Old Collegians Rugby Union Club
Mike von Berg
Mike von Berg has been a member of Old Collegians since 1988 and was the 1st XV coach until 1993, a period that included the Premiership win of 1991.
He is still the only current Level III accredited coach in the club and has been a member of the National Coaching Committee and is a Life Member of the SARU.
His achievements include:
- Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) 2015
- SARU Life Member 2006
- SARU Chairman 1994 to 2005
- Senior State Coach 1994 to 1999 (6 years)
- ARU Director 1997 to 1999 (first SA member appointed to the ARU Board)
- ARU Delegate 1994 to present (as at Oct. 2005)
- ARU Marketing Committee 1994 to 1996
- Old Collegians 1st XV Coach 1989 to 1993
- SARU Under 21 Coach 1991 to 1993
- SARU Schools Coach 1995 to 1996
Mike's partner, Denise Rowe, introduced the Friends of Rugby Ball and ran that event as a chairperson for the first three years. Over these three years 1400 people attended.
... 8th June 2015
Michael B. von Berg MC was honored with the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) 8th June 2015 for his decades of service to rugby. The hours and hours of coaching at all levels, the mentoring of young players, the shouldering of the administrative duties, are all recognized
... 31st May 2001, updated Oct. 2005
Michael Deak von Berg is a central character in the book Crossfire by Peter Haran & Robert Kearney, New Holland Publishers, 2001.
The incidents described in the book occurred in 1966 when Mike was platoon commander of 5RAR Reconnaissance Platoon. Mike was awarded the Military Cross in 1966 for his actions during an operation in October 1966.
He remained in the Army where he served with The Royal Australian Regiment, The Special Air Services Regiment, 2 Commando Company and Special Operations.
He resigned his commission in 1973 and lived and worked overseas for the next twelve years.
He returned to Australia in the mid eighties to take up a senior management position and since 1990 has been the principal of his own strategic management consultancy in Adelaide.
... From 'Crossfire'
From The Advertiser, 13th October 2001:
"Mike became Cadre Commander - the man heading up the gruelling selection programme - at SAS Swanbourne headquarters, Western Australia."
"Bruce" McQualter was one of Mike von Berg's instructors when Mike went through Portsea prior to commissioning.
They met up again when he was posted to 5RAR after graduation. A coincidence that Bruce McQualter should be an ex-member of Old Colls and Mike an ex-coach and member.
As well, the father of one of Mike's good mates in Vietnam, Lt. Roger Wainwright, was an ex-Chairman of the SARU.
... From Mike von Berg, May 2001
Mike with Peter Cosgrove, 5RAR Reunion
Tiger Battalion 1973 Eastern Command Premiers with some notables who never took a backward step. Mike holding the ball. Fifth from the left at the back, Peter Cosgrove
From http://www.5rar.asn.au/history/cite_deak.htm
Second Lieutenant Michael Gunther Joseph Deak MC.(Baron von Berg)
Citation accompanying the award of the Military Cross to 2/Lt. Deak. (Baron von Berg)
On 17 October 1966 during Operation Queanbeyan in Phuoc Tuy Province South Vietnam, Battalion Headquarters of 5th Battalion Royal Australian Regiment was held up by Viet Cong in a natural ambush position on a steep mountain track. 'The Anti-Tank Platoon commanded by Second Lieutenant Deak was directed to clear the area. The enemy were located in natural fire positions on both sides of a deep re-entrant with a gradient of one in two. One section of the platoon, covered by the remainder, swept up the re-entrant but the Section Commander was mortally wounded and the remainder pinned down by fire.
Second Lieutenant Deak redeployed the remainder of his platoon and under fire directed additional covering fire onto the objective from another Company 800 metres away. He then successfully directed the fire of armed helicopters onto the enemy positions and then led his platoon back into the re-entrant and cleared the enemy position without Joss.
At all times during the three and one quarter hours engagement, Second Lieutenant Deak showed complete disregard for his own safety even when it became apparent that the enemy were concentrating their fire on leaders. The calm and competent manner of Second lieutenant Deak was a major factor in steadying his platoon under fire in a difficult situation. The success in clearing the Viet Cong ambush position was due in the main to the fine example of leadership and courage set by Second Lieutenant Deak.
Visit the Crossfire site - gone?
"The cover shot captures Platoon Commander Mick Deak von Berg, map in hand, preparing to call in mortar and artillery."
Mike with John Eales, Adelaide, 17th February 2001
(Photo courtesy Adelaide Advertiser)
Mike, October 2005
Historian Mat McLachlan to honour first Vietnam deployment at Long Tan
news.com.au, April 25 2013
Michael von Berg
Vietnam veteran and Military Cross recipient Michael von Berg at the Burnside RSL. Picture: Calum Robertson Source: adelaidenow
WHILE attention will be turned in 2015 to the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landing, a group of army veterans is encouraging people to remember another major milestone - Australia's first deployment to Vietnam.
In May 1965, the country's first battle group, the 1st Battalion, was sent to the southeast Asian nation, beginning a commitment of Australian forces that would last a decade.
To commemorate that deployment, a group of Vietnam War veterans are organising a special journey to the country to tour the former battlefields and pay respect to fallen Diggers at a special commemorative service at Long Tan.
