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Remembrance Day will be especially poignant this year for Vietnam War veteran Geof Irvin

Headshot of Tom Shanahan
Tom ShanahanThe West Australian
Remembrance Day will be especially poignant this year for Vietnam War veteran Goef Irvin.
Camera IconRemembrance Day will be especially poignant this year for Vietnam War veteran Goef Irvin.

For Vietnam War veteran Geof Irvin and those who served alongside him, the danger did not end when the war did.

Mr Irvin estimates 80 per cent of those he served with have died of cancer caused or exacerbated by exposure to Agent Orange, used by the United States and its allies to strip leaves from the dense jungle landscape.

It started in the pancreas for one of his best mates, before spreading to his liver.

Another lost friend died of brain cancer.

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The Kalamunda RSL president considers himself one of the lucky ones — Mr Irvin is now in remission after a battle with bladder cancer.

“They said I was gone. But I fought it and the doctors kept scraping away at my insides and I didn’t go,” he said.

Geof Irvin in his early 20s in Vietnam
Camera IconGeof Irvin in his early 20s in Vietnam Credit: supplied

Mr Irvin answered the call in early 1971, serving in the RAAF’s No. 9 Squadron until it left Vietnam in December of that year. “I wanted to go. I was young, I was 20 and I wanted to fight,” he said.

As a helicopter air crewman, he was responsible for winching — putting soldiers on the ground and getting them out during rescues.

Mr Irvin will remember his fallen friends — those who died in action and those who died later from illness or suicide — at today’s Remembrance Day commemorations.

It’s an experience he relishes sharing with his five grandchildren, including three-year-old Mahlee.

I am the luckiest man in the world to still be alive to share this day with my grandchildren.

“I am the luckiest man in the world to still be alive to share this day with my grandchildren,” Mr Irvin said. “I didn’t expect to be here today and I am so proud of them.”

Today’s commemorations will be the first major opportunity for veterans to gather and honour their lost mates after Anzac Day services were cancelled due to the ban on mass gatherings in place at the time.

Coronavirus restrictions also closed RSLs, depriving veterans of an important social outlet.

But with clubs back in action and gathering restrictions lifted, Mr Irvin said this year’s Remembrance Day would hold special significance for veterans and their loved ones.

“The coronavirus closed our club for a while but didn’t close our hearts,” he said.

Geof Irvin with granddaughter Mahlee.
Camera IconGeof Irvin with granddaughter Mahlee. Credit: Ian Munro/The West Australian

The Kalamunda RSL is now fundraising to bring to WA another old friend — a UH-1 Iroquois helicopter which has seen action in the Middle East and during the Bougainville conflict.

Mr Irvin estimates the club will need $15,000 to get the machine from Albury in NSW to Kalamunda. Once it arrives, it will be adorned with the names of some of those from the town who died in Vietnam.

Remembrance Day services will take place across WA today, including at the Kings Park Cenotaph from 10.30am.

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