Daryl Bristowe - Nui Dat

Transcript

Then we got in the aircraft I didn't even know existed. It was called a Fairchild Provider. I didn't even know, 'cause I love aircraft, I didn't even know it existed. It was, we call them two turners and two burners. It had small jets. And what was novel about them, the intake, you couldn't see, it was a jet until it took off, a little door seemed to open and then you could see where the air goes through and burnt and everything.

That flew us to Nui Dat and Nui Dat, this is my, as a private, a mortarman, this is how I saw it. It was like two airfields, a large hospital complex that was surrounded by barbed wire. And I would like to think that was to keep the nurses in because they were a frisky lot, I'm told, I don't know. But it seemed to be like a big wagon wheel. I know it sounds stupid, but to take, probably the officers would disagree, but to me at the time looking down on it, the Vietnamese would have had to taken each, it's like dividing a cake up, a tart, you know, and each part seemed to be fortified.

So you had barbed wire between you and the next lot, as well as barbed wire facing out. And when I landed, I had no idea where everything were. And next thing I knew I was at the first reinforcement unit and that's where I spent three to four weeks acclimatizing. During that time, I think it was like a company strength, we would go out and do ambushes.