Veteran Kenneth Gillman took 20 years to admit her served in Vietnam John 'Gilly' Gilman served in the Vietnam War and is a member of the Vietnam Vets Association. IT TOOK more than 20 years after returning from war for Kenneth "Gilly" Gillman to admit to people he was a Vietnam veteran. "On our way home from Vietnam we all had the attitude that we'd all gone there and done a good job and were coming home proud of ourselves," the 66-year-old, from Port Adelaide, recalled. But the reality when we landed in Australia was something quite different. We were labelled killers so I burnt my uniform and medals and never let on to anyone that I served. It wasn't until 1988 20 years after most of the veterans returned from war that the Australian Vietnam veterans were honoured with a welcome home parade. The attitude to those who had served in Vietnam changed drastically over those 20 years and nowadays I go out with my medals on and people will shake my hand or buy me a drink. It didn't used to be like that. Gilly said the call to Vietnam in 1967, at the age of 20, was "a wake-up call." "In that moment, you instantly grew up," he said. Everybody was panicking they shoot real bullets over there. He served two years as a private with the 3RAR as an assault pioneer, responsible for the construction of tools for the infantry soldiers and building bunkers, firing positions and camps. But it was their work in the demolition of mines and booby traps that was most harrowing. "On our first day searching the minefields for landmines, I lost my mate," he said. He got blown up right in front of me after standing on a landmine. For six weeks we walked through the minefields looking for bombs, not knowing with each step if it could be our last. Gilly returned to Australia in 1968 where he returned to his work as a wharf and jetty builder in Port Adelaide. He has since become an advocate for returning serviceman, working as the president of the Vietnam Veterans Federation of SA, and helping former soldiers return to a normal life after war. He said it was his duty to make sure "none of the boys who come home now get treated the way we did." "The soldier is the man who gets things done, but it is the politician who sends them there," he said. The politician doesn't go to war. And he certainly isn't the one who comes home damaged.