Stories from the Vietnam War digibook

Sandy McGregor – 3 Field Troop, Army

The entrance was so narrow it was hard to imagine it was intended for people at all. There was a straight drop then it doubled back up, like the U-bend under a sink. The tunnel turned again to go along under the surface and became a little wider, but there still wasn’t room enough to turn around.

It was terrifying down there, armed only with a bayonet to probe for booby traps and a pistol to defend yourself. Already feeling claustrophobic behind a gas mask, the sensation was multiplied 100 times over in the constrictions of that dark netherworld. Added to that the knowledge that around any corner you could find yourself face to face with cornered foe or any other of a dozen forms of death.

The tunnels used by the North Vietnamese were at the time a surprising discovery for Australian and American troops.

What role did the tunnels play in combat and what challenges did they present to the Australians?

Norma Dickson – 1st Australian Field Hospital, Army

I had a stretch of about 47 hours where I just had not been to bed because we had over 40 patients brought in in one hit. Of course you would never say, 'I am tired, we will do him tomorrow', so we just had to keep going until we finished the whole lot … there were days when we were on our feet for 24hrs, plodding around in blood all day. There was so many bad injuries, young men coming in with their legs off, arms off, gaping wounds everywhere. I would never want to go through that again, that is for sure. The noise of the helicopters is one thing that still always comes back to me … we also knew that we always had to be spot on with things we were doing because people's lives depended on your decision making, and that used to put us under a lot of pressure.

Nurses were part of important teams in Vietnam, saving lives daily.

What other roles did people perform in field ambulances and hospitals to help the sick and injured? What experience or training did they receive before leaving Australia?

Norman Cameron and Cassius – 7th Battalion, Army

I jumped (from the helicopter) ten or fifteen feet into the mud and slush with my dog. I said, 'I'm getting out of here too.'

… And Cassius for the first time in his life, indicated. He indicated from about 50 metres and I said, ‘What are you doing?'

He stopped, looked and pointed straight over there on top of this ridge and I thought, 'Oh,' so I stopped … I went through the normal drill and said, 'My dog has indicated over there,' I said, 'He's never indicated before in his life but I’m going on taking his trust that he’s stopped and he’s pointed on that hill.'

So they said, 'All right we we'll just sweep around a bit and have a look.'

So as soon as we started sweeping around, they shot down along where we were, and had he not indicated we would have walked straight smack-bang into a big ambush and his indication saved our platoon from walking into an ambush by a gun post up there.

During the Vietnam War, 11 tracker dogs worked with Australian forces.

Other than indicating when the enemy was near, what other roles did these dogs have? Why were they important?

Do some research to find more stories of service dogs in Vietnam.

Janice McCarthy – RAANC, Army

The most important thing for us in Vietnam used to be to get some mail from home. We waited to open our mail when it arrived and then sat down later in private and devoured it. I think that having your friends and your colleagues writing and telling you what is going on in Australia was really important. Also some of the Army girls wanted to know what it was like in Vietnam because they knew that they would probably going to be up there themselves … so it was a two-way arrangement. I got mail and news from Australia and I told them what it was like for me.

The Vietnam War was at a time before the internet, email and mobile phones. Communication relied on physical letters, as well as newspapers and magazines sent to and from Australia. Due to the nature of war, at times there were delays. Australians could go for long periods without contact from home.

When was the last time you wrote a letter and sent it by post?

Write a letter to someone you care about, sharing what you know about the Vietnam War.