Some Things Would Stick In Your Mind Forever ...

[gobbledonk]

Many who are familiar with Cold Chisel's classic 'Khe Sanh' would know that 'the Silver City' referred to a long-demolished building at the recruit training base outside Wagga (I've seen what's left of the foundations), but this comment left at the bottom of yet-another-news-item-about-the-song painted a picture for me:

 

Reference to Silver City, in the lyrics, was the B Wing igloo accommodation barracks at Kapooka, NSW. Reference to "Last Plane Out of Sydney is almost gone". At midnight every wednesday night, was a Qantas 707, bound for Saigon, Vietnam, via Darwin and Singapore, with replacement troops for support units in Vietnam. How do I know. I did my recruit training at Kapooka, and lived in Silver City. Flew out of Sydney midnight, 23 August 1970, bound for Nui Dat, posted to 104 Sig Sqn, on that Qantas flight

 

As much as I loathe the current Jetstar flight that deposits passengers in Darwin and Singapore before finally making it's way to Bangkok, I can only imagine what it must have been like to board that midnight flight in 1970. I'm sure Flasher remembers every detail of his own journey - I dont know if it was anything like Mel Gibson's early AM walk to the airfield in 'We Were Soldiers', but I doubt that there were a lot of smiling faces on that flight.

 

Gobble

[baa99]

This is burned in my memory,

 

[Flashermac]

Gobbie, I knew I was going from the moment I got my induction letter, so it was never any surprise. Plus if you were drafted, it meant combat arms. It was just a matter of time before we boarded the big silver bird...

 

We flew out of Oakland 1 March 1969 on a military charter flight via Anchorage and Okinawa. (As I recall, it was a Flying Tigers plane.) We were wearing jungle fatigues, so getting off for refuelling at Anchorage with snow on the ground was bizarre (and freezing). Also, we started with young air hostesses, who switched for an older set at Anchorage, to be replaced by the flying grannies when we set down at Okinawa. Then it was on to Bien Hua, just outside of Saigon. After landing, we were piled into Army buses to go to the replacement depot. As we were driven there, we passed gorgeous young Vietnamese women in ao dais, with their long hair cut straight across at almost waist length. Suddenly, we perked up. One GI said what we were thinking, "Maybe this isn't such a bad place after all!"

 

Hadn't thought of that in years. I spent only one night at Bien Hua, since it turned out combat engineers were in short supply. I got called out of formation the next day to go to an engineer battalion in the Central Highlands, while a couple of guys turned a bit green when they were assigned to a light infantry division in the Mekong Delta. I still wonder why the Army didn't train enough 12 Bravos. We were cross trained as 11 Bravos (infantry), so we could do either. But the infantry were not trained as engineers, and we usually ended up with about 20% my battalion being OJT (infantry "on the job training"). The grunts were fine on a mine sweep or recon, but weren't worth a damn when a bridge got blown and we had to put it back up.

 

Another world and another century ...

 

[gobbledonk]

Flasher, in the Oz army Engineers were always informally referred to as 'grunts with a shovel', and I dont recall a single one of them ever objecting to the tag. I just remember them being fit little buggers - makes sense, given the work they had to do. Cant say I envy you, but at least you have genuine war stories - I doubt that the same can be said for even half the 'special forces' wannabes propped at bars all over Bangkok on any given night

 

 

I was very lucky during my brief time in the Green Machine - they realised that real work was best done by the folk with less delicate hands and put me in an office surrounded by Captains and Majors. Cheap booze and a culture that felt like you were in a locker room 24/7, but nothing in civilian life (before or since) has had the same intensity.

[Flashermac]

I referred to myself as a grunt with a shovel. Didn't realise it was used in Oz too.

 

We did get the Valorous Unit citation, equal to every man earning a Silver Star, plus the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry.

 

I had a good buddy, now sadly deceased, who was Army Special Forces. His SF team for some time worked with the Australian SAS. He loved his time with the Aussies. They taught him to appreciate vindaloo, and I remember him making it many times. We had nothing but respect for our Oz comrades.

 

Don't know who the fark this young guy is.

 

 

[gobbledonk]

Ironically, Infantry was always placed head and shoulders above the other 'front line' Corps in the Australian Army, right up to the top job as Chief of Army, despite (or because of) the fairly miserable lot of the average infantry soldier in the field. When I left, grunts were the only soldiers eligible for the Combat badge:

 

http://www.army.gov.au/Army-life/Honours-and-Awards/Infantry-Combat-Badge

 

It would seem that there is another badge for non-Infantry soldiers:

 

http://www.army.gov.au/Army-life/Honours-and-Awards/Army-Combat-Badge

 

AFAIK, only one Australian Infantry Battalion was awarded a Presidential Citation in Vietnam - 6RAR. Generally speaking, even after Iraq and Afghanistan, you wont see a lot of 'fruit salad' on the front of a serving Australian soldier's dress uniform : stark contrast to the Thais and Filipinos who seem to give themselves a new ribbon for every successful tent-pitching exercise ....

 

How many border clashes do you reckon this lot have fought in ? That's a lot of ribbons for a military that hasnt had a fullscale engagement in how long ?

 

[Flashermac]

In my time there was only the Combat Infantryman's Badge and the seldom seen Combat Medical Badge. As combat engineers, we were ineligible. Our colonel put us in for the CIB, since we were acting as infantry - and in fact the U.S. infantry had withdrawn from northern Kontum province and left us behind to support the 42d ARVN Infantry. The Army flat refused to let us receive it, saying we were not infantry. The colonel replied, "Then stop using us as infantry!" The gunners at the 155mm battery at our fire base also got nothing to show they'd been in combat, even though they had quite a number killed or wounded. (They exchanged direct fire with the NVA artillery several times, knocking out commie guns and losing a couple of their own.)

 

Nowadays, there is a Combat Action Badge awarded to soldiers in any MOS (military occupation specialty). It was designed in part to correct the unfairness of ignoring combat vets other than infantry. So what did the SOBs do? They made it non-retroactive prior to 2001! Fucked us again, they did. (Not that it matters, other than being an insult to the combat vets of Korea and Vietnam.)

 

The US military today hands out ribbons and medals for everything, including training. I saw folks come back from Desert Storm in 1991 with 3 rows of ribbons on their chest - even though they had never fired a weapon and maybe weren't even issued ammunition. The average VN vet came home with 4 medals, 2 of those just for being there (1 US and 1 SVN).

 

As to the Thais, they get a ribbon for donating blood (that white one with the red cross), plus lower royal decorations that come along automatically with years of service. You can bet the folks in that photo are only wearing their highest ribbons and leave off the ordinary one. Thai civil servants get them too, and my Mrs has a chest full. Look at Yingluck in a civil service uniform some time - and what did she do until 2 years ago except worki in her family's business?

 

.

[huumlaar]

Great photo of you Flash!

[Flashermac]

Surprised you could recognise me.

 

But thank you, sir. I was a bit thinner in those days.

[huumlaar]

Actually you don't look that different,

 

For others reading this Flash is the guy in the white suit, far right, with the bad wig.

 

 

Gobble is the one wearing pink and looking dam good!

 

Was that a episode of Star Trek?