbert our condolences for their loss and our admiration for their unyielding courage. To Flying Officer Michael Herbert, we offer a deep and abiding gratitude for his service and his sacrifice. He will forever hold a treasured place in the hearts and memories of our state and our nation. We are all so pleased that he is home at last.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (14:25): I rise on behalf of the opposition to second the motion moved by the Leader of the Government. I endorse his remarks and would like to offer some comments. On behalf of the opposition, I express our sincere regret at the death of Flying Officer Michael Herbert, and indeed our sincere regret for all young South Australian lives cut short as a result of war. Finally, 47 years after the first South Australian troops landed in South Vietnam, the last serviceman missing in action has been laid to rest.

Flying Officer Michael Herbert, who grew up in the beachside suburb of Glenelg, was just 24 when he was declared missing in action during the Vietnam War. On 3 November 1970, the Canberra bomber in which he was returning to base crashed in the jungle of Vietnam. Flying Officer Herbert was just two months shy of finishing his tour of duty. Flying Officer Herbert's body and that of Pilot Officer Robert Carver were found in the southern Vietnamese jungle in July this year. A service was held to farewell Robert Carver in Queensland last week, and a very moving state funeral was held for Flying Officer Michael Herbert in Adelaide on Monday.

The Vietnam War was the most controversial war in which Australia has been involved. It caused massive social unrest in this country, and in fact it was the cause of the greatest social and political dissent in Australia since the conscription referendums of World War I. It was also the longest conflict in which Australian troops have been involved. From the time of the arrival of the first Australian troops (known as 'the Team') in 1962 almost 60,000 Australians, including ground troops, Air Force and Navy personnel, served in Vietnam. Some 521 Australians died as a result of the war, and over 3,000 were wounded.

By 1969 the anti-war protests were gaining momentum and, as the American troops were gradually withdrawn, the focus of the Australian troops became training the South Vietnamese regional and popular forces. Many of the soldiers who served in Vietnam met a hostile reception upon returning to Australia as the community's anger about Australia's involvement in the Vietnam conflict was unfairly projected on to these returning soldiers. It is of some comfort to realise that over recent years there has been a significant change in the community's attitude and the respect given to our Vietnam veterans.

The sacrifices made by the Vietnam veterans and their families are today recognised, and it is with these sentiments that Flying Officer Herbert was finally laid to rest on Monday. Flying Officer Michael Herbert's farewell may have been 39 years overdue, but it was a fitting goodbye to a young life cut short by the injustices of war. His death in the line of duty left a family back in Adelaide without a son and without a brother, a family left wondering what had happened to their beloved young man, and a family left wondering whether they would ever be able to say goodbye properly.

I was fortunate enough to be at Flying Officer Herbert's funeral on Monday, and I was moved by the many eulogies given. It may have been 39 years since Flying Officer Herbert disappeared, but the wounds are still very fresh for his family and friends. In this case I do not believe that time has healed all wounds but hopefully, now that their loved one has been laid to rest with the honour deserving of the last Australian missing in action to be brought home from Vietnam, some closure can be achieved.

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (14:28): On behalf of Family First I also rise to express my sincere regret at the death of Flying Officer Michael Herbert, the last South Australian Vietnam veteran to be returned home. As some members will be aware, my own father is a Vietnam veteran, a former soldier in the Australian Army, and through him I know something of the conditions faced by military men and women during that particularly horrendous war.

Along with Captain Robert Carver of Toowoomba, Flying Officer Herbert, who was from Glenelg, as the Hon. Mr Ridgway mentioned, was stationed at the Phan Rang air base in South Vietnam. Both officers disappeared on 3 November 1970; while returning to base after a night bombing mission, their Canberra bomber was lost without trace approximately 65 kilometres south-west of Da Nang in the Quang Nam Province. Despite some 67 rescue sorties covering some 16,000 square kilometres, the aircraft was not located, and the cause of the loss was not determined.

Following the disappearance of her son, Mrs Joan Herbert continued to hope that he was lost in the jungles of Vietnam. Over the next decade, as I understand it, she wrote some 600 letters to Vietnamese and other authorities trying to locate her son or ascertain his fate.

When Australia finally disengaged from Vietnam in 1971, six unaccounted for Australians were left behind. The bodies of Lance Corporal Richard Parker and Private Peter Gillson were discovered and repatriated in 2007, thanks to the work of the organisation Operation Aussies Home. Subsequently, the bodies of Lance Corporal John Gillespie and Lance Corporal David Fisher were discovered. The final two were considered by some to be lost forever, because no-one knew exactly where their aircraft had come down.

I put on record my appreciation and, indeed, I am sure the appreciation of this chamber of the work of the Army History Unit, which located wreckage of the Canberra bomber in April this year on a remote hillside in the Quang Nam province.

Michael was only two months away from coming home when he crashed. His return comes 39 years too late. He is long overdue and much missed, and on behalf of my party at least I belatedly say,' Welcome home, Flying Officer Michael Herbert. This state could not have asked you to pay a higher price. We will remember your loss and we express our most sincere condolences to your family and loved ones.'

Motion carried by members standing in their places in silence.


[Sitting suspended from 14:32 to 14:45]


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