
©
Neville
Case
Platoon Sergeant
2 platoon A Company 1st Tour |
 |
On Monday the 31st August 2009, my wife and I
stood gathered at the Bowen Cenotaph along with
the family, relatives and friends of Corporal
Norman Womal, a 5RAR Tiger who was Killed in
Action in the Republic of South Vietnam on the
17th October 1966. A large number of veterans
and the local public were also in attendance.
The reason for the ceremony was a special
presentation of replicas of Norm's service
medals encased with a copy of the citation for
his posthumously awarded 'Mentioned in
Despatches' to his immediate family, who had
never received or sighted his medals or
citation. This was not common knowledge and the
fact was only discovered when Norm's niece,
Louisa Forbes of Melbourne tried to find out
more about her uncle's service history.
Two 5RAR Tigers, Michael von Berg MC and Jock
Letford took up a collection and procured copies
of all Norm's Medals which were presented to the
family by 5RAR Association elder Colonel Mike
Dennis. A letter from Michael von Berg MC, who
was Norm's platoon commander in Vietnam was read
out by Bowen RSL Branch president, Brian
Schwartz.
Both Norm and I were born and bred in the North
Queensland town of Bowen and we knew each other
as good friends do.
Norm's family was of Island ancestry. They were,
and still are a very popular family, very well
respected and participate in all aspects of
small town life.
Norm was born a twin. His twin brother Tom,
tragically died as the result of an accident
early in his life.
I knew Norm at school, on the sports field and
at our workplace. A more friendly, easy going
man you would never meet.
While attending the ceremony in Bowen my
thoughts went back to what I knew of Norm's time
in the regular army and my memory of the lead-up
to that fatal day in 1966 on 'Operation
Queanbeyan'.
I had joined the Australian Regular Army late in
1958 and Norm joined early in 1959. We met one
another again at the Infantry Corps Training
Centre at Ingleburn and after completing corps
training Norm was sent to 1RAR and off to
Malaya. I was just 18 years and was posted to
2RAR at Holsworthy.
We had several chance meetings over the next
five to six years but never served in the same
unit until 5RAR was formed and warned for
service in South Vietnam, when I was posted
from the Airborne Platoon at the RAAF Base at Williamtown to join the new 5RAR as a platoon
sergeant. I found Norm as a Corporal in
Anti-Tank Platoon.
We saw each other fairly often until we arrived
in South Vietnam where nobody moved much to
socialise in early 1966.
I do remember the second last time I spoke to
him; we were up at the village of Binh Ba and a
re-supply vehicle came up from Nui Dat and
Norm alighted and sought me out. He had come to
rejoin his platoon after being in Vung Tau to
see Henry 'Buddie' Lea a friend of ours and
another Bowen Lad who had been wounded at the
Battle of Long Tan. I remember he told me that
they had patched Henry up enough to send him
home. We were both very happy for Buddie's
survival and to be going home.
The very next time I spoke with Norm was on that
fateful day, 17th October and although it was a
long time ago, I will try to pass on the events
of that day as I remember them.
The battalion was moving from their task of
holding open a section of route 15 for some
American Reinforcement convoys to travel safely
along. The move for 5RAR was a return to the
'Warbies' or the Warburton Mountains the name
given by the diggers to the Nui Thi Vai, Nui Toc
Tien mountain complex. The nickname being
derived from the popular song, regularly played
on the US Armed Forces Radio.
If memory serves me correctly I was acting
platoon commander of 2 Platoon. A Company at the
time was to return to the area of the base of
the mountain where a track led up to a pagoda
near the crest of Nui Thi Vai. This led to some
concern among the troops as we had been down
over this area during Operation Canberra, prior
to the move out to Route 15. While on 'Operation Canberra'
the evidence of enemy activity and occupation of
this area was very obvious by pits, fresh
diggings, caves, tracks, spider holes and
footprints. We also picked up a Buddhist monk in
a cave, he had a large amount of rice cooking—far
to much for his own use. He also had bundles of
female and male civilian clothing. He said that
he did not know who we were, but through our
Vietnamese interpreter he said that he had heard
of Australia but thought all Australians to be
coloured people. You could smell the enemy—you
could just feel their presence; why they didn't
make contact will never be known.
I believe the order of march in our sub-unit was
A Company, followed by Anti-Tank Platoon and
then Battalion HQ. My platoon was in the lead of
A Company and we were following a sandy track as
the axis of the advance., when the lead section
stopped and signalled me forward to a track
junction. The strangest thing was a sign,
dressed timber, secured to a tree, which in good
English simply stated "get another way." We
considered this a warning and reported back to
our OC, Major Peter Cole who was coming under
pressure from BHQ to keep moving.
Moving on we discovered a fair-sized enemy camp,
well built. While clearing this camp an A
Company soldier tripped a booby trap.
At this point I must stop and clear up a point
that has concerned me for many years. On page
141 of Robert J. O'Neill's book 'Vietnam Task',
the incident of the booby trap explosion states
that "it exploded without harming anyone". In
fact two A Company soldiers were wounded. I
cannot recall one soldier's name but the other
man is 5RAR's current webmaster Corporal Ted
Harrison. We were told to secure the area and
clear a chopper pad to get the wounded out.
As BHQ wanted to push on to the summit of Nui
Thi Vai, Anti-Tank Platoon was pushed forward to
take over our lead. Corporal Womal's section was
up and knowing that A Company had recently been
down the mountain he questioned me about the
track in relation to the pagoda. I informed him
of the obvious recent enemy occupation, the
Buddhist monk and also the fact that we in our
platoon thought they were still there and were
forewarned. As they moved off I warned him to be
careful and said when we get back to Nui Dat to
contact me as I had several copies of the 'Bowen
Independent' (The local home town newspaper) I
would pass onto him. That was the last
conversation I had with Norm Womal as he led
Anti-Tank Platoon and BHQ through our company
and up Warburton Mountain. We were not to know
that the words of the first line of the song
would apply to Norm—"They
say don't go on Warburton Mountain."
The country lost a good man―The army lost a good
soldier―All who knew him lost a good friend;
when Corporal Norman Womal was lost on 17th
October 1966.
Rest in peace
old mate.
Neville Case.

15170 Corporal Norman J. Womal
9 February 1938 - 17 October 1966 |
Webmaster: |
To read the citation accompanying
the award of Mentioned in Dispatches
to Cpl. Womal (Posthumous).
»Click Here |
|
To read the article of the
presentation of Norm's medals to his
family
»Click Here |
BACK TO CONTENTS PAGE |