Saluting a veteran's service to his community with Order of Australia medal

"It's very rewarding," he said with a smile.

The 84-year old Merimbula resident was thankful to be part of the 2024 Australia Day honours list, receiving a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to veterans, having undertaken the roles of president, secretary, newsletter editor and web master for the HMAS Perth National Association since 1995.

He was one of five Bega Valley residents being recognised with an OAM this Australia Day - the others being Robert Johnson of Bermagui, AJ Collins of Tathra, Colin Dunn of Pambula, and Michele Bootes of Merimbula.

"I got taken to a committee meeting and I was inducted on to the committee that day, the very first day, and then about a month or so later the national president resigned and the vice-president took over, [so] I was made vice-president," he recalled.

"Then a week later, he resigned, and suddenly I was president, so I've been president for a long long time, then we lost our secretary and I was the only mug in the whole committee that had a computer [a Dick Smith System 80] so I took over."

He served as secretary until Christmas 2022.

During the Vietnam War, Mr Hegarty served on board HMAS Perth II as a chief petty officer in charge of weapons radar maintenance, and said he joined the Navy in 1959 because he didn't want to be put in the army through national service.

"I'm very, very happy I joined the Navy, I loved it, it was just the way it was, good camaraderie, mates and all that kind of thing," he said.

He did two deployments on Perth, each lasting approximately six months.

Within the operations room of the guided missile destroyer, his role was to monitor enemy planes and ships through multiple screens linked to four onboard radars.

"Our first day in the war zone in Vietnam, our very first day, we got hit by an enemy shell," he said.

"They were shooting at us and our captain was zig-zagging away from the coast and basically ran under a falling shell," he said, recalling how the shell went through the rear gun and deck.

"It blew up in the corridor and damaged a little compartment which contained all the confidential books and secret books, it set it all on fire and at the same time it burst the fire main [and] put the fire out."

It was in this moment, down in the chief's mess after breakfast when action stations were sounded and the young man in his 20s felt the explosion through a sudden burst of air against his back.

Close to 60 years later, it was still a lasting reminder of his service, yet Mr Hegarty's dedication to honour service personnel was unchanged.