herakles
13-08-2008, 22:04
This is a report from today's Melbourne Age newspaper:
FORTY-TWO years after their unit fought through a long and bloody night in a rubber plantation at Long Tan in Vietnam, the veterans of Delta Company, 6RAR, will finally be allowed to wear a citation for gallantry awarded by the former government of the Republic of Vietnam.
Their old commander, Harry Smith, will receive Australia's Star of Gallantry, second only to the Victoria Cross, denied him after the battle of Long Tan in 1966 through military deceit and political secrecy.
The star was previously known as the Distinguished Service Order, and although Mr Smith was originally recommended for the honour for extraordinary bravery, his superiors downgraded it to a Military Cross.
Two D Company platoon commanders from that long-ago night, Dave Sabben and Geoff Kendall, will be awarded the Medal for Gallantry, equivalent to the Military Cross they were supposed to have received four decades ago.
Another 11 former soldiers will be able to have their claims to further awards examined before an independent Defence Honours and Awards Tribunal to be established by the Federal Government.
The Battle of Long Tan, long considered Australia's most significant battle in Vietnam, took place on August 18, 1966, when 108 members of Delta Company, 6RAR, commanded by then-major Smith, encountered a regiment of North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops. Delta Company, outnumbered by more than 10 to one, held off wave after wave of attacks until a relief force arrived. Eighteen Australians died and 21 were wounded.
Mr Smith, now 75 and recovering from a prostate cancer operation at his home in Hervey Bay, Queensland, hailed the decisions by the Government — to be announced today — as a relief and a measure of justice for his men.
The review panel had wanted to deny the men of D Company the right to wear the insignia of the Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Palm Unit Citation.
Mr Smith vividly remembered being presented with a token of this citation in Saigon in 1966 by one of the most senior political figures of the republic, Tran Van Lam. The clear intention was that it was to go to all men of D Company, he said, but it, too, disappeared into military and diplomatic hocus-pocus.
FORTY-TWO years after their unit fought through a long and bloody night in a rubber plantation at Long Tan in Vietnam, the veterans of Delta Company, 6RAR, will finally be allowed to wear a citation for gallantry awarded by the former government of the Republic of Vietnam.
Their old commander, Harry Smith, will receive Australia's Star of Gallantry, second only to the Victoria Cross, denied him after the battle of Long Tan in 1966 through military deceit and political secrecy.
The star was previously known as the Distinguished Service Order, and although Mr Smith was originally recommended for the honour for extraordinary bravery, his superiors downgraded it to a Military Cross.
Two D Company platoon commanders from that long-ago night, Dave Sabben and Geoff Kendall, will be awarded the Medal for Gallantry, equivalent to the Military Cross they were supposed to have received four decades ago.
Another 11 former soldiers will be able to have their claims to further awards examined before an independent Defence Honours and Awards Tribunal to be established by the Federal Government.
The Battle of Long Tan, long considered Australia's most significant battle in Vietnam, took place on August 18, 1966, when 108 members of Delta Company, 6RAR, commanded by then-major Smith, encountered a regiment of North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops. Delta Company, outnumbered by more than 10 to one, held off wave after wave of attacks until a relief force arrived. Eighteen Australians died and 21 were wounded.
Mr Smith, now 75 and recovering from a prostate cancer operation at his home in Hervey Bay, Queensland, hailed the decisions by the Government — to be announced today — as a relief and a measure of justice for his men.
The review panel had wanted to deny the men of D Company the right to wear the insignia of the Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Palm Unit Citation.
Mr Smith vividly remembered being presented with a token of this citation in Saigon in 1966 by one of the most senior political figures of the republic, Tran Van Lam. The clear intention was that it was to go to all men of D Company, he said, but it, too, disappeared into military and diplomatic hocus-pocus.