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This Map is of Phouc Tuy Province in 1970. While you are reading the other stories you can now link them to the places on the Map.
"Advance to Contact". This title come from some of the training we did in Vietnam of a nature that had not changed from World War One and can be seen in the Movie Gallipoli. In that the Company would move out of its base position and move to a 'start line' were the Platoons would line up. At a given signal we move out with the order 'Advance to Contact'. The Bayonet with the wreath is the Australian Army Badge for WARLIKE OPERATIONS, and it is called the "INFANTRY COMBAT BADGE". The 'Infantry Combat Badge' takes pride of place over a Digger's medals and no doubt the SAS who served in the Iraq conflict of 2003 will be awarded the ICB. The same as the Infantry Soldiers who served on warlike operations in Timor and Afghanistan. The ICB was instituted on 29th July 1970 by the Military Board via Intruction (MBI) Number 102-6. The Badge was for recognition of Infantry Service in Battle. It may only be awared to a serving member of the Australian Army who has given, either continous or aggregate, 90 days satisfactory service as an infantryman in warlike operations. At that time in 1970 other Corps were given the opportunity to create a 'corps-specific combat related badge' but only the Royal Australian Infantry (RAInf) Corps alone made such an election. While the ICB can be awarded to none Infantry, the critera is very stringent and very few ICBs have been awarded to none Infantry Soldiers. STORIES ON THIS PAGE:- PLATOON MEDIC..............NIGHT SHOOT AT BRIGID THE NIGHT THE SKY LIT UP ******************************************************** PLATOON MEDIC. In parts of my story on other pages I talk about treating people with the platoon med kit. This is how it came about that I was the medic for 3 Platoon. While all soldiers are taught basic first aid and how to put on a shell dressing 7RAR wanted people at platoon level who could do a bit more. The medic for the Company a trained Medical Assistant who was a member of the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps, a posting I held after the War. After volunteering four of us, one for each platoon and a spare went to the 1st Australian Field Hospital at Vung Tou for two weeks and on arrival were directed to the "Q" store to drop our weapons and ammo. When we put our grenades on the counter we cleared the place in about 5 seconds, much to the amusement of us grunts. They only came back when we assured them the grenades had the pins well in place. Then we headed off for a very welcome hot shower. The instructor for the course was the
RSM at 1 Aust Fld, WO Class One Blue Mellowship, The second course allowed us to be on hand when the DUSTOFF choppers came in and I was there a few times when a number of badly wounded Diggers came in to TRIAGE. Two DUSTOFF lifts stick in my mind. One was a group of Diggers who had 'bunched up' close to a track and someone had detonated a huge home made mine. The mine was full of nails, nuts and bolts and they caused horrendous wounds. The second lift was about 5 or 6 Diggers who had been hit by a burst from a AK$&. As they were all in a line they were hit from the ankle to the chest.
The TRIAGE; is the system of sorting wounded that you might have seen on the TV show MASH about the Korean war? Its a lot different seeing the mess of skin and bones that mines or bullets can do up close. The whole room is organised chaos with a doctor checking each Digger, now a patient, to see who would get in to the operating theatre first due to the nature of their wounds. Despite the terrible wounds inflicted on these young men I never heard any screaming or complaints from any Digger while they waited in pain, for their turn in surgery. Twice that I can remember I was invited
into theatre to witness surgery to deal with gun shot wounds
and mine injuries. Two of the operations involved the removal
of a hand and a leg for two Diggers, something I can still see
clearly after all these years. The experience although difficult
was harden me up to deal with wounds on the battlefield. That was not
the last time I visited the hospital returning on the 9th Dec
1970 on a Dustoff chopper when John and I were wounded. During my Tour a couple of times
we were left without a RAAMC Medic for A Company and I
was moved in to the CHQ RAP to man it until a replacement was
found at Brigid and the Dat. Although I always went out with 3 Platoon, only working
with CHQ the time described above. For some weeks I also carried
the platoon radio on ambushes out from Brigid, till I managed
to convince the Sgt that doing both jobs if we had wounded would
be difficult. So I gave up the radio the day we moved out for
