While the images from the Vietnam War were the lead story in the dinner-time news, the troops in Vietnam were finding other things harder to stomach. Like the lack of support from home, at a time when they were only doing their duty, in a country with an unbearable climate, against soldiers who were proving impossible to detect, let alone neutralise. Our six feature stories include a chilling recording of an Australian helicopter under fire while attempting to pick up injured.

MEDICAL EVACUATION

NAME: "Recording of contact with enemy" 

DATE: 1969

UNIT: 7 Platoon, C Company

LOCATION: Vietnam

During the Vietnam War wounded were generally speedily evacuated by helicopter. If war movies are to be believed, scarcely has a soldier been hit before a medical evacuation helicopter appeared over the horizon. But sometimes the reality was quite different. This recording shows how difficult medical evacuation could be
 

A WAR CORRESPONDENT IN INDO-CHINA

NAME: Don Hook

DATE: 1968-1970

UNIT: Civilian

LOCATION: Vietnam

I was fortunate that I'd had more than 16 years experience as a journalist in Australia, Britain and Papua New Guinea before becoming an ABC News correspondent in south east Asia in December 1967. I was also fortunate in having had quite a bit of military experience as a school cadet, a National Serviceman, as an NCO in the Papua New Guinea Volunteer Rifles, and as a Reserve officer at PNG Command Headquarters. Many of my fellow correspondents, including a few Australians, were far less experienced in journalism - and some had no military training whatsoever.
 

A LETTER OF WARNING FROM VIETNAM

NAME:  Letter of warning

DATE: 1960's

UNIT: All

LOCATION: Vietnam

This is to inform you that as of …………………………. 196 , a certain mudhound water-soaked and slightly crazy individual known as …………….. is leaving our little City of ………………… securely nestled among the jungles and rice paddies, located in the Southern part of a semi-tropic country in the Far East known as The Republic of Vietnam.
 

LIVING THROUGH THE TET OFFENSIVE

NAME: Brian Mayfield

DATE: 1968

UNIT: COMRAAFV at RAAF Headquarters

LOCATION: Saigon

Brian Mayfield was Orderly Room Sergeant and Secretary to the COMRAAFV at RAAF Headquarters in Saigon throughout 1968. His tour of duty included the Tet and May offensives.
 

THE 106 FIELD WORKSHOP IN VIETNAM

NAME: Claude Palmer

DATE: 1969 - 1970

UNIT: 106 Field Workshop, RAEME

LOCATION: Nui Dat, Vietnam

Units of the Royal Australian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (RAEME) have served Australia well in many conflicts and Vietnam was no exception.
 

THE TRAVELLER

NAME:  Poem

DATE: 1960's

UNIT: : Unknown

LOCATION: Vietnam

Now when a man his life begins
His dreams of all the wondrous things
Of travel to the faraway
And ways and means to get more pay
 

RESCUE FILGHT BRINGS VIETNAMESE ORPHANS OUT OF SAIGON

NAME: Phyllis Schumann

DATE: 1975

UNIT: Civilian (formerly Flight Officer RAAF Nursing Service)

LOCATION: Vietnam

The withdrawal of forces from Vietnam was drawing to a conclusion in April 1975 when the Australian Government made a decision to evacuate some war orphans from the vicinity of Saigon before they could fall into the path of the advancing North Vietnamese troops.
 

REGULAR SOLDIERS WERE BACKBONE OF UNITS IN VIETNAM

NAME: Graham Sherrington

DATE: 1966 - 1967

UNIT: 6 Platoon B Company 5RAR

LOCATION: Nui Dat

Graham Sherrington was not your typical regular soldier. He had had more than his share of run ins with the Army authorities but there was more to it than that.
 

AUSTRALIAN THE VICTIM OF "FRIENDLY FIRE"

NAME: Guy Watkins

DATE: 1967

UNIT: 7 RAR

LOCATION: Vietnam

When Private Guy Watkins was wounded in Vietnam, the local paper in Tasmania reported he had been shot by a Viet Cong. But in a letter to his father written some days after the incident, it turns out Guy Watkins was hit by "friendly fire".