Bendigo Vietnam veterans appalled at Afghanistan soldiers' treatment

Older veterans are stepping up outreach to servicemen and women who watched the fall of Kabul and war crimes allegations circulate.

Vietnam War veteran Paul Penno AM is among those "appalled" and increasingly worried about the stigma developing around those who served in Afghanistan.

He is leading a push to bring veterans of both wars together in Bendigo at the end of April.

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"Most of those veterans did between two and five tours, repeatedly returning to Hell, basically," Mr Penno said.

"They are to be so admired."

Mr Penno hoped the dinner might also prompt central Victoria's Afghanistan veterans to organise themselves into a dedicated group.

"They've got to challenge governments when they make poor decisions in the context of veteran welfare," he said.

Defence bosses attempted to strip about 3000 special forces personnel of meritorious unit citations in the fallout from a war crimes report.

That decision was later revoked but underscored the potential for those not accused of war crimes to be mistreated, Mr Penno said.

A previous inquiry found 25 people may have been involved in war crimes and recommended charges be pursued against 19 of them.

Stories of those alleged crimes have circulated widely throughout the community, on the floor of parliament and, currently, in a defamation trial involving a number of newspapers and Australia's highest profile Afghanistan veteran, Ben Roberts-Smith.

Mr Penno did not think it appropriate to give any commentary on alleged war crimes, many of which have not been tried in a courtroom.

The very public nature of war crime allegations, court cases and discussions on the floor of parliament were compounding problems for the large majority of Afghanistan veterans not accused of any wrongdoing, he said.

The potential ostracism of Afghanistan victims was not the only reason those who served in Vietnam felt an affinity for them.

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There is also the eerie parallels between the fall of Kabul and that of Saigon, Mr Penno said.

"All that vision of people running beside the planes and actually hanging on to aircraft during take off, filled with terror," he said.

He said like Vietnam veterans before them, Afghanistan servicemen and women were asking themselves what their sacrifices were for.

Mr Penno said it had likely triggered a mental health crisis that would play out in the decades to come, and he would know.

After he returned from Vietnam he spent his career working in the mental health sector. He helped many fellow veterans as their post-traumatic stress symptoms intensified.

"You were looking at a 15 to 20-year timeframe before things became bad enough to identify," Mr Penno said.

The dinner is scheduled for Friday, April 29, with RSVPs needed five days earlier.

For more information or to RSVP, email Mr Penno at vietvetsbdgo@gmail.com

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