Our Journey

Three DHC-4 Caribou Mk 1 transports arrived at Vung Tau, a coastal city 60 kilometres south-east of the South Vietnamese capital, Saigon, marking the start of an Air Force presence during the Vietnam War which would last until February 1972. The aircraft were on their delivery flight from Canada when they were diverted at Butterworth, Malaysia, to equip RAAF Transport Flight Vietnam, a new unit brought into existence at Butterworth on 20 July.

The main party of Base Support Flight departed from Sydney and proceeded to Saigon via Manila, to provide the domestic services (barracks, catering, motor transport, etc) and personnel administrative functions required by the growing Air Force contingent in South Vietnam. Until this point, the RAAF presence at Vung Tau had comprised a single flight of Caribou transports, but the arrival of a second flying squadron - No 9 Squadron operating Iroquois helicopters - meant that the level of support provided needed to be upgraded.

Australian infantry heavily engaged in the Long Tan rubber plantation near the Australian base at Nui Dat, South Vietnam were faced with vastly superior numbers of enemy forces. Running critically short of ammunition, a call for resupply was made. Two Air Force UH-1B Iroquois helicopters, captained by Flight Lieutenants Frank Riley and Cliff Dohle, took off in torrential rain and failing light and flew to the location at tree top height. Arriving overhead at about 6 pm, the aircraft hovered at 30 (9 metres) feet while crews dropped boxes of ammunition wrapped in blankets through the trees directly into the company positions below. After the enemy withdrew the squadron's helicopters returned to assist with evacuating the wounded to hospital.

A new E-model Hercules transport from No 37 Squadron took off from Vung Tau, South Vietnam, to carry out the first medical evacuation flight direct to Australia. For this first flight, the crew, led by Squadron Leader R.E. Bateson, carried 51 cases over the 7165-kilometre distance from Vung Tau to Richmond, non-stop, in 14 hours and ten minutes. Previously the A-model Hercules performed this work as part of normal courier flights, usually routed through the RAAF Base at Butterworth, Malaysia, where patients were stabilised at No 4 RAAF Hospital before onward movement.

When an American gunship helicopter crashed into dense jungle inside enemy-held territory eight kilometres from the Australian Task Force base at Nui Dat, Corporal John Coughlan, a crewman with No 9 Squadron in Vietnam, volunteered to be winched down to provide assistance to the badly injured crew. The downed aircraft was burning fiercely, its ammunition and rockets exploding dangerously, and he was frequently forced to take cover from shrapnel. Three months later he performed a similar feat in aid of another downed US helicopter. On 17 June 1968 Coughlan was awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal, the highest flying award for non-commissioned ranks (other than the Victoria Cross). He was the first RAAF member awarded the CGM since World War II and only the tenth to receive the medal since it was instituted in 1943.

At about 0230 hours, an eight-man section of RAAF Airfield Defence Guards on listening patrol outside the US airbase at Phan Rang, South Vietnam, fought an enemy party of unknown size. In two earlier incidents that night, pairs of enemy were repelled as they attempted to penetrate the base’s perimeter. As a result, Corporal Noel Power shifted his section’s position to cover two canal crossings most likely to be used by withdrawing intruders. Moments later the patrol exchanged fire with an unseen enemy in an action lasting five minutes. After contact was broken, Power conducted several sweeps of the area without locating anything. During a further search at dawn, however, his men found a wounded enemy from whom it was learnt that a raid by North Vietnamese sappers had been foiled. Power received the first Military Medal awarded to a RAAF member since World War II.

At about 2.45 pm, Canberra bomber A84-228 belonging to the RAAF’s No 2 Squadron was preparing to bomb a target 80 kilometres west of Hue, South Vietnam, when it was struck by two surface-to-air missiles (SAMs). Although the aircraft, crewed by Wing Commander John Downing (the unit’s Commanding Officer) and Flight Lieutenant Alan Pinches, was at 14 000 feet, it was also more than 600 kilometres from its home base at Phan Rang. Realising that the bomber had suffered critical damage and was at risk of breaking up, the two men were forced to eject. Both landed by parachute on a steep mountain ridge, from where they were rescued by an American helicopter late the next day. While both required hospitalisation for injuries sustained in the ejection or parachute landing, they had survived the only time that a RAAF aircraft has been confirmed as shot down by a SAM.

No 2 Squadron flew its final Canberra bombing missions of the Vietnam War before withdrawing from its base at Phan Rang, in Ninh Thuan Province. During nearly four years of operations, No 2 Squadron had dropped 76 389 bombs totalling 27 158 tonnes. It was to be another 32 years (until 2003) before the Air Force again dropped a bomb in anger.

A C-130 (A97-160) took off from RAAF Base Butterworth, Malaysia, bound for Saigon (the then capital of the Republic of Vietnam), to join an international relief effort for tens of thousands of civilian refugees displaced during a major Communist military offensive which would ultimately collapse the southern regime. In response to this humanitarian crisis, Australia formed Detachment ‘S’––an ad hoc transport force of C-130s from Richmond, NSW, and two Dakotas from Butterworth––to assist with the distribution of Red Cross supplies and other non-military tasks. Within two weeks, the detachment had grown to total eight C-130s, which used Saigon’s Tan Son Nhut Airport as their base. When the general security situation in Saigon deteriorated in mid-April, the detachment was forced to shift its base to Don Muang Airport at Bangkok, Thailand, and operate daily into Saigon for the last week of operations. Australian’s Ambassador and embassy staff were evacuated by the Air Force on 25 April, shortly before the fall of Saigon on 30 April.

Three Hercules transports that were previously used to fly humanitarian relief missions around South Vietnam, to ameliorate the sufferings of the civilian population in the face of a massive Communist offensive, were used to evacuate Australia’s Ambassador and Embassy staff from Saigon. Flying in from their temporary base at Bangkok, the first Hercules departed carrying Vietnamese nationals (including orphans and nuns) approved for evacuation, while the second took off at 7 pm with the Ambassador and the last 10 members of his staff, along with some Australian journalists and Vietnamese refugees. The third aircraft touched down subsequently to bring out remaining luggage from the Embassy, and four airfield defence guards who could not be accommodated on the previous overcrowded flight. A Dakota from Butterworth made the final RAAF flight the next day. Saigon fell on 30 April, ending the Vietnam War.