Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Uncle Trevor was Drafted. It wasn't his choice to go to war. He did make a life long friend during his time in Vietnam - Neville Bartels. I last saw my Uncle Trevor in November 2023 - during this visit he shared stories about how he trained dogs to sniff out mine wires - During my childhood, I had seen uncle Trev have many meltdowns, but I had never ever heard him actually talk about the war. He told me about his time at Enoggera barracks and how they trained the dogs by showing them rope, and slowly thinning it to a wire. He said they once tried to train a black labrador (at Trev's request) - he said it went really badly. The black lab was not compliant and was put into the black box as punishment/training. Eventually he got it, but was never put into the field as he was unreliable.
Trev used to drink very heavily, and he would always stay up to all hours of the night and teach his pet dogs tricks.... with cashews as treats, because cashews were Trev's favourite treats :) We would wake up the next day and Trev would show us the dogs new trick - these times training his pet dogs were always the happiest I ever saw Trev. Trev lost his hair and had a weeping navel from agent orange... and he seemed to lost his soul and his sanity over there too.
Trev is currently in Cairns Base Hospital slowly passing from Dementia. Today is his favourite day 4 Nov, Melbourne Cup Day. We love you Trevor