© Jack Bradd
C Company 2nd tour |
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The
5th Battalion was preparing to return to Australia
so I put in a request to stay in Vietnam, and it was
granted. The OC,
Major Ducker MC,
told me that he had got me a good job in Saigon on
the Ambassador's Guard. I was hoping for a posting
to another Battalion and in the Pioneer Platoon, not
a Rifle Company. But I thought what the hell, I'll
give the Pogo* life a
go and see what happens.
What happened was the money I saved in my pay book
started dwindling fast; while the bar girls and
innkeepers of old Saigon grew richer, so I requested
a transfer to a Battalion, any Battalion, any job
even a bloody Rifle Company!
My posting was to the Australian Reinforcement Unit,
but 8 RAR grabbed me as soon as the
Caribou landed
and I found myself in front of the Adjutant. He went
through my AAB 83**
then bored it up me about being from a grave robber
Battalion (5RAR), after he finished with me I
wandered down to A Company lines to report to my
Platoon Sergeant Lofty Wendt. I'd served in the same
platoon as Lofty in Malaysia so at least I knew
someone in this strange mob.
A few months later, in "The Weeds" (jungle),
Lofty escorted me to Company HQ giving me stern
looks from a great height and wanting to know what
I'd done. I racked my brains trying to figure it out
also, all we could find out was that BHQ was in a
flap and I was to return ASAP, so I was thrown
aboard a chopper and had a worried flight back to
Nui Dat. The
Adjutant bored it up me and informed me that I had
been a civilian for the last six months. It appears
that the clerk in Ingleburn had neglected to enter
my re-engagement details. I explained to the
Adjutant that I had re-engaged for six years in
order to join 5RAR. He was relieved, then bored it
up me again, then told me I was going home in a few
weeks so I would stay here with the 'LOBs' (Left Out
of Battle).
Thank God that was the only time I was LOB, it was
the most boring job I've ever had in the Army. For
two weeks I was stuck in the Command Post (CP)
bunker doing switch board duty, the only
interruption being the occasional
smoke grenade
dropped into the CP.
This always followed a set procedure; first there
would be a giggle, then the sound of the smoke
grenade clunking as it made its way down the stairs,
a 'pop' as the
grenade
ignited then the hiss of the smoke followed by my
shouting above the laughter 'I'm the only one here you bastards!'
One night, utterly bored, I decided to have some fun
so I rang up all the Gun Posts informing them that
the 5RAR tiger had escaped, it was last seen moving
towards A Company lines. The LOBs were cooks, bottle
washers, clerks, sick, lame and lazy diggers left
behind to protect the lines while the unit was on
Ops , I had no idea how they would react, but I was
soon to find out.
As I was being relieved the switchboard was jammed
with reports of tiger sightings so I left for my
tent. Twice on the way to my tent I was stopped by
cooks with cocked
9mm pistols babbling about tigers,
it was then I realised what I had done. My God! I
thought ― cooks with pistols! I slept on the floor of
my tent that night with my trusty
SLR at my side.
Next morning at breakfast the 'Warries' ran thick
about the tiger. Every cook had seen it, the Arty
blokes had shot it, the Turretheads had run over it,
the best was that it had dragged a Meathead
(Military Policeman) from his tent and eaten him and
the poor tiger died. 'Tanky' Scheuermann fronted me,
pointing at me he said 'You! You bastard! You're
from 5RAR!"
I kept silent as he continued.
"You're a
bloody shit stirrer, I know for a fact that 5RAR
took their tiger home with them."
That broke me up
and 'till I returned to Sydney, I had to dodge angry
cooks and LOBs.
I had one last visit to BHQ and this time the
Adjutant was all smiles and he handed me a plaque
and thanked me for my service with 8RAR. I was
smiling too, for I had fronted the posting Officer
and requested 5 RAR on RTA, (Return To Australia)
... granted!
Once a Tiger, always a Tiger.
TALES FROM THE TIGER
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