 | Two guys from my section. This gives an idea of how dark it was under the tree canopy.
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 | This was a water resupply in the dry season. The pilot would hover as low as possible in a small clearing while plastic bags of water were pushed out. The bags were made of thick plastic and about a metre long. Only the odd one or two would break.
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 | After the chopper dropped the waterbags, we filled all waterbottles and then used whatever water was left over to try and wash some of the dirt and stink off us.
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 | Disembarking from a Chinook to start an Op. These were slow, cumbersome things that were generally used to carry a lot of troops at once to a secure location.
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 | Chinook leaving after dropping us off. Towards the rear of the chopper you can see one of the crew hanging out through an opening.
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 | A Chinook blowing up a lot of dust in the dry season. it was a dirty, dusty place in the dry.
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 | A Chinook on the ground, without the dust.
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 | Looking up at a couple of choppers about to land and pick us up. They used to come in fast and take off fast. I think they just wanted to get out of there and get back to base as quick as possible.
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 | A view of the jungle through the open door of an Iriquois helicopter on the way to the LZ. And if you're wondering, the doors were never shut and we didn't use seatbelts. (what an adrenalin rush!!)
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 | Iriquois helicopters coming in to pick us up for an extraction. The sound of the chopper blades is a sound that every grunt in Vietnam took years to forget.
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 | Getting on board one of the Iriquois. It was always a very tight fit, like fitting 12 sardines in a 10 sardine tin.
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 | Being picked up by Iriquois for extraction.
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 | This was my home whenever we were back at Nui Dat (which wasn't very often), but it was luxurious after sleeping on the jungle ground.
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 | Inside our tent at Nui Dat overlooking our spacious loungeroom. We played cards a lot and drank a lot. There was very little use of marijuana and heroin use was almost non-existant amongst Australians.
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 | Looking across our company lines in Nui Dat. This was an old rubber plantation.
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 | Whoops! It must be washing day. That's our company Sargeant Major looking as immaculate as ever.
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 | One of the firing pits that were spread all around the perimeter of Nui dat including two Rambo wannabes. (the blue bits are deterioration of the original picture).
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 | This was a concert put on by Australian performers at Nui dat. We ended up waiting outside in the heat for a couple of hours until the show started. We weren't permitted to talk to, or get close to the performers.
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 | Another shot of the concert. Apparently there were quite a few concerts, but the only ones who got to see them all were the clerks etc who stayed in Nui Dat, all of us who were at the "sharp end" very rarely saw them.
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 | Another shot of the concert.
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 | Another shot of the concert.
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 | Two pictures of some of the others who I came back to Australia with on the advance party. This is inside a Hercules cargo plane. As you can see, we did have some of the necessities of life (beer), and most of the time we wore ear protection because of the noise of the engines.
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 | The advance party just after we landed at Edinburgh Airforce base north of Adelaide. I'm the one with the blurry face second from the right.
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