A guard of honour and a flag ceremony was held today at an airbase in Malaysia.
A repatriation ceremony will then be held in Sydney on Thursday.
Here’s some background on exactly what’s taking place.
Who is being brought home?
Many of the servicemen were casualties of the Vietnam War (1962-75). Dependants who were buried with the soldiers are also being brought home.
Last year, the Abbott government offered to bring back 27 servicemen and eight Australian dependants from the Terendak Military Cemetery in Malaysia.
The same offer was also made to repatriate an Australian who is buried at the Kranji War Cemetery in Singapore.
The offer was taken up by the families of 33 of the servicemen and dependants.
Why was the repatriation offer made?
Australian soldiers who died in the Vietnam War before 1966 were buried overseas.
The Department of Veterans Affairs says this repatriation means all Australian service personnel who died in the Vietnam War will finally be treated equally.
Some families had been calling for the return of their loved ones, including the family of 3RAR Lieutenant David John Brian, who died while patrolling the Thai-Malay border in 1964.
His widow, Sara Ferguson, visited the Terendak Military Cemetery in 2014.
She says she was “absolutely devastated” by the experience:
“The place was barren and desolate — there wasn’t a shrub, the grass was just about dead, there were weeds everywhere and the gravestones were in disrepair.
“… The hardest thing I have ever done in my life was to actually walk away and leave him again.”
When will they be returned to Australia?
The servicemen and dependants will be carried on two C-17 Globemaster aircraft. They will arrive at the RAAF base in Richmond, Sydney, at 10:30am Thursday morning.
There will be a formal military repatriation ceremony which will be attended by veterans of the Vietnam War, some of whom served with the returning servicemen.
A private memorial service for families will then follow.
Families will choose where they want the remains of their loved ones to be interred.
What happens to those who are staying?
Any graves remaining at Terendak will continue to be maintained by the Office of Australian War Graves. – ABC News
