OCS Class of 1972

April 2008 saw an amazing event. One of our class from South Vietnam returned to Australia to catch up with his 'old' class mates. Fortunately, the grape vine worked well and a number of those in the Brisbane area managed to meet for lunch at the Victoria barracks Officers' Mess on 23 April and again with some new faces at the Sunshine Beach Surf Life Saving Club on 26 April.

With a prior meeting with Greg Pike and a visit to Melbourne under his belt, Sy was working hard. Thanks to Denis Ausling who organised the first lunch where we were joined by Peter Gooch (ABC Brisbane) who was part of our class. Peter recorded a number of the exchanges as well as an interview about Sy's life since 1972. This is now on the ABC Brisbane site (see our links area). There are photos and the recorded interview.

On Saturday, Greg played the chauffer and drove Sy to Sunshine Beach where the host John Fergusson looked after us exceptionally well. We were joined by Paul Asbury (Class of 67 and strong Alumni site supporter). Sy had had an exceptional day on Anzac Day marching with the SVN group in the Brisbane march.

He left Australia later in the week to return home to the US via SVN. The gap of 36 years had been bridged.