War widow Sara Ferguson had mixed emotions as the body of her first husband, Lieutenant David Brian, and 32 other Australians finally arrived home for burial.
Ms Ferguson joined more than 160 relatives at Sydney's Richmond RAAF air base on Thursday, when two military C17 Globemaster planes landed bearing the 25 veterans and eight family members from cemeteries in Singapore and Malaysia.
Among the veterans was Warrant Officer Kevin Conway, the first Australian to die in action in the Vietnam War in 1964, and Lt Brian, who was killed patrolling the Thai-Malay border that same year.
"It's lovely it's happening and I feel peaceful about that, but it's very traumatic," Ms Ferguson said of the day, which came two years after she began campaigning for Lt Brian's body to be returned home.
She was 21 and pregnant when her husband died, and had no choice but to have him buried in Malaysia's Terendak Cemetery and return home without him.
"It was leaving him there that was the hardest part. I had to walk away and come home without him, because I was over there," she told AAP.
Draped in Australian flags, the coffins were led by a chaplain, lone piper and drummer, and carried by Australian Defence Force men and women, into a private ceremony where the family members grieved.
Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove, who served in the Vietnam War, spoke at the ceremony, saying the repatriated veterans and civilians were a precious part of the national community and now an honoured part of the Australian military family.
"Although they have been absent, these soldiers, husbands, wives and children have always been a part of the lives and families they left behind," he said.
All but one of those repatriated came from Terendak, the exception being WO Conway, killed during the battle of Nam Dong on July 6, 1964 and buried at Singapore's Kranji Cemetery.
Among the eight civilians were two military spouses and six children, including a two-year-old boy who was hit by a truck and killed on a Malaysian military base.
The return home of the bodies was part of a government-funded program announced by former prime minister Tony Abbott.
Veterans Affairs Minister Dan Tehan, who attended with Defence Minister Marise Payne, said repatriation was the right thing to do.
"The families will get the closure they deserve, but it also gives us a chance as a nation to stop, pause and reflect on the service," he said.
The 33 coffins were driven from the air base in procession through Richmond and Parramatta, where members of the public were able to gather to pay their respects.
Families of those repatriated will now hold private burial services across the country over the next three weeks.
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