Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

JOHN THOMAS HOUNSLOW
29-10-1946 - 21-10-2010
By BERNARD CLANCY

John Hounslow, whose voice delivered daily news from home to Australian troops in Vietnam in 1968-69, and who later won both Logie and Penguin awards as a television journalist, has died of cancer at Cabrini Hospital, aged 63.
Hounslow's early career was defined by the army. He was conscripted in April 1967 and arrived in Vietnam about 12 months later, where he served in army public relations in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City). His most important task was to prepare and read a five-minute bulletin of news from Australia on the American Forces Vietnam Network (AFVN) radio station at 10am each day.

It was a much anticipated program by Australian troops throughout the country because it was the only way they received timely news from home in an age when radio communications were by telex and mail went by ship.
To ensure the news was fresh, Hounslow would tape early morning Radio Australia broadcasts - obtained via a five-storey-high aerial on the Free World military headquarters building - rewrite it in his own style and make the daily dash to the American radio station through horrendous Saigon traffic jams to get to the microphone by the appointed hour.
He was well qualified to do so, having done a journalism cadetship at The News in Adelaide with cricket writer, broadcaster and lifelong friend, Mike Coward, before transferring to radio news at 5AD when his army call-up interrupted.

A cricket "nut", Hounslow knew the importance of timely cricket and football scores to Australian troops and ensured sport received priority on his news list. He scorned official news items telexed from army headquarters in Canberra. These were usually heavily censored, in bureaucrat-speak, sanitised and out of date. In high dudgeon - and he was very good at that - he ranted that they were an insult to Australian troops and shoved them in a bin. Nicknamed Hound Dog, Hounslow was loved by the troops for his professionalism. News from home was always of paramount interest, and he made a significant contribution to the morale of Australian soldiers in Vietnam.

He was also well known at Saigon's most exclusive club, International House, a little piece of the ''good ole USA'' in the middle of a war. Membership consisted of CIA, civil engineering contractors and senior American military officers who were often highly amused by his rendition of 'Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport' in the piano bar. In fact, the humble Sergeant Hounslow was the only Australian member, a privilege not even afforded to Australia's ambassador or military commander in Vietnam.

After his time in the army, Hounslow returned to the 5AD newsroom in Adelaide but soon shifted to Melbourne's 3AW. Then came the move to television, and Channel Nine news, where he worked with John Sorell, a man he greatly admired, before switching to A Current Affair. This was the beginning of a long friendship with the late Michael Schildberger.

Others moves followed: Channel Ten news, the beginning of FM radio at Fox-FM, again with Schildberger, then a major change as news director of regional TV in Bendigo where he and his team won Logie and Penguin awards, of which he was very proud.
Then followed a term as director of news at Channel Ten Adelaide before he returned to Melbourne in 1992 to again work with Schildberger at Business Essentials, where he remained until his recent hospitalisation at Cabrini with pancreatic and liver cancer.
Hounslow was born in Adelaide to John and Mildred. His father died when Hounslow was just 18 - a loss that affected him deeply. His mother also died young, about 30 years ago, and his younger sister Teena, to whom he was very close, predeceased him by a few weeks.
Hounslow married Heather (nee Hyslop) in 1970 - they divorced later - and they had a son, Clay. But 18 months later tragedy struck, and Clay died of viral meningitis, a terrible blow that affected them deeply. In 1981, however, their second son, Luke, was born. He is now a policeman in South Australia.

Like so many who went to Vietnam, Hounslow brought his war home with him. Nobody ever showed veterans how to do otherwise. It was a case of "thank God that's over, now let's get on with it". Professionally he did just that, and his record as an outstanding journalist illustrates that. But the war wounds were deep, and lingered; it was not until 2005 that family and friends were able to convince him to march on Anzac Day. He never missed one after that.
An outstanding mate, he would debate vigorously, especially on football, politics and the relevance of journalism. (Oddly, there was something about his character that prevented him from seeing that occasionally he may have been wrong. He could be so black and white at times that friends wondered why he wasn't a Magpie supporter. In fact, his team was Hawthorn, and he spent many years at the bar of the club's Glenferrie headquarters.)

He is survived by his son Luke, nephew Paul and his wife Jess and their children Charlie and Amelia.

The writer, Bernard Clancy, a journalist, author and playwright, first met John Hounslow while they were ''Nashos'' in Vietnam. He was assisted by Luke Hounslow. (This text has been uploaded by Mike O’Reilly, a former cadet journalist at Radio 5AD Adelaide, who considered John Hounslow to be a ‘larger than life’ reporter and a great mentor.