Brothers in arms

Ross Benton of Bendigo wrote to the BDN attempting to track down a fellow Vietnam veteran with whom he shared a tent – and a medevac flight – during the conflict in 1970.

It has taken him this long to track down details of his former tent-mate as both Mr Benton and the man he is searching for – former Bega local Brian Gordon Pender – contracted encephalitis while “in country”, which greatly affected Mr Benton’s memory.

The BDN is currently in the process of tracking down contact details of Mr Pender to pass on, but the story of Mr Benton’s search goes much further.

He was conscripted into the Army in 1969, serving with HQ 1st Australia Task Force in Nui Dat, South Vietnam, after his year of training.

“Prior to going over there you meet a lot of people and form friendships,” Mr Benton said.

“Brian hadn’t crossed my path at that point, but a Ken Graham had, and that’s where the story starts.

“Ken and I were in corps training together, we went over together and were great mates.”

Once in Vietnam, Mr Benton said he shared a tent with three other guys, one of whom was Mr Pender.

The camaraderie between the servicemen was of particular note.

“Friendship is one thing, but camaraderie is quite another,” he said.

“You can’t make camaraderie happen. It’s from being in a stressed environment 24/7, artillery going off throughout the night only a few hundred metres from our tent and all of us covering each other’s backs.”

However, both Mr Benton and Mr Pender contracted encephalitis in June of 1970 and, after two weeks in a Vietnam hospital, were shipped home.

“Everyone thought I’d died – no-one got told anything,” Mr Benton said.

“So no-one was looking for me.”

Years later, only one name remained in Mr Benton’s memory – “Graham somebody” – and he felt a need to track him down.

It was through an inspirational moment when he realised some years later the person he was searching for was a Ken Graham.

“The Internet came about in the meantime, which sped things up a bit, and I posted some searches online.”

As it turned out, others had been looking for Mr Benton and confirmation he was still alive prompted them to get in contact.

A few years ago, veteran Chris Bean – who also shared Mr Benton’s tent in Vietnam – discovered he was alive and made contact, renewing a solid friendship from 40 years earlier.

Then last year, fellow veteran Ian Palfrey encouraged Mr Benton to march in on Anzac Day in Melbourne – it was the first time he had marched in 30 years.

 “In a roundabout way it was discovered ‘Ross Benton is still alive’ and eventually with Chris’s assistance we found all these names of the men from the surrounding tents,” Mr Benton said.

“There was a guy in a lot of my photos neither of us knew – Chris joked there was only one photo of him, but five of this other guy so we must’ve done a lot together,” he added with a laugh.

Putting their heads together, Mr Benton fought through the memory loss caused by his life-threatening illness and with Mr Bean’s help, came up with the name Pender.

A bit more research uncovered the Pender family links to the Bega district and hence the request for assistance to the BDN. 

Meanwhile, Mr Benton was still driven to find Ken Graham and found out he lived in Bowen, Queensland.

Mr Benton called the Bowen pharmacy and the police station, which were both understandably reluctant to give out any information, but suggested he get in contact with the local RSL.

The president of the RSL said he hadn’t heard of Mr Graham, but would ask around and get back to him.

A follow-up phone call had a surprising outcome – the club president had apparently asked the RSL receptionist if she’d heard of a Ken Graham.

“She gave him a strange look and said ‘he’s my brother – and he’s in the club now’,” Mr Benton said.

The club president then handed the phone across to Mr Graham so the two old mates could finally catch up.

They have also since spent time together reliving their wartime camaraderie and visiting the war memorials in Canberra.

“It’s about maintaining the positives,” Mr Benton said.

“Others are worried about looking back or meeting their old mates.

“You do relive the past a bit, but it’s not all about the bad bits.

“It’s that camaraderie – it’s like the conversations we had back then haven’t stopped.

“Someone at last year’s march said ‘now I’ve met up with you 40 years later I can live the rest of my life a happier bloke’.

“I feel fortunate. I’ve had a great life and great support and it’s getting better meeting all these old mates and finding we’re all ‘doing okay’ - in whatever form ‘okay’ takes.

“It’s important to find the Brian Penders of the world.

“Because of my search, the group that will march under the unit banner in Melbourne this year has brought about a lot of interest with veterans and their families – and that’s all happened in just this last year.

“Hopefully Brian is the next step in this story and if this is how the story ends it will be fantastic.”