an ambush on the Long Hai Mountains. See Later in the Tour Sgt King even got me to carry the M60 for 3 days late in the Tour when a gunner went home. I was amazed and asked "why me" the answer was you are the most experienced and you have fired it, said with a smile. This was in reference to an incident at Brigid which I will call "night shoot" . These Photos were taken early in the Tour. While the Platoon was at NDP ISA. Writing a letter home at the front of my sleeping bay and coming back from a Piquet. ******************************************************** NIGHT SHOOT AT BRIGID It was not often we worked with other sections but at Brigid there was a need to man the position at night while other sub-units carried out ambushes towards the Long Hai Mountains. On this night myself and Gary the Platoon Sig worked with Pepi's section. All I can remember about the day and evening is being woken up just before 0400hrs, by Gary and slipping on my boots and grabbing my SLR as I walked the few yards to the booth that was set up with the M60, as the piquet post. As soon as I stepped up to the Gun, I heard a loud pop, and a fizz, to my left a flare had gone off in the wire and what looked like an arm moving, backwards away from the light. I was lucky as I was looking away and it did not effect my night vision so I could see the Gun to bring it in to action. We all knew of the Viet Cong's skill in penetrating wire at bases. I started to yell for Gary, thinking as he had just gone to bed he would be awake and be able to move back to me quicker to give me hand. As I can see it today, I saw movement pull away from the flare and wanted to get the Gun firing as quick as I could. Lifting it up and pulling it around I hit the safety catch and pulled the trigger. NO ROUNDS!~! I was amazed and now bloody terrified. My heart was pounding so loud. I was exposed standing in the booth with a weapon that was not working for some reason? My yelling for Gary got a bit louder. I cannot remember now how to carry out an Immediate Action on an M60, but I know I did it in record time then. Expecting some fire at me in the mean time, finally I pulled the bolt back I fired. Finally I had the great feeling of relief to hear rounds leaving the barrel and seeing the tracer rounds hit the area around the flare. Just then the Section Commander arrived in the booth and I stopped to tell him what I had seen. "Keep going" I did so laying down the rounds away from our position at Brigid. With the butt of the weapon in my shoulder it was good to see the rounds hit the area. If anyone was out there perhaps having second thoughts about catching Aussies asleep? When it was all over Pepi asked me why didn't I use the M16 that were left in the booth instead of moving the M60 away from its position pointing at the gate? He pointed down against the wall and for the first time I saw a number of M16s standing upright against the side of the booth. While I was thinking 'Thats what you get for working with another section, no bloody instructions given to the next piquet.' I told him my thought was to get maximum fire going and the Gun was the better option, anyway if they had come through the gate I would have been able to switch targets. (now that I had got the Gun working) I never thought to ask why the Gun was not set up to fire as it should have and why it required an i.a., to get it working? That was the longest few seconds of my life and I can understand when faced with a critical situation some people just freeze and are unable to do anything to help themselves. Fortunately with my training and knowing I was the only one awake protecting my mates, I was able to keep going and finally get some rounds down in the area of what I had seen?
Another example of our 'funny money' this time a MPC note to the value of one dollar.($1) This money was issued when you were going on Rest in Country (R&C) at Vung Tou to stop changing money with the locals. This was a chargeable offence if caught. As the idea was to stop the VC getting their hands on international money like USA Green Backs or Aussie notes. THE NIGHT THE SKY LIT UP At Brigid the change to the bays on the perimeter was for me a bit stressful as it resulted in some strange effects. The bay was built up from just a sleeping bay to a 'T' shape to include a fighting bay and two sleeping areas. With an open area at the join of the top of the 'T' with the I, so that you could look out to the surrounding area and keep a check on what was going on. With my view being sand, sand and more sand. One night the sky lit up with all sorts of tracer fire from the small base next door of the ARVN troops, flying across the inside of Brigid. I grabbed my webbing and SLR and climbed out the front of my bay and on my hands and knees made my way to the gun pit up on the left hand corner of Brigid. Thinking about that night when I started to write this account the other day I thought how stupid can you be? It was lucky that no one saw me as I might have been shot crawling around the front of the pits. There with a couple of other Diggers we had a few bets as to what was happening with the ARVN. The firing stopped after 20 minutes or so and I made my way back to my bunker to go back to sleep. Next day we heard that one of the local troops had shot off his toe by accident and so everyone had decided to get in to the act and fire off a few rounds. ******************************************************** PAGE 11 of A GRUNTS VIEW:- "Advance To Contact" To move to "BUNKER BATTLE" Page use the SLR on the right. To return to "The Odd Angry Shot" Page use left SLR. To return to "ENTRY" Page click on Willy the PIG. Page updated 7th July 2003.
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This
Photo was taken while at 1 Aust Field Hospital
