Spencer Turner interviewed for the documentary "Hell No We Won't Go"

Spencer Turner (DOB 1948) left Wodonga High School in year 8 to begin work in a foundry and then on railway engine crews. His father, a truck driver, died in 1967 and his mother pressured him into registering for national service although he did not want to go and soon came to oppose the war. He was balloted in and after six weeks at Puckapunyal, went AWOL and got casual work in railway yards under an assumed name. A year later he was arrested and sent to Holdsworthy army prison, transferred to Kapooka and Watson’s Bay, and failed in a conscientious objector case as he objected specifically to the war in Vietnam. The army eventually came to an accommodation with him. His experience in the army led him to become politically active but proved to be quite traumatic. (Description provided by interviewer).