Emigration to Australia
I grew up in the UK and we emigrated here when I was 14. And we emigrated to Frankston in Victoria. Did a couple of years of high school down there and left school with the intention of eventually joining the Army. But I was 16, so I was still a bit too young. So, I had a couple of other jobs, apprentice motor mechanic, et cetera. And yeah, when I was 19 I ended up joining the Army. I had been in the Army Cadets in the UK, an artillery regiment. So, that sort of basically set the scene for me … I was born in Wales, South Wales, and then we relocated to Sheffield in preparation for coming to Australia … I came out here with quite a broad Sheffield accent. But because Poms weren't the flavour of the month, I worked very hard to get rid of it.
Motivation for joining the army
I'd been in the Army Cadets and I knew that Army life was something that I would really like to be part of. But also, because we were new to Australia, I sort of wanted to prove myself to the country and gain some acceptance from the country, so I felt as though I'd actually earned the right to be here … I actually joined to go to Vietnam. I wanted to prove myself to be worthy of living in Australia … I knew a little bit about it, because of the climate at that time, the political situation and everything that was going on with the moratoriums, what have you. I didn't know a great deal about it. I'm not quite sure I even knew where Vietnam was, to be honest, but it was something that I just want to be a part of.
The enjoyment of army life
I sort of knew what to expect. I went in with my eyes wide open. But I guess the biggest shock for me was that I'd been playing in rock bands for a couple of years and I had long hair and the biggest shock was having to get my hair cut short. But apart from that, no, I took to it really quite well. I teamed up with a great group of guys. We all went through recruit training and corps training together and they're still my best mates … it was a good three months’ worth of very physical, long days, late nights, early mornings, and thoroughly enjoyable. No, I really enjoyed it. I came out of there really, really fit. I managed to stay out of trouble whilst I was in there, so I didn't have to do too many later nights than I needed to. And as I said, the guys I went through with, most of them are still good friends of mine so it made it a lot easier having that support structure and we sort of relied on each other as you do in the Army anyway. So it was a great time in my life and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Training to be a signaller
From Kapooka, I went to the School of Artillery at North Head in Manly to do my corps training. Then I went to Holsworthy and I was there when we came out of recruit training and then out of corps training. The 104 Battery had just come back from Vietnam probably six months earlier, and it was just rebuilding, so we were pretty much the first guys to be in the newly formed, or restructured battery. To be honest, I can't remember who we replaced. I was attached to an infantry battalion to 4RAR. So, I didn't have a great deal to do with the gunners as such because I was more involved with the infantry side of things. I was a signaller. I did my signal training as an artillery signaller and when I completed that I was then promoted to a bombardier and I became the battery commander signaller. So, the battery commander works very closely with the Battalion CO, in terms of what artillery requirements they need. And so, I was his signaller, so everywhere he went, I would go with him, out on missions and we spent a lot of time out in the bush, before we went to Vietnam. I actually went over with the regiment. We travelled as a unit, but we all had our own jobs once we got there. The briefing that we got, it was fairly intense, but it was actually not a one-off briefing. We were in Townsville for 14 months prior to going over to Vietnam, where we did a lot of training up at high range and that's when we were actually working in our roles that we would be doing in Vietnam. So the briefing sort of took place more in terms of on job training rather than saying, "This is what you'll be doing," even though we were told that initially. But it was just a brief overview, initially. And then once we started doing, performing the roles in Australia, we found out exactly what we'd be doing over in Vietnam.
Arrival in Vietnam
When we got out at Tan Son Nhut, out of the 707, it was like walking into a furnace. For a start, it was really, really hot and humid. It was a military air base, obviously, and a lot of aircraft activity. Then we flew from Tan Son Nhat to Nui Dat in a C-131 and my first impression, I remember we were coming into land at Nui Dat and we took fire, so they had to go around and have another try. So then, when we landed, we were disembarked and taken straight to our new home in a tent. It was four men to a tent. It was great. I mean, it was what I expected it to be. It was a lot of fun whilst you were in the base, but when we went out to the bush it was all hard work. So, none of us knew what to expect, obviously. Going to a war, you don't really know what you're in for, but I think we were all on edge but trying to put on a brave front in front of our peers so that we didn't appear to be terrified. They give you, I think seven days to acclimatize and prepare your gear to go out bush and then you go out. So, I wasn't actually out on patrol as such with the infantry because I was co-located with Battalion Headquarters but we did go out on patrols from the bases we were at, clearing patrols at nighttime to make sure that there was no one there going to try and get into our camp.
Visiting the fire bases
The Battery Commander used to go to our fire support bases and I'd go with him, not all the time, but quite often. It would be going out in the morning. The Battery Commander would meet with the Gun Position Officer and the Section Commanders, and I'd just catch up with some of my mates from off the guns and then we'd go back. If it was a fair way out we'd go and by chopper … it's fantastic. I mean, I love flying and in a war zone, it's obviously a lot different to flying in a helicopter here in Australia where you've got all the guidelines. We'd sit in a heli with our legs hanging out the side, no seat belts, full-pack weapon, ready to disembark as soon as it landed. But they fly really low across the ground so they're not a target high in the air and, yeah, it was really quite amazing flying along riverbanks and banking in and out.
