For Vietnam Veteran, Jeff McCole, it will be a different ANZAC Day this Saturday.

With the coronavirus crisis putting a stop to the traditional Dawn Service, parades and commemorations across the country, the Buchan resident will hold his own vigil to remember his comrades who died in battle or who have since passed away.

Mr McCole plans to light a candle and walk to the front gate of his farm, where he grew up, at 6am on Saturday and pause to reflect.

Now 70, Mr McCole was only 19 when he was called up for national service in January 1970 to be deployed to Vietnam.

After 10 weeks training in Puckapunyal, and a stint at the School of Military Engineering at Casula, in New South Wales, Mr McCole was posted to Vietnam in September that year as part of 1 Field Squadron’s plant troop in Nui Dat.

“My main role was on heavy machinery land clearing and that was mostly for denial of access so we could see the ground better from the helicopters and enable the tanks to get to any conflag quicker.”

Mr McCole later went on to do land mine clearing works on an American owned M48A3 tank, that the Australian Army had leased, clearing bush tracks of mines to allow quicker access for other armored vehicles.

“It was pretty full-on, there was a lot of pressure around us and we needed protection so we either had three armored personnel carriers or three centurion tanks as our protection for clearing the roads.”

Mr McCole said his time clearing mines in the thick Vietnam jungle could sometimes last up to four to five weeks.

“You’re locked down when you’re clearing and it was probably 40 degrees or more inside the tank. The stress, you’re running at 200 per cent the whole time.”

On April 11, 1971, Mr McCole’s tank hit a large landmine, which virtually destroyed the steel vehicle.

“It was a big bang, something in the range of 40 kilos of explosives.  It blew all the side out of the tank and all the tracks off the side of it and everything like that.”

Mr McCole suffered a dislocated shoulder and a cracked bone in his elbow. He was also bleeding from the head in several places.

“I was dusted off and taken back to base and then to the hospital,” Mr McCole said.

Because his injuries had swollen, doctors were unable to operate so he was discharged after a couple of hours and sent back to army camp at Nui Dat.

Mr McCole was soon back on the tank and served several more months in Vietnam before being posted back to Australia in October 1971.

Like many former servicemen, Mr McCole says his memories of his overseas tour never leaves him.

Mr McCole remains in contact with the two soldiers who were on the tank with him, describing them as  “pretty special people”.

He is also full of praise for all of the 300 personnel carrier “blokes” who shared the burden of the grueling work in Vietnam.

“They were top blokes, absolutely top blokes,” he said.

“We’ve lost a couple of these fellas lately and that makes it a bit hard.”

ANZAC Day this year will be particularly painful for McCole, as he reflects on his lost comrades and his time in Vietnam, the former soldier is also dealing with his own personal tragedy.

Over summer, as bushfires tore through East Gippsland, Mr McCole was forced to evacuate his 400-acre sheep farm with his wife, Margaret, and loyal dog, Pippa.

The couple sought refuge at the Buchan football ground with about 150 other residents of the small, close-knit community.

As the raging, hungry bushfire skipped through the Buchan Valley with unprecedented intensity on December 30, the McCole family home, with its commanding views over the hills, was lost.

“We were going to stay and fight, we thought if it came through low on the ground we could handle it, but everything went orange and I’d been run over by a fire at Cann River years ago and I thought this is going to happen again,” Mr McCole said.

As the sky took on a strange, eerie glow at about 5pm, Mr McCole said the fire was headed straight at his property.

“We had bush to drive through to get out and if that had of caught on fire we would’ve been trapped, so we left early,” he said.

Mr McCole’s two sons, Warren and Aaron, who help run the farm, had also left to defend their own properties.

As the Buchan community bunkered down in the heart of the town the fire stole many of their homes and livelihoods.

While the fire devoured much of the McCole farm, it spared 30 acres, which was where Mr McCole found his 400 head of sheep the next morning.  Just six died as a result of the fire.

“I suppose it could have been a lot worse,” Mr McCole said.

Mr McCole and his wife had moved a caravan to the football ground ahead of the fires and when they left the property they also hooked up a camper trailer with a few clothes and valuables.

Yet, he wasn’t prepared for the devastation of seeing his house burnt to the ground.

“It’s just so final. Marg’s aunty was a really good artist, we had a lot of her paintings that were left behind. We lost a lot of memories,” Mr McCole said.

Perhaps it is his experience in Vietnam that has equipped Mr McCole to better deal with life in the aftermath of the bushfires, although it hasn’t been easy.

He is looking forward to rebuilding his house overlooking the Buchan and Murrindal valleys.

Grocon moved in to clear the rubble from the site a few weeks ago in preparation for the rebuild.

The McColes are presently living in a house loaned to them in the Buchan township but Mr McCole can’t wait to move back to the farm.

While he readily admits he will miss attending the ANZAC Day Dawn Service as he usually does in Buchan each year, Mr McCole will reflect quietly.

“I think all veterans will be disappointed it won’t be happening. I know I’ll miss my rum and coffee,” he said.

IMAGE: Jeff McCole, overlooking his Buchan property where he will hold his own ANZAC Day Dawn Sevice vigil on Saturday.