The battle has gone down in the history books as the biggest of the Vietnam War because of the sheer courage that 108 Australians showed when they held off more than 2500 enemy troops in the shocking conditions of the countyside.

Recently the day has been co-named Vietnam Veterans Day to remember the efforts of about 60,000 Australians who took part in the war.

Ted Mertens fought in the Long Tan area and says that he struggles with the idea of Vietnam Veterans day every year because he sees it very much as Long Tan Day and a time to remember all his mates who lost there lives there.

“I don’t think we need Vietnam Veterans Day because we have Anzac Day,” he said.

“There shouldn’t be a distinction between the two because I fought in an Anzac battalion and I believe we should all be recognised with other servicemen on Anzac Day. “Otherwise, we may as well have an East Timor Day and Korea Day as well.”

Mr Mertens was a rifleman in the Charlie company 2RAR of 1970-1971 and said the conditions were hot and wet with a 100 percent humidity at 35-40 degrees.

Mr Mertens said that there were many good times coming out of the Vietnam, but there were also scary times. “I had happy experiences with my mates when I wasn’t in the jungle,” he said. He wrote a book about a soldier called Jim Houston who was from Gladstone.

Mr Houston had been married eight weeks before going to Vietnam and he described what was happening in the lead up to the Battle of Long Tan where he made the supreme sacrifice for his county. His letters were passed to Mrs Casey, an older lady he called grandma who now lives in Port Pirie.

Mr Mertens received the letters some time later and upon realising the significance of them he made them into a book called Dear Mrs Casey.

The Vietnam Veterans remembrance service will be at the South East Asia War Memorial, in Memorial Drive, at 11am on Saturday.