Thanks can ease pain, says VC hero

VICTORIA Cross recipient Keith Payne knows all too well the lift a soldier gains from being thanked for serving – and the pain they feel when criticised.

When Ingham-born Payne (above) returned to Brisbane from Vietnam in September, 1969, he was feted as a hero. The details of how he singlehandedly saved 40 of his men from overwhelming North Vietnamese forces were published in every newspaper in the country. He was handed the key to the city, sent on an all-expenses-paid holiday with his wife Flo and five sons and presented with his medal by the Queen on the royal yacht Britannia.

It was when he began work as an instructor at Duntroon in Canberra a month later that he saw the other side of the coin.

“I came home one day to see someone had painted ‘Baby Killer’ on my fence,” he recalled. “My boys virtually had to fight their way through school because their father had been in Vietnam. What went on when we came back was disgraceful,” he said. “We had nothing to do with the politics. We just did the job the Government gave us but we came home to a hostile public and it hurt. It wasn’t until the Welcome Home Parade in Sydney in 1987 that things turned around. For the first time people started coming up and saying they were sorry for what had gone on and thanked us for what we had done.

“It makes you feel real good, I can tell you.”

Mr Payne, 85, was speaking about the importance of the #ThanksForServing movement, backed by News Corp Australia, the RSL and Legacy and supported by the Department of Veteran Affairs, that encourages the public to acknowledge the contribution of servicemen and women.