ENSURING the stories of the nation’s war heroes are never forgotten is one of the reasons a veteran passed through Leeton recently.
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Rob Eade is on a journey around Australia on his trike with his mate “Ginge” the dog to place more than 600 flags on cenotaph’s across the nation. Each flag has the name and rank of an Australian that died in the Vietnam War and any conflict after.
Mr Eade started his journey in Western Australia and made a pit stop in Leeton on March 17 to place a flag bearing the name of John Alexander Campbell on the town’s cenotaph. Mr Eade was greeted by the Leeton RSL Sub-branch, as well as mayor Paul Maytom.
“It’s a very touching tribute that he’s doing,” RSL Sub-branch president John Power said.
“He’s travelling right around Australia doing it. We found it very interesting as we didn’t really know much about JA Campbell. We have been able to look into his history a bit.” Campbell, born in Leeton, was part of the 3rd battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment after enlisting on July 12, 1967.
He was killed in action after receiving a gunshot wound to his lungs in South Vietnam on August 3, 1968. He was just 21 years-old.
Mr Eade’s trip is expected to take three years after he started in June last year. Prior to taking off he sold all his possessions and started researching the names of every soldier who had died in conflict from Vietnam until today.