A member of the Vietnam Veterans Motorcycle Club gives Michael “Mad Mick” McGuire a final salute at his funeral yesterday.
‘MAD' Mick McGuire got exactly the kind of send-off he would have wanted, when 30 or so of his brothers in arms joined members of his extended family for his funeral yesterday.
Grizzled survivors who make up the Vietnam Veterans Motorcycle Club gathered from far and wide to pay their last respects to their fallen comrade.
Michael John McGuire, to give him his full civilian handle, was a battler in every sense of the term, with the physical and mental scars to prove it.
He was also a man who lit up people's lives with his kindness and good humour, speakers at the Rainbow Chapel in Ballina said.
Mr McGuire was born in Nowra in 1944, educated at the Marist Brothers in Lismore and spent his last days in Ballina.
One of Mr McGuire's longest fights was a 13-month stint in the Vietnam War.
He signed up in October 1965 at the age of 21 and did his corps training as an assault pioneer at Enogerra, Brisbane.
He then headed to Nui Dat as a member of the advance party of the 2nd Battalion Royal Australian Infantry in 1967.
One of his motorcycle club mates, ‘Wheels' – so called because he's in a wheelchair – said Mr McGuire's first impression of Vietnam was something of a rude awakening.
“He had been told that the Viet Cong wore black pyjamas.
"When he arrived, he discovered that most Vietnamese wore black pyjamas,” Wheels said.
As an assault pioneer, Mr McGuire spent much of his time clearing mines and tunnels – often tackling whatever the enemy had put out the night before.
Once on patrol he was drenched with Agent Orange, although the platoon was told it was something to kill the mosquitoes.
When he returned from Vietnam, Mr McGuire found it difficult to settle and the stress of service and alcohol began to take its toll.
He moved around and did jobs in a variety of mines and had a son, Michael, who joined Dean and Nikki from a previous marriage.
But it wasn't until he met and became the partner of a psychologist in Murwillumbah that he was able to get off the grog and deal with his survivor guilt.
Mr McGuire returned to Vietnam as part of the healing process, and lived in Hanoi.
He married Hien there and became involved in philanthropic ventures, including teaching English and collecting used reading glasses from Australia for the Vietnamese to use.
The couple settled in Ballina but, Wheels said, the legacy of Vietnam continued to dog his life.
Mr McGuire developed motor neurone disease, which affects veterans more than any other sectors of the community, said Wheels. He blames the dioxins in Agent Orange.
Mad Mick lost his final battle with the disease, and his fellow vets provided the funeral escort to the Lismore Memorial Gardens Lawn Cemetery yesterday.
http://www.northernstar.com.au/story/2011/03/18/last-salute-to-vietnam-war-mate-lismore/
