Veteran brothers meet up after five years
On Anzac Day this year, five brothers (full, step and half), reunited after five years apart. Four of them are veterans, two of them Vietnam veterans.
They last met up for Anzac Day in 2018 at Elephant Rock on the Gold Coast.
This time round, they decided to meet at the war memorial in the Perth suburb of Pickering Brook near where they grew up. Two of the brothers live in distant parts of Western Australia; the others in Queensland. Twelve years separate the eldest from the youngest.
The reunion was organised by Graham ‘Scruff’ Smith who, as a National Servicemen, served with the 4th Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment during the Vietnam War.
‘I’d been trying to get the bastards together for years,’ he laughs. ‘It was great seeing them again.’
In the photo below, Graham is on the left next to his stepsister Lorraine (nee Murphy). To the right of him is his full brother Victor who served in the RAAF for more than 40 years. Victor too served in Vietnam (1967–68 and 1970–71) and on one occasion the two found themselves sitting next to each other on a Huey helicopter – Victor as a gunner, Graham as an infantryman about to be dropped off on a patrol.
Right of Victor is Charlie Murphy, Graham and Victor’s stepbrother. Charlie served in the RAAF for about 20 years.
Right of him is Bill Murphy who served in the Navy for about 20 years.
And finally far right is Brett Murphy who’s wearing the medals of his father who served in the Second World War.
Various nieces and nephews were also in attendance and it was a great chance for this very extended family with decades of service between them to get together and connect.
