By Garry
Swalling, 104 Sig Sqn
Introduction
I had joined 6RAR/NZ late August 1969
on detachment from 104 Sig Sqn. By the time I got
there they had just seting up of the Long Tan Cross and
completed the ceremony. Op Burnham was the first Operation
after that.
The images in this story have water
damaged, because I dropped my Canon Canonet 28 camera into
my fighting pit, which had a foot of water in it at the
time.
We loaded on choppers at Kangaroo Pad
just down from the104 Sig Sqn wire front.
...and saw the scenery to kill for!
FSPB Diggers Rest
Busy first day at the Landing Zone (LZ) of course!
On arriving, I dug a shell scrape and
helped get the 1ATF Command Network Link working.
Late that day, I was moved to the
spot where my pit was to be. I was to share with the
Support Company M60 machine gunner Peter Canney, but he
hadn’t turned up, so I was still on my own when evening
stand-to came around, with an unfinished pit.
I was on stand-to by myself till
about 2300 hour, and I was relieved by two blokes, the best
looking jokers I had ever seen, even though it was
pitch-black.
The next morning, the wire went out.
On that second day, afternoon I
think, a Chinook with an under slung load of mortar shells
crashed just outside the wire, and of course it might have
been shot down, so it was pretty tense. The rest of
the day, mortar shells were cooking off and exploding, so we
were on stand-to and didn’t get much done for setup.
This was only my bloody second day on operations!!
I was told later, with no real
confirmation that a dixie cup was found lodged under the
controls, and while the rear rotors were letting the
aircraft down, the front rotors were lifting until it
basically stood on its backside and fell out of the sky.
Sadly five US Army serviceman were KIA in the Chinook crash.
Continued to work on my pit, then and I got moved again,
because the wire was further out!
However my pit mate Peter had arrived
late on day 2, so I had help with the new pit. It was
wet season, and water built up in the pit. As I said, I
dropped my camera in it.
Our new gun pit was on
the wire, so we had land line back to the CP. On 21st
September, we were on stand-to all night, because of reports
of a VC party close by. All kinds of aircraft were
flying over, and the mortars and artillery were just about
constant. I can still hear the BRRRRR of Spooky’s
mini-gun.
One of the Victor
Company patrols (Kiwis) found a VC bunker on the 9
Sept, with this Facit CM2-16
mechanical calculator and I had a photo taken with
it, because I did my apprenticeship on Facit typewriters,
and some of the blokes in the workshop worked on this model!
There were a fair number of contacts by the
field companies, and we were kept busy.
I knew a bloke in 101 Field Battery, and
they were inventive over there. Half a 44 gallon drum
is a bath, and with enough mortar shell pallets, the sky’s
the limit.
I put a couple of pallets in my sleeping
bay, because I dug it too deep, and it kept going under
water. I slept in 6 inches of water for the first
week.
Conclusion
In our off-duty hours we might do a patrol
with Support Company. I did a couple at FSPB Diggers
Rest, a few at Discovery, and I discovered my inner Grunt at
FSPB Picton, doing a fair number. I was rifleman,
radio operator, forward scout and machine gunner on
different patrols.
At least that’s how I remember it 42 years later, lots of
digging, not much
rest.
Addendum
Details on the US Army Boeing ACH-47A Chinook (ASN
64-13161) that crashed on approach to FSPB Diggers Rest on
the 30 May 1969, has been provided by Stephen Pemberton, as
follows:
I
would just like to make a few corrections, firstly the
Chinook crash was caused by mechanical failure with the rear
rotor, secondly there was no Dixie cup jammed under the
controls, and finally the slung load was 105 howitzer ammo
not mortar ammo. How do I know these details?
Well I was the Air Dispatch Corporal in control of all
Chinook and Skycrane movements in and out of FSB Diggers
Rest - on my 3rd day in Vietnam. I was in radio
contact with the Chinook and the pilot had just identified
our yellow smoke before crashing, killing all five crew
members.
My sortie sheet list the load as
4 A2’s of 105 ammo and 7 internal pacs. 7 Australian
soldiers owe their lives to the American air crew who
decided because of their fuel running low they would not set
down at Nui Dat to pick the troops up, until the next sortie
when they would refuel.
I have lived with that crash
every night since 1969 and I have a small commemoration
garden in my front yard dedicated to those five Americans.
Each year, I hold a commemorative service on the anniversary
of the crash.
Stephen Pemberton, OAM
Ex 176 AD Coy, Nui Dat
The five US Army KIA were from the
205th Aviation Company, "Geronimos",
11th Aviation Battalion, as follows:
CW2 Robert Vernon Grey (Pilot)
CW2 Marvin Jean Butterfield (Pilot)
SP5 James Franklin Mott (Flight Engineer)
Sgt Gregory Neese Trimnal (Crew Chief)
SP4 Scott Mitchell Verner (Gunner)
Memorial to the five US Army
servicemen in Stephen Pemberton garden
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