In Vietnam, back in 1969, Napier veteran Hardie Martin saw one of his 3 Platoon Victor 4 Infantry Company fall in battle.
"Jack was killed just 20 feet away from me."
He was also told the morning after seeing another member of the company covered in some sort of red spotted rash that he had died overnight.
"He seemed to be ok but he had a sickness - he just didn't make a big thing about it."
So while Mr Martin came home after doing his Army service in the Vietnam conflict his two fellow Hawke's Bay comrades, Don Frith who had connections with Wairoa and Jack Williams who was schooled in Waipukurau, did not.
They were buried at a cemetery in Terendak, Malaysia.
"We didn't even know they had been buried there - we just thought they had been sent back home - we weren't told anything."
But that is all set to change after the Government stepped forward with an offer to the families and dependants of 36 serviceman who died in battle and were buried in Singapore and Malaysia between 1955 and 1971.
When the news emerged earlier this week Mr Martin and other veterans were delighted as it ended a decade-long battle by families to have their loved ones returned, for burial, in New Zealand.
Veterans' Affairs Minister David Bennett said the repatriation policy had been inconsistent and expressed apologies to the families who had gone through the drawn-out process.
He said they were "righting a wrong" now to make it possible to get people's loved ones home.
The news brought back many memories for Mr Martin.
"I served with both in 3 Platoon of Victor 4 Infantry Company and was there when both died," Mr Martin said.
"I can imagine them lying at Terendak right now and saying to each other 'hey mate, we're going home'."
Both Private Jack Williams and Private Don Frith died within a month of each other - Private Williams on June 17 and Private Frith on July 11.
Mr Martin, who also served as a private and did a 12 month tour of duty as a rifleman with Victor 4, remembers 20-year-old Private Williams introducing himself.
He had arrived to join the platoon for Operation Lavarack just a few hours earlier.
"I remember he was a hell of a nice guy - and two hours later he was dead."
Private Williams was killed instantly after taking a direct gunshot hit to the head.
Mr Martin also clearly remembers Private Frith coming back in from an operation and saw he was covered in small red spots.
"He appeared to be okay but in the morning we were told 'Don's dead'."
Private Frith had been suffering from septicaemia but despite being ill, and getting worse, decided not to report it as he felt he would be letting the side down.
Mr Martin, along with others in the platoon, simply figured both had come home for burial.
However, he said at the time the policy was that if families wanted their fallen son to be sent home they had to pay for it.
"It was about $1000 and that was a lot of money in those days."
He regrets not knowing that at the time because had he and his comrades known they would have dug into their paybooks to meet the cost.
The death of Private Williams hit him hard as he was right there, and said morale took a knock.
But little was spoken about it, as on patrols and operations few words could be spoken anyway as they had to operate in silence given the Vietcong were constantly moving around.
"We knew the odds though," Mr Martin said, adding that it was taken that for every 130 men they would effectively lose two.
"Everyone would say 'it won't be me'."
Mr Martin said he saw the importance of having a grave site on home soil when he attended a reunion in Blenheim recently and part of it involved staging a service for a young soldier from that region killed in Vietnam and whose body had been sent home.
For the family, and the veterans, it was comforting to meet at his grave site on his home patch.
He said Hawke's Bay veterans would do their bit to welcome their two fallen comrades home when the day came, but would do so in consultation with the families and their wishes.
Don Frith's sister Colleen Graham, who now lives in Feilding, said the news came as a surprise as they had perviously been told the bodies of the fallen soldiers were unlikely to come home.
"So it is very good news and it will be so good to have him back home," she said, adding he would likely return to Wairoa, where he grew up, for burial.
"But we don't know at this stage when that is likely to be _ they (Foreign Affairs) have made May 11 the day for next-of-kin to go to Auckland for talks."
Mrs Graham said the return would ease many peoples' minds as the Terendak cemetery was not classified as a Commonwealth War Graves site, and while it was being well looked after there were no guarantees about what could happen in the future.
She said the Kiwi troops should have been brought home last year at the same time fallen Australian soldiers were finally taken home.
She was in her mid-20s when her brother went off to war and she and her two sisters were left distraught by his loss.
"I still remember him very well _ he was a bit of a hard case."