Chapter 41: Christmas in the Nui Dinh Mountains
We seemed to be in choppers every week now – and I never lost the thrill of riding in them
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Ian Cavanough
Chapter 40: The Rung Sat
“What the hell is the Rung Sat?” I hear you ask. Well it is a mangrove swamp, known as ‘The
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Chapter 39: We work with the SAS
Gee I am really enjoying being the platoon sig as I am now privy to all the things that are
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Chapter 38: How I Became a Pogo
Five months into our tour and we are advised to start thinking about when to take R&R. R&R is a
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Chapter 37: Nui Dat – “The Dat”
Nui Dat is where the fighting arms of the Australian Army were located to carry out combat duties in Phuoc
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Chapter 36: Vung Tau – Rest in Country and the Bar Girls!
Vung Tau is a rather large town on the coast about an hour’s truck ride south from Nui Dat on
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Chapter 35: Nigel and the Nui Thi Vai
The Nui Thi Vai are a mountain range just north of the Nui Dinh Mountains. The intelligent blokes in the
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Chapter 34: Moon arrives
Moon arrived on 1 Sep 1970. There were no speeches, no fanfare. Moon simply arrived. He came from a posting
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Chapter 33: LCTs and my near death experience
“Shit it’s wet! The rainy season has really settled in and Alpha Company is moving on a rotational basis between
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Chapter 32: The Barry and Davo Show
You know the digger’s lament don’t you? “Why the fuck do we get all the shit jobs?” I’ve written a
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Chapter 31: The new OC
I think it is fair to say that we were stunned to lose both platoon commanders. I don‘t want to
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Ian Cavanough has published his book
For more than a year, CONTACT has been publishing a series of stories by Vietnam Veteran Ian Cavanough – and
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Chapter 30b: Casualties
Soon it was our turn to defend the NDP (Night Defensive Position). We patrolled back to the NDP to relieve
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Chapter 30: Land Clearing Teams
“When do we get a ride in the choppers like everyone else?” “Sheesh, are the bastards trying to save money?”
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Chapter 29: More of the same
After a few more days they pulled us out of the Nui Dinh Mountains, pulled is probably not the right
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Chapter 28: Our First Operation
I’m going to pause for a minute or two and become an armchair general and give youse blokes a bit
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Chapter 27: Being Edjumicated
Beer is 20 cents a can at our boozer. Two cans per man per day, perhaps. We are taking a
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CHAPTER 26: 364 and Awakie – and Some Other Shit
At about 2am, Alpha Company lifted off in a Qantas jet bound for Saigon. We seemed to be taxi-ing for
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CHAPTER 25: Goodbye Townsville
Lots of things happened in our last week at Townsville. The girls from the Hong Kong Restaurant wore their uniforms,
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CHAPTER 24: The Final Exercise
LOOK OUT VC – HERE WE COME! They have big ants in Queensland, some are an inch long and they
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