The first issue, which can be seen in the photos, is that someone has attempted to erase the service details off the medals. This is a very clumsy job but the details are still visible.
The next surprise I got was when I did a internet search for John and got the hit, a story on the Medals Gone Missing page. My colleague Gary had returned a South Vietnam medal to John and very kindly provided me with John's email.
I have since spoken to John and the full story has come out. John's medals were stolen in 1981. At the time his medal group consisted of five medal. The one Gary returned, these three and an MBE. Since then John has been awarded six more medal including a CVO and an AM. John also has official duplicates of the five medals that were stolen.
As part of the Medals Gone Missing research, Gary came across a couple of photos on the AWM web site which show John and I've included these below.
Thank you to Debby and the Nowra RSL.
The returned medal tally is now 1938.
ID number
| KEL/66/0363/VN | |
| Collection type | Photograph |
| Object type | Black & white |
| Maker | Kelly, Peter |
| Place made | Vietnam: Gia Dinh Province, Saigon |
| Date made | 28 April 1966 |
| Physical description | Black & white |
| Description | Newly-arrived Commanding Officer of the 5th Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (5RAR), Lieutenant Colonel J. Warr (right), talks with Major John Miller at the airport. |
| COL/66/1024/VN | |
| Collection type | Photograph |
| Object type | Black & white |
| Maker | Coleridge, Michael |
| Place made | Vietnam |
| Date made | 1966 |
| Physical description | Black & white |
| Description | Vietnam. 1966-12-25. Major J. Miller of Dee Why, NSW, serves turkey to the 5th Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (5RAR), in the C Company mess. It is traditional for officers to serve troops at table with Christmas dinner. |
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