The Mount Gambier and Community RSL held a vigil last week to commemorate two local veterans killed in action in the Vietnam War.
They were one of many RSLs around Australia that gathered to honour the 523 graves of Australian men who never returned from the Vietnam War.
John Rogers and Tony Casadio were honoured in the intimate ceremony attended by around 40 people at the Carinya Gardens.
Mount Gambier and Community RSL president Bob Sandow said the vigil was the first to have been called on a national basis.
“The vigil was not so the RSL members and other veterans do not forget, it is about the community remembering,” he said.
“We have two young men, both died at the age of 22 in service to the country buried here in Mount Gambier.
“It was not an Anzac Day service or a Remembrance Day service, it was just a simple service; a bit of history about the guys … to make sure they’re not forgotten.”
The service included a brief memoir of each man’s life, the last post played by Salvation Army Mount Gambier and Millicent core leader Tim Frost, a recitation of The Ode and a simple prayer by Reverend Murray Earl.
In attendance at the ceremony were Mount Gambier Mayor Lynette Martin, Grant District Council chief executive Darryl Whicker, Superintendent Campbell Hill, members of the Mount Gambier and Community RSL and the public.
