Mildura soldier (Sapper Deed) died while on active service in Vietnam

Originally published May 12, 1967

A NATIONAL Serviceman from Mildura has died of wounds he received while on patrol near Nui Dat, in Phuoc Tuy Province, Vietnam.

Sapper Ramon John Peter Deed (21), married, of 82 Magnolia Avenue, was one of six sappers wounded when a member of a mine-laying party stepped on an Australian mine.

Sapper Deed is the first soldier from Mildura to die while on active service in Vietnam.

Sapper Deed’s body will be flown to Mildura from Vietnam for burial.

Sapper Deed’s parents, Mr and Mrs H. R. Deed, were informed by police that Ramon, who had been married only six months, had died.

Mr and Mrs Deed said they had still found it hard to believe that their son was dead.

“He was such a happy-go-lucky boy — always ready for a joke, always on the move and always ready to please,” his father said.

Sapper Deed was a member of the 1st Field Squadron, Royal Engineers.

His younger brother Brian, who is a member of the Regular Army Signal Corps, was only two miles away when the mine exploded.

“They were close, those two,” his mother said.

“When Brian joined the Regulars, he tried to get Ramon to join also so that they could be together.”

Ramon would have been 22 on Tuesday, July 25.

Ramon was born in Melbourne and came to Mildura at the age of five.

He was educated at the Mildura Central School, Sacred Heart School and the Technical School.

When he decided to get married, the Army allowed him only two days.

He was married at Red Cliffs where his wife Marie lives.

His father said he well remembered Ramon’s words when he received his call-up papers: “We have to fight the Viet Cong, and it may as well be in their country, destroying it, than in Australia.”

“We have got to keep them out of Australia.”

Ramon’s brother-in-law said Ramon may have had a premonition that he was not going to return.

“About three days before he was due leave, I was having a beer with him in the Red Cliffs Hotel when Ramon turned to me and said: “This will probably be my last beer with you.”

“And it was.”

Ramon’s parents added tearfully: “We — and I’m sure other Australians — are proud of him.”