Ms Wilkes served as a welfare worker with the Red Cross in Nui Dat, in the Phuoc Tuy province, a base that had been at the centre of the battle of Long Tan five years before.
Among her duties she communicated with families of soldiers who were wounded in battle or suffered from a variety of medical problems brought on by fighting in the punishing tropical climate.
Today, her time in Vietnam will be recognised at a medal presentation in Wellington, where she will be presented with the General Service Medal with clasp, Vietnam, and the New Zealand Operational Service Medal.
Despite her service, she was not a supporter of the war when she left for Vietnam in 1971, and, during the 1960s, had taken part in anti-war protests.
When she returned, as with others home from Vietnam, she was aware of negative public feelings towards the war, and spoke of her experiences only to "a select few".
Even then, it was only the funny, or what she described as Mash-style stories that were discussed.
"I shut the door very much" on the period, she said.
"I wasn't affected as much as others, but still . . . no-one wanted to know."
While yesterday's Government apology did not mean much to her personally, it was "incredibly important for the soldiers that were so affected by both physical and psychological conditions", she said.
"I think it's incredibly important, but hellishly too late."
Aside from the negative public reaction, Ms Wilkes said it was the "hideousness of war" that was her strongest memory of the conflict.
Ms Wilkes, of Wingatui, was working for the former Department of Social Welfare in Wellington, a job she was not enjoying, when she came across an opening for a welfare officer in Vietnam, in the situations vacant columns.
"I went in May 1971.
''Prior to going, I spent six to eight weeks at Burnham [Military Camp, near Christchurch].
"As a civilian going into the military it was quite a culture shock."
As a welfare officer she liaised with families of injured soldiers who would otherwise receive only a "very official army telegram" informing them of injuries.
That role extended to sending flowers to wives of soldiers who were having babies.
After she left Vietnam in December 1971, Ms Wilkes was treated for tuberculosis, moved to the United Kingdom, went to university, and became "a proper social worker" and psychotherapist.
She worked with soldiers who had served in Northern Ireland, and said she could understand what had happened to them.
Ms Wilkes said she was more apprehensive about today than when she went to Vietnam.
"It's [Vietnam] something I've hidden away at the back there, but I appreciate they have remembered me in that way."
