The Vietnam War -The way it was 1971
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A Combat Mission
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PHOTOS - 4
Click on the small pictures to see the full size pictures
A shot of our machine gunner walking down a river. I never saw any crocs or snakes. It was usually dark and the water was fairly gunky, we only drank it a few times in the "dry" when we ran out of water. (we used sterilizing tablets).
Another view walking down a river. There were plenty of branches etc underwater and it was always necessary to walk carefully and slowly as it was easy to to go arse up.
The humidity and dampness quite often caused our clothing to simply rot and fall apart at the slightest snag.
A picture of the guy behind me as we travel the beautiful, clear, idyllic waterways of South Vietnam.
Sometimes under the canopy there wasn't even enough light to take a picture at maximum exposure, so all you can see are two silhouetted figures walking down a river.
This was the C.O.'s chopper. He quite often came buzzing around to bring new orders, or as we quite often thought, just to go sightseeing.
Some of the local ARVN (Vietnamese Regular Army). We didn't have anything to do with the ARVN forces, probably because apparently they were undisciplined and did fairly well whatever they liked. (Would you argue with these guys?)
This was after a heavy downpour in the "wet". We didn't carry any waterproof ponchos etc, because it was too humid to wear them, it was simpler to just get wet and then wait to dry out. The mud was the absolute pits.
Sometimes we'd only travel a couple hundred metres a day, this is why. The person in front had to make a trail through thick grasses sometimes 3-4 metres high. There were no paths like in the movies, it was simply slow, boring, tedious monotony.
Hey, look at me. Am I totally cool or what!
That's me on the left (handsome bastard wasn't I) next to one of the other guys in my section. The jungle was so thick and dark in places, that we quite often couldn't see anyone 2 metres ahead.
These were two of our Vietnamese scouts.
Shit! I can see stuff all from down here, why don't we stand up and shoot like John Wayne does.
Ahh, that's better. Now I look like Rambo or Arnie. I reckon I can win this #%$*&^@ war all by myself!
This is Frank, he was our section gunner. The guy in front of him was our section forward scout.
An outdoor shelter complete with table near to a bunker system. These were used by the D445 Local Force Regiment which was constantly in the Australian area of responsibility.
A view of the same system from the other side.
An entrance to a bunker system. They usually had a couple of metres of overhead cover (dirt) and were quite often so strong that a tank could be driven over the top without collapsing it.
Small concealed entrances to underground bunkers.
Underground bunker entrance underneath a fallen tree.
An opening to an underground bunker system, with some makeshift overhead concealment.