The Inaugural McMillan Dinner and Middleton Address shall be held after the ANZAC Friendship Match.

The Vietnam Swans have confirmed that the traditional Gala Dinner held after the ANZAC Friendship Match shall be renamed the McMillan Dinner in honour of Veteran, Kev McMillan.

The keynote address during the McMillan Dinner shall be known as the Middleton Address, named in honour of Veteran and Official Historian of the Vietnam Football League (VFL), Stan Middleton.

This year, on Saturday evening, the Middleton Address shall be delivered by Kevin McMillan’s best mate, Peter Taylor.

Kevin McMillan

Kev McMillan on the microphone at the 2010 ANZAC Friendship Match, together with fellow veteran, John Brown and Ambassador Allaster Cox.

Kev did two tours of Vietnam: one from 1969-1970 with the 6th Battalion Royal Australian Army Regiment and the second from 1970-1971 with the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam.

Some years later, Kev returned to Vietnam in Vung Tau where he married Le. They now have two children. Together with long time friend, Peter Taylor, they played a key role in forming the Vietnam Veterans and Friends Charity. They renovated the Da Bak School and raised $40,000 to put in new toilets and classrooms for the new school at the end of Luscombe airfield strip at Nui Dat.

Glenn Nolan adds that Kev is “a man that gave Australia two years of his life and has come back and helped to rebuild a country he fought in. But it’s in a true ANZAC tradition. They may have been foe but are now friends and this, Kev, has proven.”

Kev very much prefers rugby to the aerial ping pong that he loves to mock… however, he has totally embraced the concept of the ANZAC Friendship Match. He escorted the match ball to the umpires in the Inaugural Friendship Match in 2010; voted for the Best on Ground; took us on battlefield tours and is a great friend of the Swannies.

In this year’s 2012 footy record, Kev, who is now gallantly fighting cancer back in Australia, writes:

“It’s interesting to reflect how the ANZAC Friendship Match has gone from strength to strength over the last couple of years – and how it saddens me that I won’t be able to participate this year. I never realised how significant the ANZAC footy match would become in such a short space of time.

“I feel that the ANZAC Friendship Match, intentionally or otherwise, is providing a conduit for locals, expats, Vietnam Vets and those who simply turn up on the day, for an opportunity to combine the joy of watching a simple Aussie footy match with a day that is of significance to Australians…

“The ANZAC Friendship Match very simply fulfils its name – ‘Friendship’, and I’m extremely pleased and proud to have been a part of it.”

The qualities that Kev describes about the ANZAC Friendship Match are the things he has been doing for a much longer period of time and that is why we are thrilled that he has agreed to us naming the ANZAC Dinner the McMillan Dinner.

Stan Middleton

Stan Middleton (centre) at the MCG last December for the Swannies Annual Test Cricket Day. Left, the late John Carey. Right, former Hanoi President, Mark "Willy" Williams.

In his own words, Stan was:

“A ‘Nasho’ who served in Vietnam. I played in the 2 Composite Ordnance team in the second half of 1967 and in the 2AOD team in the first half of 1968.

I returned to Australia on the eve of the first final and thus missed playing in the 1st premiership of 1968!

“I have a strong connection with Vietnam as my wife, Sinh, is Vietnamese. I met Sinh in 2002 and married her in 2005. She worked in the Orderly Room at The Peter Badcoe Club for the Australian Army on the Back Beach of Vung Tau from 1968 to 1972.”

As preparations became more serious about the Swannies hosting our Inaugural ANZAC Friendship Match in 2010, we made some enquiries about some Diggers who, according to Wikipedia, had been involved in a random game of Aussie Rules in Vietnam back in 1966. No luck.

However, within three weeks of us hosting our Inaugural ANZAC Friendship Match, a bloke by the name of Stan Middleton left a comment on the Vietnam Swans’ website saying that Aussie Rules had a thriving history during the War (see Aussie Rules during the Vietnam War). From there, it all just started happening.

To the Swannies, Stan has become known as the Official Historian of the VFL. Not only does he have a detailed knowledge of the history, he has put together on line albums with actual photos from matches back then and is in contact with a large number of the players from that time.

Stan loves to share information and contacts over the email and at events, whether they be in Vietnam or Australia. Stan has played an amazing job in giving the ANZAC Friendship Match such a solid foundation.

Effectively, Stan has been a great communicator and has been able to bring people together. And that is why the Swannies believe that it is appropriate to name the keynote address of the ANZAC Gala Dinner, the Middleton Address.

Tomorrow on VietnamSwans.com: On the eve of the ANZAC Friendship Match Blockbuster, Swannies’ Skipper, Dukesy spends “5 Minutes with the Flyer”.