RSL FOREST LAKE & DISTRICTS SUB BRANCH Inc P.O. Box 4173 Forest Lake QLD 4078 REVEILLEIssue 8/2021 AUG 2021 BOARD & EXECUTIVE NEXT GENERAL MEETING PRESIDENT & GRANTS OFFICER: th Steve Ford: Ph 0403 346 991 17 AUGUST 2021 SECRETARY: At our new building, Wacol Barracks Sharron Ford Ph 0413 847 939 907 – 971 Boundary Rd, Wacol [email protected] TREASURER: COMMENCING AT 7.15 PM sharp Brian Roche Ph 0414 708 034 Please note the entrance to the SED DELEGATE: Barracks location on page 2. George Churchward Ph 0414 406 585 PLEASE REMEMBER to sign IN the VICE PRESIDENT: Attendance Book which will be on the Chris Gunner Ph 0477 641 299 left inside the front door ASSISTANT SECRETARY IF YOU REQUIRE A LIFT OR TO BE Linda Slaughter Ph 0439 750 797 COLLECTED BY THE RSL BUS, MEMBERSHIP & PROPERTY: Contact Andrew Reggett on 0430 207 671 Kevin Dinsdale Ph 0488 220 002 SOCIAL EVENTS & BUS TRIPS: Position Vacant COMMEMORATIVE CHAIRPERSON: Dan Baldwin Ph 0407 377 510 NEWSLETTER: Greg Amey Ph 0416 255 349 [email protected] Digger at Nui Dat, South Vietnam 1968 2 2 FROM THE PRESIDENT AUGUST 2021 Welcome back to the world without lockdowns. Hope you are all safe and managed to get through the last few weeks. We have a busy couple of weeks at the Sub Branch coming up. Remember if you need any assistance or just need to chat, we are there to help. VIETNAM VETERANS DAY – Tuesday 17th August - Service starting at the Chapel from 5pm followed by light supper in our Clubhouse, then the General Meeting. We expect quite a few VIP’s at this service, so please let us know if you are coming to support this special commemoration. We brought forward this special event to coincide with our meeting night. RSL TIES AND SCARVES – these have arrived and will be distributed at the general meeting on Tuesday night. If you requested these please see the Secretary to collect on the night. These are available to all members. General meeting 17th August 2021 – following our Vietnams Veterans Event (no later than 7:15pm start) We will be unveiling the Artwork donated by Julie Miller at 7:00pm just before we start the meeting. Hope to see a good turn up to show our support. UPCOMING EVENTS August 17th - Vietnam Veterans Service 5pm start – Chapel (as above) August 19th - Cyril Kretschmann’s 100th birthday Monday August 30th - COFFEE CLUB at the Clubhouse - 10:00am – 12:00noon Stay safe everyone, Steve Ford, PRESIDENT 3 3 S.E.D. DELEGATE'S REPORT There will be an address by the Delegate George at the General Meeting due to no organised S.E.D. Meeting this month due to the COVID lockdown that was in place. Till my next report = Keep well & cheers to All George Churchward Gunney say's HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NOW ENJOY YOUR CAKE BIRTHDAY'S FAY TRAVERS AUG 28 CYRIL KRETSCHMANN AUG 19 JENNIFER DALEY AUG 29 BRIAN ROBERTSON AUG 21 VICTOR JONES AUG 30 GREG GRANDEMANGE AUG 22 ROWAN MARGARET SEP 4 KEVIN DINSDALE AUG 23 ALAIN POTIER SEP 7 PAUL MULCAHY AUG 25 WILLIAM MacLAUCHLAN SEP 10 RAYMOND ROSS AUG 26 HEWITSON RICHARD SEP 14 KEVIN SHERRY AUG 26 SLAUGHTER TREVOR SEP 19 BEVERLEY HEWITSEN AUG 27 JACQUELINE HICKS SEP 21 4 4 Military history of Australia during the Vietnam War Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War began with a small commitment of 30 military advisors in 1962, and increased over the following decade to a peak of 7,672 Australian personnel following the Menzies Government's April 1965 decision to upgrade its military commitment to South Vietnam's security. By the time the last Australian personnel were withdrawn in 1972, the Vietnam War had become Australia's longest war, eventually being surpassed by Australia's long-term commitment to the War in Afghanistan. It remains Australia's largest force contribution to a foreign conflict since the Second World War, and was also the most controversial military action in Australia since the conscription controversy during World War I. Although initially enjoying broad support due to concerns about the spread of communism in Southeast Asia, an increasingly influential anti-war movement developed, particularly in response to the government's imposition of conscription. The withdrawal of Australia's forces from South Vietnam began in November 1970, under the Gorton Government, when 8 RAR completed its tour of duty and was not replaced. A phased withdrawal followed and, by 11 January 1973, Australian involvement in hostilities in Vietnam had ceased. Nevertheless, Australian troops from the Australian Embassy Platoon remained deployed in the country until 1 July 1973, and Australian forces were deployed briefly in April 1975, during the fall of Saigon, to evacuate personnel from the Australian embassy. Approximately 60,000 Australians served in the war: 521 were killed and more than 3,000 were wounded. Australian advisors, 1962–1965 While assisting the British during the Malayan Emergency, Australian and New Zealand military forces had gained considerable experience