A Vietnam War Christmas

This collection of images shows Australian soldiers celebrating Christmas in Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s.

Australia committed approximately 61 000 troops to the Vietnam War between 1962 and 1972 (and again occasionally until 1975), including many thousands of conscripts.

All the photographs are from the collection of the Australian War Memorial, Canberra.

December 1971. South Vietnam.

Private David McColl of Canberra, hanging puddings to mature before Christmas.

December 1967. Nui Dat, Vietnam.

Newly arrived members of 3rd Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (3RAR), preparing their base camp for the Christmas season.

November 1970. Nui Dat, South Vietnam.

Corporal Arthur Wallis, 21, sharpening a knife in preparation for carving the three prime hams he has prepared for Christmas.

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Danger Close

I had the opportunity to attend a special screening of Danger Close – The Battle of Long Tan last night with some Vietnam veterans (including my father) and other members of the Australian Defence Force. They actually had a counsellor there just in case, and now I understand why – it was quite the experience.

Long Tan is the best-known battle Australia (and New Zealand) fought in the Vietnam War, but I was still amazed both by the quality of the movie, and the actors in it. The “face” of the movie is Major Harry Smith, played by Travis Fimmel, of Vikings fame.

In the 1960s my father was an armoured personnel carrier driver stationed in Nui Dat, which is the base under attack in the movie. He later fought another major battle only a few kilometres from the base: Binh Ba, which had its fiftieth anniversary this year.

It was amazing to see people my father knows portrayed on the big screen, and to know people who consulted on the film.

I would strongly recommend this movie, as long as you’re prepared for it. It’s very confronting, and that much sadder because none of it is fiction.

Hey – Australians!

Everyone in Australia: at 2pm tomorrow the 50th anniversary commemorations for the Battle of Binh Ba – a major battle in the Vietnam War – are going to be broadcast live on television from Canberra, and then repeated the day after.

My father has played a huge part in organising this event, and hundreds of soldiers, past and present, are flying in to participate. My parents are in the official party, and will be obvious on TV, and I’ll be sitting… somewhere…! We’ve all been too busy to finalise this.

Afterwards, there’s a function at the Australian War Memorial, and then there’s a huge dinner tomorrow night, and I’ll be staying at the hotel in the city, because there’s just so much going on!

Vietnam Veterans Day

Today is Vietnam Veterans Day in Australia. Over sixty-thousand Australians served in Vietnam between 1962 and 1972. Here is the Federation Guard marching in Canberra during the Battle of Binh Ba anniversary service in 2009 (you can find it on other sites these days, but it’s actually my mother’s photo).

Binh Ba was one of Australia’s major victories in the war, and it was one of the last operations my father was part of before returning home.

On this day…

Today is the 48th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Binh Ba. It was one of Australia’s most significant battles of the Vietnam War.

On this day: the US Embassy Bombing

On the 30th of March, 1965 the United States embassy in Saigon, Vietnam was bombed by the Viet Cong. The attack killed twenty-two people and injured 183 others.

The vehicle containing the bomb held 300 pounds of plastic explosives. Even though it was suggested, US President Lyndon B. Johnson refused to authorise retaliatory raids on North Vietnam.

Anzac Day – Vietnam War

Because Anzac Day is such a big deal this year, here are some of my father’s pictures from the Vietnam War (he’s the one with black hair). Australian Army, 1968-69.

On this day: The Mỹ Lai Massacre

Apparently taken moments before they were killed.

I’m not even going to try and summarise this one. Below is a little bit from an article about it:

The Mỹ Lai Massacre was the Vietnam War mass killing of between 347 and 504 unarmed civilians in South Vietnam on March 16, 1968. It was committed by U.S. Army soldiers from the Company C of the 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 11th Brigade of the 23rd (America) Infantry Division.

 

Women and children killed.

Victims included men, women, children, and infants. Some of the women were gang-raped and their bodies mutilated.

One soldier shot himself in the foot; another sets a building on fire.

Twenty-six soldiers were charged with criminal offences, but only Lieutenant William Calley Jr., a platoon leader in C Company, was convicted.

Found guilty of killing 22 villagers, he was originally given a life sentence, but served only three and a half years under house arrest.

 

Anzac Day: the Battle of Binh Ba

It’s Anzac Day in Australia. So here’s a video from the Battle of Binh Ba in the Vietnam War. My father fought in this battle. He is driving an armoured personnel carrier.