Commando News Winter Edition10 June17

On the wrestling mat, in
the jungles of Vietnam and
in his own mind, John
Kinsela has fought more
than his fair share of battles.
Earlier in his life, his
service was recognised with
medals and badges. Now he
has received another award:
The Medal of the Order of
Australia.
Mr Kinsela, 67, said he
was grateful to receive such
a “big honour”.
“It’s all them years that
you put into a sport, and it’s
good to know you’re getting
something back,” he said.
Mr Kinsela’s lifelong
passion for wrestling started
at Redfern PCYC, or Police
Boys’ Club as it was then
known, when he was a teenager. He was just 19 when
he became the first Aboriginal man to represent
Australia at the Olympics for wrestling, at Mexico in
1968.
The following year he was conscripted to fight in
the Vietnam War, where he served for two years as a
gunner.
The painful memories of the war returned to Mr
Kinsela all too soon, when he wrestled again for
Australia at the 1972 Munich Olympics. He remembers
being in the courtyard of the Olympic Village when the
first shots rang out at the start of the deadly Israeli
hostage situation.
“All of the sudden you could hear the AK-47s going
off, and being in Vietnam the year before I thought,
‘no, not here’,” Mr Kinsela said. “I just put it down as
loud firecrackers, not thinking anything like that had
happened at the Olympics.
“At the end, there was 11 people killed. Some of
them were wrestlers and one of them was the wrestling
JOHN KINSELA OAM
John with Sigmund Jablonski OAM, also Vietnam veteran
and ex Commando.
manager. It kind of hit home
because it could’ve been
us."
Mr Kinsela became a
courier and moved to Black -
town with his wife Yvonne,
where they raised their three
children. He also served in
the Army Reserve Com -
mando Unit for seven years,
reaching the rank of
Corporal and being named
Commando of the Year in
1981.
Kinsela at Mount Druitt
PCYC, which he has lifted to
be one of the top wrestling
clubs in the State with the
help of Stephan Jaeggi, his
former protege and now
fellow coach.
His service to wrestling
includes volunteer work at PCYCs including Burwood,
Bankstown, Hornsby, Black town and now Mount Druitt.
He has trained Olympic wrestlers, and fought his own
battles away from the spotlight.
Mr Kinsela speaks frankly about overcoming posttraumatic
stress disorder and losing his brother, a
fellow Vietnam veteran, to alcoholism.
Many of the men he served alongside have been
lost to suicide or cancer, which Mr Kinsela partially
attributes to the effects of Agent Orange.
“From 2001 to 2003 was the worst part of my life,
because things weren’t going well,” he said. “I was
drinking, smoking, all these things. I didn’t have any
self-esteem.”
He said he owes his triumphs in life to good
mentors. Through wrestling and his work with
Indigenous justice, he has now become a mentor to
others.
Courtesy of the Blacktown Sun
COMMANDO NEWS ~ Edition 10 I June 2017 25