Down time in Nui Dat
If we're in Nui Dat, it would mean that we're off operations. So that was when you got a little bit of time to relax. So, we spent a lot of our time cleaning up our gear from being out the bush. You might be out there for three weeks at a time. Just cleaning up your gear, relaxing. We had the opportunity sometimes to go down to Vung Tau. I only went down there once for an R&C weekend and then guys would go to the American PX and buy something for family or a souvenir for yourself or something and then spend a bit of time with that. Couple of guys bought nice big Akai tape recorders and big radios and things. So yeah, just spent a lot of time messing around with those and sort of working out all this new technology which, reel to reel tape was new technology back then … I had a small Phillips reel to reel which I just made tapes and sent home to family … I was married at the time. I was just newly married, so I was sending to my wife so, she probably played them for the family, but they weren't actually sent to them directly.
Contacting home
I'm probably like most other guys, you don't really want your Mum, and particularly your mother, to be really worried. So you tend to not mention anything too much about what's going on. So, just about how you are more than anything and hoping everything was all right at home, and you're both well, and what have you. I'd probably mentioned a bit more to my wife at that time about what was going on. But yeah, I think you sort of shield your parents a bit from some of the reality.
Relaxing with a song and a beer
Because I'd been in bands, I played a bit of guitar. So, we'd just sit around at night and sing songs and have a couple of beers which were only 10 cents a can. So, it was nice to have that. You could only have a couple and we were normally only in Nui Dat for two or three days at a time, so it wasn't enough time to get sick of any of that stuff.
Courtenay Hill
We were at different bases but the main one that we were at was a place called Courtenay Hill, which is part of the Courtenay Rubber Plantation. It's actually on the border of Phuoc Tuy and Long Tân Provinces. At nighttime or just before dark, they'd assign a patrol to go out and just clear a quadrant of the area. So there'd be four patrols going out, each doing a patrol out to about 150 metres, just to make sure there was no one in there lying in wait to cause a problem during the night. Yeah, you just moved through very carefully and slowly and make sure you don't step on a booby trap somewhere, which we never actually found any but you're always wary of them … Once they established Courtenay Hill that became basically our centre of operations from there. But before Courtenay Hill was established, we went to other areas, to other bases, but we tended not to stay there for more than a couple of days. Then we'd go back to Nui Dat and then when Courtenay Hill was established, that was basically our base outside Nui Dat.
American artillerymen
We had Charlie Battery from an American regiment attached to one of our fire support bases, I think it was fire support base Sharee. So, they had a 155-millimetre guns and we had 105s. It could have been Operation Núi Lé. Or sorry, the Battle of Núi Lé, Operation Ivanhoe. But yeah, that was probably the biggest battle we had whilst we were there and I'm pretty sure that's when we had the Americans attached to us. They were great blokes. I mean, everyone got along really well. But they're very loud whereas we'd sort of try to maintain a low profile, the Americans weren't too shy about making themselves known. So, in terms of the way they operate as artilleryman, it's all very similar from what I remember anyway. I wasn't with the guns, but from what I've heard from my mates who were on the guns, it was just like working with Australians, as far as the actual artillery support goes.
Vung Tau
I went there once on R&C which is just a weekend away from the front, or the front, I guess you can call it and then we spent three weeks there when we were drawn from Nui Dat. But Vung Tàu, it was a very vibrant place. Again, very loud and particularly when you'd been out the bush for two or three weeks and everything's really silent. You come in, there's Lambretta scooters and everything going everywhere, and people. Yeah, I quite liked Vung Tàu myself. It, because it was so hot and humid there, had a distinct smell about it but you got sort of used to that after a few hours … but we were in a fairly protected area within Vung Tàu. We were in a place called Camp 500, which we were co-located with South Vietnamese troops. So they were in a different section of it. It was all fenced off. But yeah, it was actually a time sort of really settling down after being highly tense for the last six months … it was actually a lot of fun for the first couple of weeks in there because, well, we're now out of the operational area and hopefully in a safe area and we could really just let our hair down and relax a little bit … we didn't have a lot to do with the locals. We were sort of kept in our area, which was quite a large area but maybe some of the officers and that did have more to do with the locals from a liaison perspective. But even if we had, I don't know what the English ability was anyway. So, I never actually spoke to any of the locals about how they felt about the Australians leaving. And it's only since we came home that you sort of... I've read a lot about it, and particularly after Saigon fell, there was a lot of resentment, they felt that the Americans, in particular, had let them down but the Australians, to a certain extent, had too.
The Badcoe Club
The Badcoe Club was really a nice area because it was right on the beach. You could go for a swim in safety, or relative safety anyway, as safe as you can be on a beach. They had nice facilities there and there would never be, not when we were there anyway, it wasn't packed with servicemen on rest and recreational leave or anything. So, it was just a nice couple of days. We had a weekend there, about half a dozen of us, just taken out of the field for a couple of days and went down there. Great facilities, all air-conditioned rooms and everything. It was nice to have that little bit of luxury for a couple of days.
