ERROL NOACK

As a boy Errol Noack swam and fished from the beach. He shared the original house on Mad Mile Track with members of his family as his parents were separated.

Errol was conscripted as a National Serviceman by the Australian Government to participate in the Vietnam War. On 24 May 1966, Errol was tragically shot and killed at Nui Dat, Vietnam, shortly after his 21st birthday.

He was the first Australian National Serviceman to die in the Vietnam War. His father, so devastated by his death, demanded that the Australian Government, who had taken him away, must repatriate him to Australia for burial.

As a consequence, every Australian Serviceman, who has since died on foreign soil in action, has been repatriated for burial in Australia.

Following Errol’s funeral in Adelaide, protestors of the Vietnam War daubed Adelaide’s Cross of Sacrifice in red paint with the words:

“His was not to reason why”.

Errol’s death became a symbol of the growing anti Vietnam War sentiment and movement. Australians celebrate our serviceman past, present and future on Anzac Day being 25 April in each year.

At One Kangaroo Island, each year, close to where Errol holidayed, beautiful red nareens emerge from the earth and flower, like the poppies of the Western Front.