It took decades for the scars of Jim Wain's military service to show when he began to feel an uncontrollable rage.
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The retired major had no idea he was experiencing the onset of post-traumatic stress disorder nearly 30 years after his service in the 1963-66 Borneo confrontation.
Easily startled, unable to concentrate and vulnerable to depression, he needed a doctor to tell him what was happening.
More than 30 years since he left the military for medical reasons, he's received a medal of the Order of Australia for the work he did afterwards.
When the Vietnam Veterans Federation helped him adjust to post-service life, he decided he wanted to do the same for other ex-services personnel.
"When I went to the federation, they helped me, with no qualms, no questions. They just helped me," he said.
His diagnosis was one many Vietnam veterans heard too as PTSD emerged as one of their most common post-war illnesses. Major Wain was treated with medication.
"As I get older, I find the effects of PTSD have been ameliorated over the years," he said.
It helped to understand what was happening to him.
Since treatment, Major Wain has watched younger people come back from more recent wars and experience the same problems.
"I see myself and see my mates from my generation in them, we're all the same," he said.
He's helped veterans make compensation claims at the Department of Veterans' Affairs, guiding them through a notoriously complicated process that has drawn widespread criticism from ex-services personnel.
Major Wain, who moved to Canberra in 1982, empathised with veterans who confided their experiences.
"You'd have tough soldiers on the other side of the desk crying," he said.
"In a lot of the cases, I'm the first person they've told that too."
He had to learn not to take too much on board emotionally.
"It doesn't help you do the job if you're too involved," Major Wain said.
While there was more recognition of mental health in the community, attitudes had shifted less in the military, he said.
Working on 80 compensation claims a year for 20 years, he says he's beginning to get tired and wants the DVA to listen more to ex-services organisations.
But his volunteering work has been the most rewarding in his life, Major Wain says.
"I've had more job satisfaction from this than I've had from anything else I've done in my life, because you do actually make a difference."