Further extracts from Australians in Vietnam written by Adelaide journalist Ian Mackay , below, now residing on Magnetic Island ,Queensland , who covered the Indo-China war for the Far East Bureau of Television News Limited .
In the first part , we told how the Americans praised the "bloody Australian" dare-devil RAAF pilots of Caribou aircraft who flew in supplies. He was present at Duc Co ,an isolated outpost , run by the elite American Special Forces , when the base came under fierce attack as a Caribou came in to land , captured on film , made into a special which won international praise .
During his time in Vietnam , Mackay lived with Australian troops, went on operations with them and saw the work of civilian medical teams .
There had been a time when Australians were an oddity in Vietnam , the only reporter likely to drop in being Denis Warner . However, when Ian arrived in 1965 , there was a 4500-man strong Australian Task Force , newsmen by the score , doctors , nurses, teachers ,salesmen, engineers, crooks, even Swan and Fosters beer .
The Saigon Press corps numbered about 350, described by a New York Daily News correspondent as the same size as a Vietcong battalion . Reporters attended the " five o'clock follies " -the military press conferences where the U.S. daily version of what had happened was released. The book concentrated on actual Australians, men and women , in the country .
Of particular note , near the end , were Ian's comments on the performance of conscripted young National Servicemen .They had fitted in well to the Army , but not many of the first batch had volunteered to stay on as regulars.
Many he spoke to were glad they had gone to Vietnam, but relieved to be home again , alive.
Some resented the debasement of discipline and the necessity of "having to forget ideals of behaviour and thought and become a cog in a machine whose duty it was to kill other people."
The average conscript was not a conscientious objector in the legal sense , accepted National Service as a job that had to be done .
Many had returned appalled , in retrospect, for what they had done in Australia's name .
One young man he knew , an artist , arrived in a relief column at the fierce battle of Long Tan to see Australian soldiers walking through the enemy dugouts shooting any wounded they could find .