in jungle warfare and counter-insurgency. According to historian Paul Ham, the US Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, "freely admitted to the ANZUS meeting in Canberra in May 1962, that the US armed forces knew little about jungle warfare". Given the experience that Australian forces had gained in Malaya, it was felt that Australia could contribute in Vietnam by providing advisors who were experts in the tactics of jungle warfare. The Australian government's initial response was to send 30 military advisers, dispatched as the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV), also known as "the Team". The Australian military assistance was to be in jungle warfare training, and the Team comprised highly qualified and experienced officers and NCOs, led by Colonel Ted Serong, many with previous experience from the Malayan Emergency. Their arrival in South Vietnam, during July and August 1962, was the beginning of Australia's involvement in the war in Vietnam. Relationships between the AATTV and US advisors were generally very cordial, but there were sometimes significant differences of opinion on training and tactics. For example, when Serong expressed doubt about the value of the Strategic Hamlet Program at a US Counter Insurgency Group meeting in Washington on 23 May 1963, he drew a "violent challenge" from US Marine General Victor "Brute" Krulak. Captain Barry Petersen's work with raising an anti- communist Montagnard force in the central highlands between 1963 and 1965 highlighted another problem. South Vietnamese officials sometimes found sustained success by a foreigner difficult to accept. Warrant Officer Class Two Kevin Conway, of the AATTV, was killed on 6 July 1964, side by side with Master Sergeant Gabriel Alamo of the USSF, during a sustained Viet Cong attack on Nam Dong Special Forces Camp, becoming Australia's first battle casualty. Increased Australian commitment, 1965–1970 In August 1964 the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) sent a flight of Caribou transports to the port town of Vũng Tàu. By the end of 1964, there were almost 200 Australian military personnel in the Republic of Vietnam, including an engineer and surgical team as well as a larger AATTV team. To boost the size of the Army by providing a greater pool for infantrymen, the Australian Government had introduced conscription for compulsory military service for 20-year- olds, in November 1964, despite opposition from within the Army and many sections of the broader community. Thereafter, battalions serving with 1 ATF all contained National Servicemen. With the war escalating the AATTV increased to approximately 100 men by December. On 29 April 1965, Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies announced that the government had received a request for further military assistance from South Vietnam. "We have decided...in close consultation with the Government of the United States—to provide an infantry battalion for service in Vietnam." He argued that a communist victory in South Vietnam would be a direct military threat to Australia. "It must be seen as part of a thrust by Communist China between the Indian and Pacific Oceans" he added. The question of whether a formal request was made by the South Vietnamese government at that time has been disputed. Although the South Vietnamese Prime Minister, Trần Văn Hương, made a request in December 1964, Hương's replacement, Phan Huy Quát, had to be "coerced into accepting an Australian battalion", and stopped short of formally requesting the commitment in writing, simply sending an acceptance of the offer to Canberra, the day before Menzies announced it to the Australian parliament. In that regard, it has been argued that the decision was made by the Australian government, against advice of the Department of Defence,[27] to coincide with the commitment of US combat troops earlier in the year, and that the decision would have been made regardless of the wishes of the South Vietnamese government. 5 Continued from previous page... 5 As a result of the announcement, the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (1 RAR) was deployed. Advanced elements of the battalion departed Australia on 27 May 1965. Accompanied by a troop of armoured personnel carriers from the 4th/19th Prince of Wales's Light Horse, as well as logistics personnel, they embarked upon HMAS Sydney and, following their arrival in Vietnam in June, they were attached to the US 173rd Airborne Brigade, along with a New Zealand artillery battery. Throughout 1965, they undertook several operations in Biên Hòa Province and subsequently fought significant actions, including Gang Toi, Operation Crimp and Suoi Bong Trang. Meanwhile, 1 RAR's attachment to US forces had highlighted the differences between Australian and American operational methods, and Australian and US military leaders subsequently agreed that Australian combat forces should be deployed in a discrete province.