MAJOR PETER BADCOE's Victoria Cross and other war service medals have gone on display at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

Badcoe is remembered in each AFL Anzac Round by the Port Adelaide Football Club with the presentation of the Peter Badcoe VC Medal to the player on the field 'who best exemplifies the Anzac spirit.'

One of the most decorated Australians in the Vietnam War, Badcoe was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for valour in the face of the enemy after commanding troops in An Thuan province in 1967. 

In the exchange of fire, he rose to throw grenades but was pulled down by his radio operator. When he got up to throw another grenade he was killed by a burst of machine-gun fire. Soon after friendly artillery was called in

When he got up to throw another grenade he was killed by a burst of machine-gun fire.

Friendly artillery was called on the enemy position, which was assaulted and captured.

Australian War Memorial director Dr Brendan Nelson said Badcoe had led an extraordinary life. 

"This is a set of medals which tells the story of an extraordinary life," he said.

"Those who've seen an image of Peter Badcoe would look at him and not immediately regard him as the hero that we associate with the Victoria Cross.

"He was a short, stocky man; he had horn-rimmed glasses; he was a man that didn't drink or smoke, which in those days in the Australian Army was very unusual.

Nelson spoke of the conflicts Badcoe was involved in, which also led to him being bestowed the United States Silver Star and three South Vietnamese Crosses of Gallantry.

 

"At Phu Thu province in Vietnam he ran over 600 metres across open ground under heavy fire to support an embattled Vietnamese platoon

"He gathered and led the platoon, took out a significant number of Viet Cong, inflicted serious casualties on them, retrieved the corpse of an American soldier that had been killed and rescued another American who was injured.

"Only a couple of weeks later on the 7th of March he led a number of fierce assaults in protection of the headquarters of Quang Dien province.

"On the same day he discovered that the reaction force of the first division, the Australian force, was under heavy fire at An Thuan province in Vietnam.

"He took command of the Australians, he led them in a counter attack, he was crawling forward with his sergeant, he was attempting to take out a machine gun with grenades.

"At least once the sergeant pulled him out of the line of fire and then, attempting to throw another grenade to silence the machine gun, he was shot and killed."

Port Adelaide plays Geelong in 2016 Anzac Round where the Peter Badcoe VC Medal will be presented for the 13th time.