19th REUNION 86 TRANSPORT PLATOON Wagga Wagga 2019

Who would have thought that a collection of nineteen letters received fifty years ago would take me to the 86 TPT PLT's 19th reunion in Wagga Wagga, my mother's hometown?

Including letter excerpts in "Please Write: a novel" required seeking permission to do so. Unfortunately, all too often in my quest to find an author, I found myself reading an obituary. And so began the long, hard search for an heir.

Michael Curran was a friend who went to Vietnam in 1970. Below is a picture of him getting ready to take a busload of Vietnamese people either to the platoon's camp in Nui Dat or back home to Cat-lo. Michael spoke kindly about the Vietnamese people which was quite remarkable. Unfortunately he died in a car accident in 1998.

The character Michael in Please Write is Catherine's cousin. I knew he had a brother Morton for whom I'd searched without success.

Then one day the idea occurred to me to google his name and service number. There he was on the Vale page of the 86 TPT PLT's website. I immediately contacted the website telling whoever was on the other end that I was searching for Michael's brother and could anyone help me. Peter Southwell responded and said they did not know anything about Morton but the committee would try to find him. And incredibly...they did.

             As the result of our correspondence my husband and I were invited to join the veterans and their wives in a week of activities and to speak about Michael at the gala dinner. Unbeknown to me they'd invited Morton who when I met him remembered working on the starter motor of my Renault, the first car I owned back in 1971. Before getting up to speak I asked him if he would mind if I invited him to the podium to read from Michael's letters. A quietly spoken person, Morton responded with yes that he would read. Stories change over the years but letters don't. Although not physically there, Michael's letters made him a participant with his words triggering memories in the mates he served with.

At the end of my speech I invited Morton one more time to the podium.

"I've kept Michael's letters safe for almost fifty years now," I said, "but they are part of your family's history, and they belong with you." I handed him nineteen letters full of stories that would not morph with time.

A tour of Kapooka Army Base where all Aussie army recruits do their basic training. More than a few memories of those days came flashing back to the veterans.

April 25 Anzac Day dawn commemoration in Wagga Wagga 2019

The Vietnam Memorial in Wagga Wagga