During Period 3 on Wednesday 7/3/18, Year 10 were presented with a depiction of the Vietnam war through the eyes of an Australian soldier who happened to be the father of the person who constructed the play. Brett Hunt told the story of his father growing up on a farm during the drought of 1965 where jobs, money and water supply was low. He joined the Australian army like his father and his grandfather did in the previous wars. He met a girl named Connie and fell in love. For the next year, he spent every day with her until a couple of weeks before he left, he asked her to marry him. She said yes. She gave him a present before embarking. A small medal in which he placed over his heart.
He spent the next 4 years in Vietnam as a front scout, protecting his company from mines, soldiers and booby traps. This was all until the day a man landed on the moon. It was July 21, 1969; Neil Armstrong was the first man to land on the moon; it was only a couple of hours later where Frank was next to the explosion of a land mine known as a ‘jumping jack’. Shrapnel was discharged and hit the surrounding 18 soldiers. At this moment one of Frank’s best mates, Needsy, had his legs blown off and even though he was in terrible condition, he still was able to call his final order of ‘mine drill’ before shortly dying to blood loss. Frank was lifted into a rescue helicopter and taken to the hospital to where he was operated on straight for the next 2 weeks. Connie caught word of this and immediately rushed to the hospital. Frank was able to meet his fiancé for the first time in 4 years and now was told by the military that he was discharged. The play ends with a round of applause and a quick Q&A. Brett’s play was awe inspiring, emotionally intriguing and changed the way we perceived the war.
Trent Whitebread
Year 10
