If any one man in Werribee deserves an accolade for serving others, Daryl Ryan would have a fair case.
On Australia Day, Mr Ryan was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for his service to veterans and their welfare.
A member of the Werribee RSL Sub-branch for more than 55 years, and its president for more than 40 of them, the journey started in Vietnam.
Mr Ryan served as an infantry soldier in the 9th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment in 1969, and among the things he earned for his efforts was a bullet in the left shoulder.
“To be quite honest, I had thought someone had just thrown dirt,” Mr Ryan said.
After hearing calls for a medic and seeing a stream of claret, he realised it was a more sinister kind of sediment.
His new mission came about by chance, but the experiences of those who live through war fuelled his drive to complete it well.
“When I came from Vietnam, one of my bosses paid for my first year’s RSL subscription in 1970,” Mr Ryan said.
“The hardest thing for Vietnam veterans was the acceptance from the community and trying to battle the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“One of the biggest issues they have is the hassle they have with the bureaucracy – it makes it so bloody hard, in some cases a veteran has to prove they were overseas.
“My goal has always been to try, while I am still capable, to help veterans who aren’t capable.”
That help has gone well beyond words and well wishes.
“Any veterans who need any assistance can come to the RSL, there will always be someone to try and help out and if we can’t, we will try and send them in the right direction, that is what we are here for,” Mr Ryan said.
“We will have a veteran come to the sub-branch and he’s got nowhere to go, then we will arrange for him to get into one of the motels and help him.”
Unannounced acts of decency and duty such as helping veterans get to their appointments and making sure widow’s gardens are tended to are things the sub-branch will help with.
Mr Ryan said he was humbled by the honour, but it’s not why he does it.
“I was a little bit taken back by this, I have received life membership at the RSL and the like, but I have never strove for any of this.”
He said that while he is president he will just keep making sure veterans get a fair go.
“I am going to step aside and let someone else take the reins, and that will be in March,” he said.
“I think the biggest thing I can say I am proud of is the roll up we get on ANZAC Day.
“The attendance at our dawn service has gone from a few hundred to when I started, and now we are talking 8000.”
