Around 150 members of the corps from across Australia are heading to Queanbeyan and Canberra for a reunion.

One of the organisers is QPRC councillor Peter Bray, a former head of the corps and Vietnam veteran.

The reunion included a mayoral reception in Bicentennial Hall on Monday and the presentation of a plaque honouring all RAAOC members since 1901 in Moore Park.

Another veteran involved in the reunion, Ian Wills, also a former head of corps, was one of the first Australian ordnance officers in Vietnam.

He arrived in 1966 when Australia entered the war as an independent entity and was involved in setting up their stores and preparing equipment in Vung Tau.

It was this compound that Cr Bray would work out of when he arrived in 1967.

Working as a logistics operations officer Cr Bray oversaw the deployment of two convoys a day, each consisting of 50 vehicles, to provide necessary supplies to the task force.

The RAAOC provided soldiers with weapons, clothing, tents, armoured vehicles, tools and all manner of technical equipment.

This was made particularly difficult for Cr Bray during the Tet Offensive when the sole bridge between the warehouse and the front was destroyed.

Mr Wills also encountered difficulties adapting soldier’s equipment to the jungle conditions where factors like humidity caused havoc.

While the ordnance corps may not have seen much of the front line, although they did lose five men in Vietnam, both Cr Bray and Mr Wills said the corps was a crucial part to any war.

“The soldiers can’t do their job without the wherewithal to do it,” Mr Wills said.

Cr Bray likened it to the Aleppo Pine that sits behind the plaque dedicated to the RAAOC where if the soldiers were the pine needles, the corps was the tree trunk.

Both men reached the rank of Brigadier and went on to have distinguished, 40-year careers in the Australian Army involved in various aspects of the corps.

Around 2800 Australians served in the ordnance corps in Vietnam.