RETURNED Vietnam veteran Norman Hill took a significant step last week as he marched in his first-ever Anzac Day parade.
Mr Hill spent four years serving for Australia, from 1966 to 1970, where he was an army sergeant, serving in the Vietnam War.
Despite being underage when he enlisted, Mr Hill was no stranger to war – his father and grandfather had both served.
He clearly recalls the day his father, a prisoner of war, returned home to the family.
“I was only four or five at the time when there was a knock at the door,” Mr Hill said.
“And there was my father standing at the door, as skinny as a rake.”
Mr Hill said his grandfather never spoke of his experience at war, something Mr Hill now resonates with.
While the experience is something he’d rather forget, and although he’s attended many Anzac Day services in the past, he’s only ever watched from a distance.
“I didn’t want to be part of it,” he said.
“It brought back too many memories.”
Last Friday, surrounded by fellow veterans and a supportive Sea Lake community, Mr Hill marched proudly down the main street to the cenotaph and RSL, leading the procession as the town’s flag bearer.
Decades after his service, the experience was both a public acknowledgment of his journey, and a personal milestone in facing the long-term impact of PTSD.
Mr Hill has spent the last five years travelling around the east coast of Australia in his caravan.
He arrived in Sea Lake in September and has called it home ever since.
Mr Hill said he was overcome with emotion when he first visited the Sea Lake RSL.
“It felt like it was home,” he said.
Poetry writing has become a form of therapy for the returned soldier, and he has penned more than 150 poems in recent years, on various topics.
“I went through my whole life not knowing how to spell or write,” he said, noting it was his wife of 25 years, Penny, who helped him along the way.
The two share a special bond, having first met as teenagers but it was fate which would reunite them later in life.
His poem, entitled A Day to Remember was read during the Sea Lake Anzac Day service.
The poem explores Anzac Day, touching on the three generations of his family that went to war.
“It brought back a lot of memories,” he said.
Mr Hill commended the younger generation for their role in preserving the Anzac legacy, emphasising the importance of their awareness of the sacrifices which were made.
He said he enjoyed watching the younger generation take part in the Sea Lake ceremony, noting they were well represented, with each school taking part in the service.
“I didn’t want to go to war, but I went anyway,” he said. “I was underage. I lied about that. I went over to finish and end the war.”
