When, in 2024, local Vietnam veterans decided they no longer wanted to lead Seymour’s Vietnam Veterans’ Day proceedings, a band of students from Seymour College stepped up to take over the service.
After organising, hosting and speaking at last year’s service, the students made national headlines, and have since been offered to travel to Vietnam thanks to The Greatest Generation Foundation in the United States.
Max and Sam were among the students, veterans and teachers chosen to embark on this journey.
While Max was one of the faces leading the service, Sam, whose mum is Seymour College’s defence mentor, Kelly Quigg, did much of the work behind the scenes.
“Every Friday night, I’d go down to the RSL and have a chat to John Phoenix, John Blackwell and some of the other Vietnam veterans,” he said.
“They’d tell me stories about it all.”
Sam said, after hearing these stories, what intrigued him most was “that they were that young when they went off and did it”.
He said he felt more than inspired to aid the ceremony after learning about how the war was for the local veterans.
After speaking to a large crowd gathered at the Vietnam Veterans Commemorative Walk last year, Max said he was happy he decided to take part.
“(When I received the Young Citizen of the Year award), I talked about how I was very grateful that I got selected to (speak on the day), very grateful that I’m going to Vietnam now, grateful for everyone coming, grateful for Kelly, and, overall, I’m glad I did it all,” he said.
After each receiving their awards at the Australia Day celebrations in Kings Park, Max said he and Sam could sense the appreciation from the crowd.
“On Australia Day, I had a handful of people come up to say thank you for doing it and congratulations, which is really good to get noticed for what I did,” he said.
“(The veterans) deserve it all — especially with what they faced when they came back from Vietnam, it’s technically the least we can do.
“Even though I might not do it this year, I’ll at least try to come into the school and help the new students who will run it.”
Ms Quigg was glowing with pride seeing her son and her student be recognised for their hard work.
“I’m extremely proud,” she said.
“As a mum, I am super-duper proud, I just think a lot of the behind-the-scenes isn’t seen, we were working on (the Vietnam Veterans’ Day service) for months before.
“And Max and Dylan (Frost), who were both the speakers on the day, I’m extremely proud as defence mentor. I think how Max carried himself and how he spoke was amazing, he was very respectable.
“I’m so proud as both a mum and a defence mentor — I couldn’t be prouder.”
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