FSB Andersen, 40 Years On.

Here we are again, right smack in the middle of 40th anniversary season. Today it is 40 years since the battle at Fire Support Andersen, when my battalion became the first Australian unit to come under mortar, rocket and ground assault at a fire support base in the Vietnam War.

You can read my account of my experiences at Andersen in Benny's Story. Although ostensibly a work of fiction, the action at Andersen in that story is exactly as I remember it.

The ground assault that night came directly in front of my platoon, Anti-Tank, and our neighbours, the Assault Pioneer platoon on our left and some American units on our right. Although it was dark, we had a clear view of the VC who were attacking Andersen, and we must have fired thousands of rounds at them. What is more, we were certain that we hit some and saw them fall.

The clearing patrol in the morning found no bodies. There were only drag marks, blood trails and bits of discarded equipment. As a result, certain of our colleagues gave the Anti-Tank and Pioneer platoons the nickname "shadow shooters." Given that there were four VC bodies inside and on the wire in front of the Americans, and given that I am absolutely certain that we hit some of our attackers, I would not even mention that unkind sobriquet, were it not for the unfortunate consequences that occurred a few weeks later. There is a direct link between being called shadow shooters and the incident on the beach that is described in the second part of Benny's Story.

I will say more on that subject when its 40th anniversary comes along in April.

Significant Passing number two

In a previous posting I mentioned that I had seen two names of significance to me in the Last Post section of the VVFA journal.

The second name was Morrie Callaghan, who served in Vietnam with 161 Squadron, the Army Aviation unit, and died recently.

Morrie was one of my roommates at Kapooka, where I did my basic training in 1966. There were four recruits to a room, and my other roommates were Ray Todd and Terry O'Farrell.

Terry O'Farrell and I met at the recruiting centre in Sydney and took the oath together. We went through Kapooka and infantry training at Ingleburn together, and Terry went on to join the SAS. He has recently retired after a distinguished career in SAS, and has written his autobiography, entitled Behind Enemy Lines. There is even a picture of Terry and me at Kapooka in the book.

Ray Todd went through Kapooka and Ingleburn with Terry and me, and was posted to 8RAR with me. We were in the same platoon in 8RAR, and in 1967 we were transferred to 3RAR together, and both served in Vietnam with that battalion.

Unfortunately, after Kapooka I never saw Morrie again. That doesn't mean that I ever forgot him. That foursome at Kapooka was a happy little band of brothers, and I couldn't have gone through basic training with a better group of roommates.

The Power of a Symbolic Gesture

In 1986, I was one of six Aussies who returned to Australia completely overwhelmed by the experience of marching in the Chicago Vietnam Veterans Welcome Home Parade.

Although we were all broke and not in the best of health, we decided that somehow we would organize a Welcome Home Parade in Sydney, so that all Australian Vietnam veterans could feel the way we had felt in Chicago.

When we started knocking on doors looking for support, we encountered quite a bit of resistance. The most commonly heard objection was that this would be merely a symbolic gesture.

In spite of the objections, we persisted. We were particularly encouraged by support from outside of the veteran community, from ordinary Australians who wanted to see us have our Welcome Home Parade.

Our persistence paid off, the Welcome Home Parade in 1987 was a massive success, and thousands of lives were changed for the better.

Why do I mention this now? Because this week Australia's new Prime Minister will issue an apology to those indigenous Australians who were taken from their families as a result of the policies of past governments: the so-called "Stolen Generations."

Once again I hear objections on the grounds that this is merely a symbolic gesture. Well, if there is one lesson that can be learned from the experience of the Australian Vietnam Forces Welcome Home Parade of 1987, it is that nobody should ever underestimate the power of a symbolic gesture to change lives.

Significant Passing, number one.

The Vietnam Veterans Federation of Australia has a quarterly journal, which includes a feature entitled "Last Post." It is a listing of veterans who have died recently. In the last couple of journals, two entries in the Last Post caught my eye. I will put them in separate postings, beacuse I have vastly different feelings about them: one entirely negative, the other entirely positive.

The first entry was W. Gutjar, SVN 1967-68, 3RAR/ARU/HQ AFV.

Willie Gutjar was the storeman in the Anti-Tank Platoon, 3RAR. I shared a tent with him for the first four months of 1968. Most tents accommodated four soldiers, but ours had only Willie and me. I can't say I particularly enjoyed sharing a tent with Willie. Anti-Tank spent all of its time either out on operations or in constant TAOR patrols. Willie loved the fact that, as storeman, he didn't have to go out with the platoon. When we came back from an operation or a tough patrol, he would brag about the easy time he was having, or the great time he would have making frequent trips to the PX or to the provincial capital, Baria, places the rest of us never got to go.

Towards the end of Operation Pinnaroo, in the Long Hai Hills, Gary "Polly" Polglase, a dog handler in the tracker team (part of Anti-Tank) returned to Nui Dat because his dog was ill. That night, while the rest of us were still out in the Long Hais, Polly sat on my bed, in my tent, chatting to Willie Gutjar. Willie had just returned from Baria, where he had bought a pistol on the black market. Polly was killed by a bullet through his right temple. Every member of Anti-Tank Platoon believes that, one way or another, Willie Gutjar killed him. Most likely by the kind of stupid accident we all knew Willie was capable of causing.

Willie Gutjar disappeared from 3RAR. Until I saw the notice of his death in the Last Post, I had no idea where he went.

The circumstances of Polly's death are the subject of a short story I wrote some time ago. I made it a work of fiction, changing Polly's name to Benny, and called it Benny's Story. Although I call it fiction, most of the story is factual, at least as I remember it.

Of course, Polly's death also inspired my poem He Was A Mate, which has been studied by students at schools and universities around the world since its inclusion on a British website as one of the 120 war poems of the last century.

I have no idea what kind of a life Willie Gutjar had after 1968. I hope it was a good one, so that his passing was as significant to someone in the world as Polly's was to everybody who knew him.

I'm Back!

I've decided to reopen this blog, even though my opportunities to post will be limited.

I'm well into what I call my "40th Anniversary Season", and it's been frustrating not being able to comment on the blog. Already I've had the 40th anniversary of my departure to Vietnam, the 40th anniversary of my arrival in Vietnam on the 27th of December, and, just a couple of days ago, the 40th anniversary of the start of the Tet Offensive. Soon it will be the 40th anniversary of the battle in Long Dien, then the 40th anniversary of the battle at FSB Andersen, then the 40th anniversary of Operation Pinnaroo, and on it goes.

On my website last year, I started writing about my memories of Vietnam. I didn't get far at that time, maybe the anniversary season will motivate me to write more this year. You can find my reminiscences of the early days, including Tet, at this link.

This year my battalion, 3RAR, will be holding a 40th anniversary reunion here in Canberra in May, to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the battle at FSBs Coral and Balmoral.

Anybody who doesn't already know about this event and would like to know more, please leave a comment on this blog with your email address and I'll send you the contact details for someone who can send you information.

I'd better not overdo it on my first blog entry for more than six months, but I hope to be able to return to the blogosphere in a day or two.