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Queen's & Regimental
Colours & Medals, 4RAR |
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Webmasters note. These
are the Queen's and Regimental Colours of the Battalion at that time.
For more details of "The Colours"  |
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| The
Vietnam Medal (Australian issue) and the Vietnamese Campaign medal
(issued by the Republic of South Vietnam but officially approved for
wear by Australian veterans). |
| Webmasters
note: These are the Campaign
medals issued at the time. They are the only ones to appear in the
original book. Since then various Governments have seen fit to award
other medals including the Australian Active Service Medal 1945/75 with
Vietnam clasp (see below). |
| Webmasters addition.
Established
in December 1997
to recognise the service of veterans who served in the Korean War, the
Malayan Emergency, the Indonesian Confrontation and the Vietnam War.
Those veterans who received, or have
an entitlement to the Korean Medal, a General Service Medal for service
in the Malayan Emergency 1948-60 or the Indonesian Confrontation
1962-66, are eligible for this Australian Active Service Medal
1945-1975.
Award of the Medal was extended to
those personnel who have received the Vietnam Medal and for some
categories who have received the Vietnam Logistic and Support Medal.
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BATTALION HISTORY
BETWEEN TOURS |
| 31 May |
1969 |
Main body disembarked in Brisbane |
| 19 July |
1969 |
Battalion returned from leave |
| 24 September-18
October |
1969 |
Support battalion for Exercise "STRAIGHT KRIS" at Shoalwater Bay |
| 1 October |
1969 |
Lt-Colonel L. R. Greville, DSO, handed over command to
Lt-Colonel J. C. Hughes, MC |
| 2 December |
1969 |
Battalion moved to Lavarack Barracks, Townsville |
| 2 December
1969-31 January |
1970 |
Annual leave period: Support battalion for Exercise "SECOND STAB" |
| 5 October-12 December |
1970 |
Training at Jungle Training Centre, Canungra |
| 12 December 1970
-10 January |
1971 |
Annual leave period |
| 25 January
1971- 29 January |
1971 |
Exercise "GRANITE VALE" |
| 17 February
- 26 February |
1971 |
Exercise "THIRD STAB" |
| 15 March
1971-24 March |
1971 |
Exercise "MONARO
MALL" |
| 2 April
1971- 8 April |
1971 |
Pre-embarkation leave |
| 1 May |
1971 |
Advance party emplaned Townsville and disembarked South Vietnam |
| 13 May |
1971 |
Main body embarked Townsville |
| 23 May |
1971 |
Main body disembarked South Vietnam |
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INTRODUCTION |
| For 4 RAR/NZ, this final tour gave us the honour of being the last ANZAC Battalion to serve in South Vietnam. As the last battalion, we were caught up in all the strange circumstances of the withdrawal, none of them being foreseeable as we sailed to South Vietnam.
During the voyage, the infantrymen, one hundred and forty-one of them, who had previously seen service in South Vietnam, trained on the flight deck of the carrier, keeping in top condition, while the Kiwi's -one hundred and sixty-three-had already joined the advance party at Nui Dat in early May, having come from Singapore.
For the ANZAC Battalion, this was to be an historic tour in more ways than one. In the
Sergeant's Mess were twenty-four NCO's who had joined 4 RAR on the founding day,
1 February, 1964 at Woodside, South Australia. Nearly fifty soldiers were on their third consecutive operational tour with 4 RAR and another nine commenced their third tour of South Vietnam.
However ... as the latest team, we flew into Nui Dat becoming a part of
1st Australian Task Force and after a week of settling in and "In theatre training", moved to the bush for the remaining seven and a half months that we served in country. This meant the soldiers spent their tour entirely on
operations - always in the gloom of the monsoon season - and always on the move after their targets, the 274 VC Main Force Regiment and the 33rd North Vietnamese Army Regiment.
Back and forth in the jungle and rubber plantations went the soldiers of the ANZAC Battalion tracking, ambushing and attacking the enemy main bunker
positions - nine operations in all. |
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