Trevor Skurrie has live his entire life in Stawell, except for the two years national service he gave after his "marble" was drawn from the barrell.

At just 21 years old Mr Skurrie was sent into training before going on to serve 304 days of active duty in Vietnam.

"It was very hard," he said.

"My marble came out, like a lot of others. We were lucky because we had just two-years of our national service.

"I went over (to Vietnam) in May 1969 and I had to be out by May 1, 1970 because that was my discharge day.

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"I couldn't spend my full twelve months there, so that's why I came back early in March 1970."

Mr Skurrie said he spent a decent part of his two years service training in Queensland before heading to Vietnam to serve in various roles, where he counted down each day until his return to Australia.

"We did three weeks up at Condura in Queensland and when I came back after three weeks I was very fit. All the boys were because they had to pass that before they headed to Vietnam," he said.

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"I actually went over as a batman, which is a driver for the commanding officers in the land rovers.

"I was only there for a couple of weeks and then they threw me into an armour recovery vehicle, which is a tank without the gun on it.

"Every time we went out to the bush there was always four tanks and we went with them for recovery and we could tow them back to base.

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"We had two motor mechanics on board and two electricians and on top of that I wasn't even taught how to drive it, which wasn't very good for the boys sitting on the back.

"Here I am driving around with an 80 tonne armoured vehicle running around in the bush and in the jungle."

Mr Skurrie said it was hard to describe the experience when he reflected on his time in Vietnam.

"You'd find that most of the boys who come back, they won't talk much about it," he said.

"I found if you start talking about it, they couldn't understand what it was all about.

"We have our reunions and all that and it is probably the best time we can get together and let our heads unwind a bit."

He also said after his service, he was quietly ushered back into the country under darkness when he arrived home to Australia.

"When I came back, we came back at night," he said.

"We flew back into Sydney and then caught a plane the next night from Sydney back into Melbourne.

"Everybody came back at night time, they didn't come back in the day time."

After 304 days in Vietnam and two years of service in the army, Mr Skurrie returned to Stawell where he has remained, becoming one of the town's respected and recognised residents.

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