Sydney Welcomes Back Troops

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31081, 9 June 1966, Page 17

Sydney Welcomes Back Troops

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

SYDNEY, June 8.

Sydney today gave a hero’s welcome to 600 Australian troops who have just returned from Vietnam.

Thousands of people were in the streets and cheered from buildings to welcome home Vietnam veterans of the Ist Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, who marched through the ”ity.

The cheering crowds waved flags, and hurled streamers and shredded paper in a fantastic ticker tape reception.

About 500 officers and men of the Ist Battalion, and 80 others who served with the Australian force in Vietnam marched proudly through the centre of the city in their jungle-green uniforms. People began taking places at vantage points along the route more than an hour before the parade was due to pass. They cheered and clapped as the slouch-hatted troops marched past, and hundreds of office workers clung from windows to throw streamers and paper.

Flags flew from public buildings along the route, and small children in the crowd waved their own flags. Many people forced their way through the crowds, which were 10 deep in places, to follow the procession to the town hall, where the Gov-ernor-General, Lord Casey, took the salute.

One feature missing from a norma] march past of this kind was the sound of the troops’ tramping feet. They were wearing the rubbersoled combat boots which they wore in Vietnam.