© Gary Townsend
C Coy 1st Tour |
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On 21 April 1966
I was one of the group who boarded HMAS
Sydney, at Garden Island dock in Sydney,
to start a voyage to South Vietnam. The
contingent was made up of C Company HQ,
7 Platoon, 9 Platoon and various support
groups. For most of us it was our first
venture overseas and certainly our first
into a war zone.
The
flight deck was covered with vehicles
and stores so most of our spare time was
spent below decks, sitting in the
forecastle watching the waves go by. I
can remember watching the Australian
coastline slide past in the distance,
and then, one morning it was not there
anymore. When the coast disappeared I
wondered when I would see my wife,
Carol, and Australia again. At that
stage there was no thought that some of
us would not be coming home, we were
invincible!
One
of the first things that we had to learn
was how to correctly set up and hang a
hammock, that's if we did not want to
finish up on the deck half way through
the night. Talk about the current term
of 'High Density Living', there was only
about 12 to 15 inches between hammocks.
Most of the daylight hours we were kept
busy with duties and drills, kitchen
duty, firing practice from the stern,
etc. entertainment also came in the form
of the escort destroyers or HMAS Supply
coming alongside to transfer fuel,
stores or crew.
A stop at Manus Island, with the
islanders sailing alongside, trying to
sell us goods from their outrigger
canoes, also gave us a interesting few
hours.
A
couple of the blokes had decided to
visit the ships barber, and have their
hair cut into the Mohawk style. The next
day CSM Wormald paraded the entire
company to that same barber to receive
what is now known as a No 1 crew-cut,
almost bald! In fact it was probably the
best thing that could have happened to
us all, as it was many weeks before we
were in a position to get a haircut
again.
The Sydney's crew treated us to a
terrific 'Crossing the Line' ceremony
with, as I remember our Company 2IC,
Capt Bob Milligan, one of the primary
victims. This event also gave us the
opportunity to take revenge on the CSM
for the indignity inflicted upon our
heads by the ship's butcher, sorry I
meant barber.
In
early May we arrived off Vung Tau,
packed up all our gear and boarded
landing craft. As we were approaching
the beach we were given the order to
'Fix Bayonets', you can imagine our
surprise, we thought we were landing in
a secure area. So the 'Bronzed Anzacs'
of C Company stormed ashore to secure a
beach-head on the South Vietnamese
shore. The reception we received was not
what we expected; yanks working on the
beach stopped what they were doing and
thought it was a great joke. "Put those
pig-stickers away before you hurt
yourselves", was one the jibes that I
remember.
Our first day in South Vietnam was
memorable in two ways, firstly, as a
laughing stock and secondly, the start
of a period in our lives that we
believed we were prepared for, but were
unsure of what to expect.
ONCE
WE WERE SOLDIERS
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