John Stead did just that, as he was serving in Vietnam during the war in the 161 Reconnaissance Flight unit, call-sign ‘Possum’.

The Colo Vale resident joined the army when he was 17 to learn a trade.

“I wasn’t as heavily involved in combat as I worked on the helicopters,” he said.

“I was an airframe fitter in the war, so I looked after everything on the aircraft apart from the engine and electronics.”

John would alter the helicopters and planes for various missions, be it store drops or attaching rockets under the wings for combat.

He said the helicopters in the Vietnam War were mainly used for spotting the enemy.

“We would fly at treetop level and drop smoke bombs on trenches or tunnels,” he said.

“Then the American aircrafts would bomb them.”

Helicopters were also used for psychological warfare.

“We rigged the fixed-wing aircraft with speakers and we would circle around at night playing ghostly music or messages asking the Viet Cong to surrender,” John said.

“They were a very superstitious people.”

John served in Vietnam for nine months, but his injuries sustained there didn’t come from combat.

“I dislocated my shoulder three times while there, playing football or volleyball,” he said.

“There was a rugby union competition going between the units, and most of the good players were pilots.”

John fondly remembers the downtime at the Australian base on Nui Dat.

“We lived in four-man tents that had sandbags and corrugated iron around them, some were pretty daggy,” he said.

“We had a mongoose living in the top of my tent, and while it would climb down and make noise running on top of the corrugated iron each night, it kept the snakes out.”

He recalls their ‘soulies’, where the soldiers would play guitars sitting around the fire.

“There was a restriction on beer – we were only allowed two cans – but when the infantry was out, we’d buy their cans as well,” John said.

Once he came home, John contracted a rare cancer; soft tissue sarcoma.

“It’s directly associated with Agent Orange,” he said.

“We used to get our water from a well near a forest that the Viet Cong defoliated with Agent Orange, so it was in the soil and probably seeped through.”

John continued to serve in the army until 1973, and then he joined the reserves.

During training near Toowoomba, he was involved in a helicopter accident.

“The helicopter burst into flames and from where I was at the time of the crash, I was able to call for help,” he said.

“One of my friends was killed straight away, while another had burns to 80 per cent of his body.

“He walked towards me and said ‘Oh the pain, kill me Stead.’ He later died in hospital.

“All these things build up and come out later on.”

John wasn’t diagnosed with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) until the late 90s, which reared its head when he was in his early fifties.

“I had an accident driving a mini-bus to Sydney where my friend was killed,” he said.

“Not long after the accident I started having dreams of being in the jungle without a rifle. That’s when I was diagnosed.”

John said he believed his mental health condition affected his family as well.

“They say sons of veterans have a higher chance of depression,” he said.

“My son was 31 when he committed suicide.”

Since moving to Colo Vale 13 years ago, John has made contact with other veterans in the area.

“Our neighbour up the road who moved here a few months ago, turns out we were in Vietnam at the same time,” he said.

“I was in the unit next to him, we haven’t seen each other since 1971.”

John is a member of the Highlands Vietnam veterans group, and will march at the Vietnam commemorative service at Settlers’ Park in Bowral on August 18.