Led by prominent Australian war historian Mat McLachlan and retired Lt.Col Gary Mckay, a prolific author and historian on Vietnam, the Anzacs Vietnam Memorial Tour will also provide an insight into Vietnam today.
With numbers at Anzac Cove limited, the veterans are encouraging Australians wishing to pay their respects to all servicemen and women who have died in uniform to take part in what they say will be an "emotional journey".
"I don't think there's anything better than to be standing on a battlefield listening to the stories," Gary Phillips, who along with fellow veteran Geoff Lowe is organising the tour, said. "I'm sure those that go would feel the emotion of that."
Mr Phillips served for 12 months as a stretcher bearer with 5RAR, based in Nui Dat.
He said the tour, likely to be held around October, would not "do anything to detract from the Anzac service" at Gallipoli.
Instead, he said it was meant to emphasise the way in which Vietnam War veterans were inheritors of the Anzac tradition - often literally - as many were the grandsons of World War One veterans.
"We absolutely respect the Anzacs, what they did was fantastic and they have gone down in history," he said.
"But Vietnam was a war in which Australia experienced the third most casualties we've had since World War One.
"People sometimes forget that," he said.
One South Australian inheritor of this tradition is Michael von Berg.
The national president of the Royal Australian Regiment (RAR) Corporation, Mr von Berg served with the 5th Battalion of the RAR in Vietnam and was platoon commander of a reconnaissance platoon.
A recipient of a Military Cross, Mr von Berg's grand-uncle, Major Walther Kirchhoff, was a world renowned tenor and German soldier during World War One, and is famous as the man who stood up on the parapet of a trench to sing "Silent Night" to troops on the Western Front.
Major Kirchhoff's gesture, which precipitated the truce of Christmas Eve 1914, was recounted in the 2005 movie "Le Joex Noel."
Mr von Berg said his family's experience showed it was important to honour the sacrifice of troops on all sides.
"At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what side you're on, war is sad," he said.
"We've all lost good friends."
While many Australians will not be able to visit Anzac Cove, Mr von Berg said there were many other worthwhile options for people wishing to pay their respects.
"There are so many worthwhile memorials for Australians to visit," he said.
"What they're (the Anzacs Vietnam Memorial Tour organisers) saying is that the Vietnam option is another good one."Further information on the Sons of Anzac's Memorial Tour can be found at: http://battlefields.com.au/index.php/tours/69
Influential veterans back Repatriation General Hospital's partial closure
PAUL STARICK CHIEF REPORTER The Advertiser April 23, 2015
In support of the closure are Veterans Advisory Council members Brigadier Lawrie Lewis, Mike von Berg, Leon Eddy and Helen Adamson.
Repat to be sold off, used as private hospital, aged care or nursing home
AN influential veterans' group is backing the Repatriation General Hospital's partial closure, saying many buildings are outdated and unsuitable for the modern era.
But the Veterans Advisory Council members are urging the expansion of existing inpatient mental health services as part of a private sector redevelopment.
The group, which advises the State Government, also is urging fellow veterans protesting on Parliament House's steps about the closure to consider the risk to their own health from exposure to the cold.
The four veterans' group leaders told The Advertiser the majority of their members supported the State Government plan to shut down most of the Repat but retain key aspects in a health precinct.
Brigadier Laurie Lewis, a Vietnam veteran and Defence Force Welfare Association SA vice-president, said the Repat was now used by relatively few veterans.
"We've got to look 50 to 100 years ahead. This is an ideal opportunity to look ahead and not be stuck in what was good in 1942," he said.
Totally and Permanently Incapacitated Association's SA president Leon Eddy said very few of the state's 17,500 veterans were opposed to the change, because most used other hospitals.
"I've got 2000 members in this state and they don't all live in Daw Park (where the Repat is based)," he said.
Royal Australian Regiment Association national president Mike von Berg said protesters were entitled to express opinions but emphasised the importance of negotiating with the State Government about changes to the Repat, part of a wider health system overhaul.
"I would say (to the protesters) it's pretty cold out there and I would be worried that some of them are going to get sick and depressed," he said.
War Widows' Guild SA president Helen Adamson said she supported treating veterans in the wider public hospital system as long as there were clear pathways for them and access was simple.
The Veterans Advisory Council members insisted Ward 17 - an inpatient service for veterans with acute mental health issues - should be expanded in partnership with the private sector redevelopment.
"Ward 17 can't stand on its own. It does need supportive services, such as laundry, catering and so on," Brigadier Lewis said.
The Opposition says the Repat plan ignores 44 RSL branches and about 50,000 people who have signed a petition calling for the Repat to remain open.
Liberal health spokesman Stephen Wade accused Labor of badly misjudging the depth of community feeling about the "arrogant" decision to close the Repat.
Veterans' Affairs Minister Martin Hamilton-Smith this week declared the Repat would be retained as a health, aged care and supported accommodation precinct and ruled out major commercial or residential development on the site. Private operators can register interest until May 22.
Under the state's Transforming Health plan, clinical and rehabilitation services will be relocated from the Repat to other metropolitan hospitals.
The chapel, museum, remembrance garden and Orthotics and Prosthetics SA will remain, as will Flinders University facilities and the ViTA rehabilitation centre.
Contacts Draws Locations Results Match reports News Newsletters Photos current year Subscriptions Policies Child Safety Sponsors Club History Photo Gallery 1930s to 1960s Photo Albums Facebook Youtube
