In 1965, Australia committed troops to Vietnam under Prime Minister Robert Menzies, followed by the introduction of National Service.
Young men were selected by lottery; many were sent to a war few truly understood at the time.
Kyritsis was one of them. He deployed in 1967 with 3RAR and returned home in 1968.
Like many Vietnam veterans, the war did not end when the aircraft landed.
For decades, silence prevailed. Not out of forgetfulness, but survival. It wasn’t until the year 2000, marching on Anzac Day for the first time, that Kyritsis began to open up.
That decision led him to research and record the stories of more than 120 Greek-Australians who served in Vietnam.
What he found was not heroics in bold type, but patterns of restraint: men who did their duty, returned, and rarely spoke.
Kyritsis rejects the easy labels. “Hero” sits uncomfortably. Duty and respect matter more.
Listen to the story in Greek here
«Ο πόλεμος τελείωσε το 1975, αλλά η επιστροφή άργησε»: Ελληνοαυστραλός βετεράνος του Βιετνάμ εξομολογείται
He remembers arriving home late at night, without welcome or acknowledgement, a common experience for Vietnam veterans amid anti-conscription protests and public anger. Only later did understanding begin to grow.
Humanly, Vietnam was confusion and care colliding: combat among civilians, fear sharpened by responsibility.
Fear taught him what he could endure and what he would not lose: humanity.
His Greek heritage, he says, shaped resilience and a sense of obligation to family, to mates, to memory.
Remembering Greek-Australians who served is not about numbers.
It is about testimony. About turning silence into record, and private burden into shared history, so the cost of war is neither simplified nor forgotten.