Good relations within the unit
We always got along, there was never any tension, within my group anyway. Yeah. I think we had a common goal and a common fear. So, we tended to sort of look outwards rather than looking inwards and not focused so much on what our guys were doing that might upset you under normal circumstances. You're sort of more focused on what the people out there, that may be out there, wanted to do to you.
Returning home on HMAS Sydney
I came back on Sydney … It was about 10 days, yeah. It was great. The accommodation was very cramped in hammocks, but it was great. We could wander around the ship and we had lot of exercises, sort of PT every day. And they occasionally would get the rifles out and they'd put targets out in the water and we'd just shoot them and give us something to do for a couple of hours … So, then the rest of the time we'd just spend sitting around in the sun, waiting to get home … we had no formal debrief really as such. We did have our Regimental CO addressed us and sort of gave us a bit of a debrief of what we'd achieved whilst we'd been there but that time just allowed you to go over in your mind about where you’d been for the last seven or eight months and to debrief yourself in real terms.
A sense of incompletion
I think all of us felt that, and the National servicemen, as much as myself and the other regular soldiers, because we'd sort of psyched ourselves up for a 12-month tour and it was cut short to eight months. So, we felt as though we'd hadn't done our job, really. So, that was sort of a real disappointment, for me anyway it was.
Return home and picking up one’s life
We disembarked the Sydney on Christmas Eve of 1971 and they disembarked us at midnight and we went on leave then for about six weeks. I stayed with my cousin who lived in Sydney at the time and then I think they flew me to Melbourne the following day to be with my family. It was uneventful and all the guys from the battery sort of said goodbye to each other. We'd see each other in six weeks or however long … and I must admit, I think my family were really supportive of me which made a difference and I think a lot of guys came home, didn't have that support, and it made them feel as though they'd been sort of ostracized and put in a different category. I know some of them did come home with a lot of mental issues and particularly the National Serviceman, as you say, felt that more than we did as regular soldiers because I had that security of knowing that I was going back there in six weeks or whatever to pick up my career again. And a lot of Nashos, although I must admit, the Nashos I served with, and I think they're fairly typical of all Nashos, they were very flexible and accommodating. I think it's the ones that probably had a lot worse encounters over there than we did that that really felt it. People like the guys at Long Tân and those events … I think I'm a bit fortunate, when I came home and got off the Sydney and went to back to Melbourne, I just pulled a shutter down on the whole thing. So, I resumed, I just picked up my life where I'd left it before I went overseas and I've never had any bad effect from that. So, I mean, I think about Vietnam and I was diagnosed with PTSD from it but I've never let it worry me. It's just something that I've compartmentalized and that was a part of my life that, whilst I was in a war zone, it wasn't something that I came back from with any sort of serious side effect or anything that I felt had affected me negatively.
Wife and child
When I went over, we had a son that was six months old when I went over. So, seeing him at 14, 15 months or something, that was fantastic … because at six months he probably wouldn't have remembered me. Even though he probably saw photographs of me all the time because my wife and my son were living with my parents whilst I was over there. So, they were getting letters and I'd send the occasional photograph and we had photographs from before I went over. So, he would've seen photographs of me, but perhaps not known who I was … and my parents and my wife got on really well, so there was no problem there. And having the baby, of course, that kept her pretty busy, I should imagine, whilst I was away. But we did keep in regular contact, as regular as you could back then. I mean, there were no mobile phone calls or anything. No FaceTime or Zoom meetings or anything. But yeah, I think she struggled to a certain extent because she was by herself with someone other than her own family but her own family weren't that far away anyway. They were only probably maybe 15Ks away. So, she did spend a fair bit of time with them as well.
The right thing
It was something that I wanted to do, it was something I did and I mean, there's no one else to blame for having been over there but myself but in terms of whether we should have been there or not, it's a contentious point. One of the things that drove me to actually want to go to Vietnam was the domino theory. If we didn't go to help, then the communist threat could spread throughout Southeast Asia and eventually end up being potentially a threat to Australia. So, that was part of the driver for me to go over to do my bit to make sure that that didn't happen but as far as, I've read a lot of books about Vietnam since I came home and I'm still of the opinion that we did the right thing because we were supporting our allies, and that's what Australia always does.
20
I actually had a pet monkey for a few days. He used to sit on my pack whilst we were walking around and he would sit in the gun pit with me at night on when I was on gun picket. And in the ration packs we used to get these cans of bread and I'd opened one of these for him, he'd sit on my knee and he'd just eat away at it, whilst we were sharing the gun pit. He just appeared one day and came and sort of sat on my pack and stayed with me for a few days, and then obviously found something better to do. He wasn't afraid of me at all. I don't know if he'd been someone else's pet monkey and he might've just been doing the rounds, I don't know.
Anzac Day
I'm of the firm opinion that Anzac Day is the day that, well, it's probably been proven, that Australia actually became a nation and I've tried to do my best as long as with other Army members to make sure that tradition's continued.
