Tapes from the frontline: Tweed veteran recalls war and home

A MURWILLUMBAH veteran who recorded messages on tape to stay connected with his wife during the Vietnam War has reflected on the contrast between domestic life and combat ahead of this year’s Anzac Day commemorations.

Derek Sims, 90, served 12 months in Vietnam, as well as a brief stint in Korea.

While deployed, he used early tape recorders to exchange messages with his wife.

“We had little tape recorders,” he said.

“I’d send her a tape and she’d send me one back.”

“I knew where she was sitting at the time of recording,” he said.

“It was in the kitchen because I could hear the fridge buzzing.”

Sims served in reconnaissance operations, flying observation missions to track infantry movements.

“We were operating Sioux helicopters,” he said.

“A battalion would be out on patrol, and they’d send a company somewhere, and we’d check which way they were going.”

“Sometimes we got shot at too,” he said.

In one incident, a bullet struck the pilot’s seat, stopped only by protective armour.

“The bullet came through and the point of it was sticking out the back of his seat,” he said.

“If there had been no armour there, he wouldn’t be flying that chopper, and I wouldn’t be either.”

Moments like that were often followed by humour.

“What we used to say in a crude way was ‘shit for trumps’ which essentially meant you’d shit yourself,” he said.

He also recalled night operations dropping flares from a Pilatus Porter aircraft to light up the ground below.

“We opened up the trap door, and we’d drop flares to give the infantry a bit of light,” he said.

“I’d drop it through this hole, and I’d be hoping it didn’t go off because it could burn you to pieces, and everybody in the plane.”

“We’d drop all the flares, and it looked like daytime when you looked down.”

After being medically downgraded and told he was not eligible to serve overseas, he pushed to be sent anyway.

Having trained soldiers bound for Vietnam, he said he felt it was unfair to remain behind.

“I said, ‘I’ve been training blokes to go to Vietnam, so why should I send those poor bastards there and sit on my arse back here?’,” he said.

He traces that attitude back to his childhood in England, where he lived through The Blitz.

“I lived through The Blitz from the age of five,” he said.

“We got bombed out.”

Now, decades later, Sims remains closely involved with the Murwillumbah RSL, a connection that dates back to 1993.

He will again play a role in this year’s Anzac Day service.

He said the day remains a time to remember those who did not return, and those who struggled after coming home.

“I always think back to friends I had,” he said.

“Some died from injuries they sustained.”

“Some unfortunately died by suicide, because veterans were treated unkindly when they returned home from service in Vietnam.”

“We used to call it death by car because they would drive their car into a tree.”

“If you read history, I don’t think there has ever been a time without a war,” he said.

“It’s because greed creates wars.”

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