PONY SOLDIERS WITH THE AUSTRALIAN LIGHT HORSE IN VIETNAM 1965-66

By Neville Modystack.
Continued ...

Some aspects of operations reminded us of WW2. Gillam again, “We were going down on one operation by road in the carriers, and Lee (Townsend) was operating as liaison with the Kiwi artillery. We were driving along, and there was a contact happening just in front of us. We came across this bloody Kiwi Land Rover and it had hit a mine and was blown to the shit-house and some Kiwis had got killed in it and I thought, 'shit, Lee was with the Kiwis' and I was panicking all day till I found he was all right. I thought he might have been blown up in the Kiwi Land Rover. Three Kiwis were killed in it.”

On the same occasion, Nev Modystack recalls, “It was like a WW2 movie for a while. A long line of US Para- troopers complete with slung rifles and cam helmets slogging along with our carriers interspersed with them. Then the contact Roy talks about with the three bodies laid on the road verge with a ground sheet over them. I could tell they were Kiwis by the boots.”

Roy Gillam finishes, “There were a lot of VC bodies around and there was tear gas floating across the road there were choppers flying and rockets. It was like a scene from 'Apocalypse Now'!”
(Footnote: We were both wrong. There were only two men killed.)

The relationship between driver and crew commander, of necessity, must be a co-operative one. Lee Townsend recalls, “Half the time I didn't see 'em . The driver did 'cause he could see under the branches and you couldn't. We were in the Rice Bowl doing an op we were in a village, stationary, and there was a big fog, and it ceased about six feet above the ground, and bloody Allan (his driver) saying to me “Charlie running across the road 50 metres to our left”- I just turned and opened up with the machine-gun and Allan said “Keep going you're right behind them” but they'd gone.”

Allan laughed and I asked 'What are you laughing at.' He said “It's just like you see in the movies, the MG (bullets) skipping up the road behind them.” We didn't hit 'em.

He continues, “We got mortared near a village one night. There was three mortars came in from the village and I found out that afternoon, that is after we had been mortared, that the preceding afternoon some viets had been seen on the town wall taking compass bearings.

The three mortars had come in right behind the carrier because me and Allan heard the 'whoomp' (of the primaries) and you say 'oh oh; incoming', so straight away we knew what it was! We had the back door open with the ramp up and the (cargo) hatch open. We closed the back door and as soon as we did, crunch! - another bastard, and I thought, “I hope the next one won't be a direct hit through the bloody hatch!” We closed the hatch; soon after that another hit. Then there was a knock on the back door, knock, knock , knock and someone saying, 'let us in', so we let about five infantry in, saying they hadn't dug a fox hole!”

There is a footnote to this. Some years later, as a Police Inspector in Geraldton, W. A., Lee met some Viet Vets and one of them turned out to be one of the refuge seekers!

The Big Red 1 comes to town

As has been noted before, one of the Troop's tasks was convoy protection. In March 19 66 we were told that the US First Division would be moving to its bases at Tri Tam and Lai Khe, and we were to provide part of the route protection along Route 13. We went, starting at sparrow fart and duly cleared our stretch of road and waited for them to arrive. We didn't have to wait long.

They came and came and came. A seemingly endless procession of vehicles of all types, especially the ubiquitous 'deuce-and-a-half' (the excellent two and a half ton diesel truck) crowded with American soldiers.

Lex McAulay recalls, “Another unit of the US 1st Infantry Division came along the road this morning. Vehicles! Never seen so many - literally hundreds. Helmeted US heads and M14 rifles poking over the sides - big grins when they saw us.”

As seemed to happen frequently with us, we were told to ''back off a couple hundred yards” for an activity, and we moved away from the road side. We were situated on the top of a long sloping rise and shortly after moving, we heard the roar of aircraft engines from the direction of the base of the slope. The aircraft couldn't be seen though the engine noise became increasingly louder. Then, like a jack-in-the-box, a Caribou lifted itself into view, flying literally only metres above the deck. Its ramp was down, and moments after coming into view a parachute popped out of it, quickly developed its canopy and dragged out a stores pallet; the Caribou powered up, and left the scene.

A waiting group of 1Div soldiers quickly dissolved the pallet, stacked the stores onto waiting vehicles and buzzed off. All this bemused us; we Cav types simply had no experience of this sort back in Oz.

Continued next week.