Warriors returned – Boronia’s Jim Bourke was named a Member of the Order of Australia. 26361

By Casey Neill
BORONIA war veteran Jim Bourke has been recognised for his work to locate six Australian soldiers killed in the Vietnam War.
The 65-year-old was among 115 Australians appointed Members in the General Division of the Order of Australia (AM) on Australia Day.
“I’m proud and pleased,” Mr Bourke said.
He established Operation Aussies Home in 2002 to find the remains of six Australian servicemen in Vietnam.
Mr Bourke grew up in country Queensland and worked on a cattle station after graduating from high school.
“It was 120 degrees in the shade, and the flies were so thick,” he said.
“I thought ‘there’s gotta be a better life than this’, so I joined the Army.”
Mr Bourke enlisted in 1963 and finished cadet school in mid-1964.
He was soon a platoon commander in charge of 30 soldiers. They arrived in Vietnam in June 1965.
“We had a job to do and we went over there and did it,” he said.
Mr Bourke was shot in the face after just six months.
“The bullet went in through my right lip and out under my ear,” he said.
The shot broke his jaw in three places and landed him in hospital for three months.
“I took 22 men into that battle, and 11 walked back out,” he said.
He returned with the Australian Army Training Team in mid-1968. It was then he met American soldier Sergeant First Class Anastacio Montez.
Montez was killed in May 1969 and his body was never recovered.
Mr Bourke only discovered the soldier’s fate in 1997.
He then learnt the remains of six Australian soldiers were also still missing.
“I thought ‘goodness gracious, I’ve got to do something about them’,” he said.
In 2002 he began to research. He tracked down official reports and Australian and Vietnamese soldiers for first hand accounts.
Not even five months of chemotherapy in 2006 for lymphoma could slow him down.
In 2007, the remains of Lance Corporal Richard Parker, Private Peter Gillson and Lance Corporal Gillespie were returned to Australia.
Special Air Forces Regiment’s Private David Fisher was recovered last year.
Enemy fire hit and killed Parker and Gillson 18 miles northeast of Bien Hoa on 8 November 1965.
Their fellow soldiers were unable to recover their bodies from the battlefield.
“A Vietnamese soldier told us he’d buried them within 70 metres of where they fell,” Mr Bourke said.
“If he hadn’t buried them we wouldn’t have found them.”
Gillespie was on board a helicopter shot down while trying to evacuate a wounded soldier during Operation Dong Khoi III on 17 April 1971.
The Vietnamese Government returned the soldiers to Australian officials, who flew them home.
They were buried in military ceremonies.
The recovery of the final two veterans, Flying Officer Herbert and Pilot Officer Carver, is well underway and now in the hands of RAAF Headquarters.
Mr Bourke refused to estimate how much of his own cash has gone into the project.
“It’s nothing as far as I’m concerned,” he said.
He said telling families their loved ones had been found was “the biggest buzz”.
“One woman said to me ‘you’ve got a special place in heaven’,” he said.
Operation Aussies Home has 40 members across Australia, including his son Anthony and daughters Julia and Sarah.
The group will now focus on the 44 Australian soldiers reported missing in action in the Korean War and three killed in New Guinea during WWII.
Mr Bourke wants to repay the Vietnamese people for their help with scholarships for local children.
He is now after cash to make it happen. Anyone who would like to contribute can call him on 9762 2513.
See page 10 for Knox Council’s Australia Day Awards winners.