FURTHER to our story this week about Eden local Nev Cowgill receiving a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM), the Bega District News has discovered another hero hailing from the Far South Coast - Graham Walker - was also included in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours list, receiving a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).
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On the Governor-General’s official website of OAM and AM recipients, Mr Walker is stated as receiving his award “for significant service to veterans, particularly those who served in Vietnam, and their families, as a researcher, author and spokesperson”.
Locally, Mr Walker is perhaps best remembered for his days touring with the band Madame and the Ragtag Jazz Band, with the late singer, Pat Thompson.
“I lived south of Bermagui for a while, then Tanja,” Mr Walker said.
“I moved to Canberra in 2000 only because I needed to be near major libraries for the work I was doing.”
This “work” started for Mr Walker in 1969, when he joined the 8th Battalion Royal Australian regiment and fought in the Vietnam War.
He was among 60,000 Australians who served in the war, and received the Cross of Gallantry with Silver Star for his work as commander of a rifle company.
Like all the soldiers, Mr Walker not only experienced the horrors of modern warfare, but also exposure to Agent Orange, a powerful chemical defoliant that was widely used by the American military forces to eliminate forest cover in North Vietnam.
Mr Walker was home in a year, but his service to country has continued for almost half a century - helping his fellow veterans rebuild their lives.
As national research officer with Australia’s Vietnam Veterans’ Federation (VVF) in the 1980s, Mr Walker promoted and contributed research to the Royal Commission into the use and effects of chemical agents on Australian personnel, which recognised the need for repatriation for those affected by chemical agents and forced a rewrite of the flawed official history of the use of the chemical.
“But that wasn’t the only post-war problem,” Mr Walker said.
“Many veterans returned with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other war-caused psychological problems, leading to inability to work, homelessness, and suicide.
“So my work is to help the vets receive proper medical and psychological help, and assist with compensation claims.”
In his work with the VVF, Mr Walker assists approximately 2000 Vietnam veterans each year.
However, the focus is much broader than the veterans themselves.
“PTSD has a terrible impact on the families of the veterans,” Mr Walker said.
“Statistics reveal that the children of Vietnam vets have a 300 per cent higher suicide rate than their peers in the general community, as a result of family dysfunction.”
Making government accountable to the post-war “cost” - both on community and the economy - is a huge priority of the Vietnam Veterans’ Federation, and continues unabated as a steady stream of new war vets arrive home from Iraq and Afghanistan.
“The only way of avoiding a lot of veterans having difficulties for the rest of their lives is not to have war in the first place,” Mr Walker concluded.
“Before government engages our troops, it has to ask itself ‘what does a war cost after the shooting stops?’”
In acknowledgement of his life’s work, Mr Walker was also the recipient of the ACT Senior Australian of the Year Award in 2014.
Although pleased with the accolades, his focus is only temporarily distracted.
With almost 50,000 Vietnam veterans still in the community and needing help, Mr Walker’s work for Queen and country isn’t done yet.