Ian Anderson, Miss Suong and Mr Ngan. Source: Supplied
Essendon's Ian Anderson during his playing days. Picture: Photo File Source: Supplied
IAN Anderson brought the enemy to his world to finally bury the demons of the Vietnam War.
A promising enough ruckman/forward to be named Essendon's recruit of the year in 1967, Private "Ginger'' Anderson of the 8th Battalion spent six weeks during 1970 in the Long Hais mountains, dodging land mines and bullets rather than backhanders in the ruck from John Nicholls or Len Thompson.
He fought hard but struggled with losing a couple of diggers in the same battle, the waking during the night with cold sweats, the sense of aimlessness and the guilt with participating in a war that his countrymen protested about.
So Anderson kept going back to the silent hills that had once offered death with every poorly conceived step.
And last year, on his seventh trip and one where he had taken his children to explain why Dad was sometimes the way he was, everything changed.
"We were travelling around the Long Hais mountain when this Vietnamese bloke started gibbering in the back of our van.
"I asked our interpreter, Miss Suong, what he was talking about and she just said 'exactly the same stuff you were just telling your kids','' said Anderson, 64.
"His name was Mr Ngan and it turns out he fought in the same battle during February, 1970. When I found out I touched him on top of his head and said 'you missed me, you little mongrel'. He replied 'but you shoot at me first'.
"He was a lovely man but then again all the South Vietnamese people are. That's where he came from, a VC man from the south, part of the VC D445 Battalion. He spent 11 years in those mountains, getting wounded four times.''
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So Anderson, who played 27 games for the Bombers and kicked 49 goals after being recruited from the Wimmera area of Miga Lake, decided to bring Mr Ngan and Miss Suong to Australia, to show them how we lived.
Last November he outlaid $5000 for their flights and asked them to stay with him in his hometown of Port Fairy.
And it was then that his head cleared.
"I've had stuff going on for over 40 years, just like a lot of other blokes. But my head is good now thanks to that experience.
"I taught Mr Ngang how to punt, drink and speak English. We would go down to The Star of the West (where the beer is best) in Port Fairy and I taught him the words 'one more'. Every time he wanted a beer that's what he would say.
"And he kept winning on the mystery bets. I'm worried that I have sent him home a compulsive gambling alcho.''
Anderson now sends money back to Vietnam for the education of Miss Suong's son, and he will see them both agains when he goes back to Vietnam in August.
Anderson was one of six Essendon players to have served in Vietnam, the others being Keith Gent, Lindsay McGie, Ian ``Porky'' Payne, Greg ``Rattler'' Perry and Bill ``Sherry'' Thompson.
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