~ Marist Brothers Darlinghurst ~
Darlo Reflections related to War
Commenced Anzac Day, 2021
Maj. John Gallagher
I was rejected by the Darlo Cadet Unit as being “unsuitable “ on the numerous occasions I tried to enlist as I was keen on a military career since pre-school days. Only one other classmate was similarly rejected. Many years later I asked the good Br Lionel at an Old Boys function “why was it so?” Looking a little embarrassed he asked if my mother was still alive. Replying she had passed away at a relatively young age, Br L proceeded to tell me Mother had visited the school and asked that I not be allowed to “join the colours.” Her reason was that wars had claimed her grandfather and her father. As well her husband suffered from recurring bouts of Malaria and what is now known as PTSD. She did not want he son to follow the same path.
Trying to correct my “unsuitability” for the cadets I worked in the school Armoury every lunch time and sometimes after school cleaning, stripping and assembling the whole range of weapons it held including Boer War vintage .303s, Brens, Vickers MGs and mortars. I probably knew as much about weapons as the Cadet Under Officers, but on reapplying each year I was still classified as “unsuitable”.
In a moment of rejected desperation I applied to join the Regular Army via the Royal Military College, Duntroon. To my surprise I was accepted and joined in January 1968. My unsuitability had been overcome by the manning requirements of the Vietnam War. The first year of the Wyndham Scheme added 2 years to our secondary schooling which meant I joined at 18, not 16. Thanks to Dr Wyndham our RMC class was the first class not to serve in Vietnam as by the time the 4 year officer course was completed, the Vietnam War was almost over having claimed some 500 Australians including a number of my mates in more senior classes.
After 2 years at RMC I bailed out to get married as officer training was like the priesthood in those days. Marriage was forbidden until after graduation.
Some years later, in desperate need of extra cash to pay the St Mary’s cathedral school fees for 2 boys, I joined the Army Reserve and slowly advanced up the promotion ladder, no doubt helped by all those hours working in the Darlo armoury.
As the only wharfie in the modern army, I frequently went on full-time service including a deployment to East Timor in 2003. This was a UN Peacekeeping Operation, classified by Australia as in “warlike conditions.”
What followed was 5 months of a helter-skelter role all over East Timor as UN Chief of Movements including sourcing and transporting building materials to help the Sisters of No Mercy rebuild their destroyed convent. Locals had huts with dirt floors shared with pigs and chooks, battling diseases like malnutrition and leprosy, how lucky we are to be Australians.
The Asian Tsunami in early 2004 claimed around 300,000 lives. Tragically 10 ADF personnel among them. Claimed when a Navy helicopter crashed at Nias Island, Indonesia. Among them was an RAAF Nursing Sister who patched me up after one of my numerous narrow escapes in East Timor.
Rest in Peace Lyn. Lest We Forget.
After 9 near death experiences, some involving persons with evil intent I returned home and managed to avoid further deployments to such exotic places as Iraq and Afghanistan. The Army mentioned something about me being “unsuitable” for further missions. Perhaps the Darlo Cadet Unit was right after all.
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Dr. Robert Schiavuzzi
My late dad, Mario Schiavuzzi, Platoon Sergeant -Major in the Italian Army, WW II, was so proud when I marched on Anzac Days in the Darlo Cadet Band ( I was a side-drummer).
He always said his greatest achievement was bringing the boys back when the War ended……except one , an 18 year old boy from Naples. That sadness never left him.
Lest we forget.
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Vincent Restuccia
Support Company 9RAR 1967-69
I can remember at Darlinghurst watch the cadets firing their 303 rifles in I think grade 6 thinking they were very loud. In 1966 I was called up for National Service first intake, however because I had one year to go before finishing my apprenticeship I was deferred to 1967 called up in April. I did my basic training in Karpooka, then infantry training in Singleton. I was supposed to be deployed to Vietnam straight after infantry training but instead was sent to form a new battalion in Woodside South Australia 9 RAR. It was November and warm but freezing place in the middle of winter we did most of our training in the desert, after going to Queensland for jungle training I left for Vietnam November 1968 arrived in a Boeing 707. What an eye opener for a Sydney lad that spent all his teenage years surfing on the northern beaches. We took over from 3RAR they had had a hard war and were very keen to get home. I did my share of patrolling, fire base support. I was lucky and managed to get through in one piece, but 50+ years later I ended with a number serious illness which have been accepted by DVA as war caused. I am 75 a lot of fellows didn’t get home to enjoy life as I have been lucky to do, my time as a solider wasn’t bad it taught me to grow up quickly and to always look for the best that life has to offer.
Darlo cadet, Graham Norris ( a Bondi boy, now Gold Coast) was actually “ wounded in action” whilst on Darlo cadet camp at Singleton. Shot in the bare foot with a .303 blank round in unknown circumstances, he spent a few days in the Singleton Base Hospital. In the US Army he would have been awarded the “Purple Heart’. Unfortunately he only got a “Purple Foot” with lacerations and severe bruising.
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