Another exclusive from the files of veteran reporter Ian Mackay who resides on Magnetic Island.
He is shown filming wreckage on an airfield in Vietnam after a Vietcong mortar attack which destroyed several aircraft .
As a result of his experiences in Vietnam ,working for the Far East Bureau of Independent Television News Limited , the news section of Britain's Independent Television Authority , he wrote the following book , published by Rigby in 1968, highlighting Australians in the early stages of the Indo-Chinese war .
The graphic coverage opens with the ITN team - consisting of Gerald Seymour ,who reported for the British , Mackay , covering for Australia, and Ian's photographer mate from Adelaide , Brian Taylor , who worked with him on assignments in Kenya and Thailand , cramming aboard a U.S. Army helicopter on July 28,l965.
Their destination: Duc Co , a U.S. Special Forces outpost ,nine miles from the Cambodian border , which tried to stop the flow of men and supplies down the Ho Chi Minh trail to the Vietcong.
It had a handful of American officers and non-coms acting as advisors to about 150 regular and irregular Vietnamese troops who lived with their families , chickens, ducks and goats, in a triangular fortress between a well-cratered airstrip and the sinuous Highway 19, South Vietnam's national route . The base was under frequent , deadly attack .
The chief American advisor , an Army captain , had been killed by a sniper two nights before Mackay flew in . On landing at the airstrip , an American sergeant warned Ian to keep his head down and asked why the "fucking hell " had they come to Duc Co.
When Ian said he was Press , the sergeant recognised him as "another Aussie " and immediately gave him a can of Schlitz beer. It seems the sergeant also asked if all Australians were mad . Why?
The American explained his great admiration for the " fantastic" Australian RAAF Caribou transport pilots who , under overhanging clouds and enemy fire, had been able to bring in ammunition and food while helicopters had only been able to do so on two days.
The sergeant believed he owed his life to "your boys"- the daredevil Caribou pilots.
Soon after, Duc Co came under attack from a 50 calibre machine gun fired from atop a hill 400 yards away as a Caribou was coming in .Such a weapon was capable of blowing a Caribou apart . The sergeant grabbed an Armalite rifle and rushed out .
Ian had seen the hill being napalmed as he flew into Duc Co aboard the helicopter. The ITN team watched as all hell broke loose.
A large number of U.S. gunships armed with machine guns and rockets raked the jungle bordering the airstrip ; propeller - driven Skyraider fighter-bombers joined in ; a single mortar hit the end of the airstrip , more napalm was dropped on the hill.
The Caribou landed, never stopped moving, from its open , rear landing ramp came a stream of ammunition , urgently needed medicine , food and milk .
By the time it reached the end of the airstrip it was empty , the pilot gave the "thumbs up " , gunned the engines , took off , missing trees.
From the book , the sergeant was quoted as saying : " See what I mean . Fantastic ."
Recalling this dramatic event , Ian said the attack , which they captured on film , had been made into a 12 minute weekly ITN special report entitled The Siege of Duc Co . It was judged by Encyclopedia Britannica as the second most important news report of the year ,the top award going to the BBC coverage of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament march on Aldermaston in Britain .
The reporter Gerald Seymour became well known , covering The Great Train Robbery ,the Vietnam War, The (Irish ) Troubles , The Munich Olympic Massacres, Germany's Red Army Faction, Italy's Red Brigades and Palestinian military groups.
On becoming a fulltime novelist , some of his books were adapted for television .
This blog recently ran an article about how Ian Mackay had ghosted the autobiography of the controversial South Australian politician Andrew Jones .
UPCOMING : More extracts ,insights and comments from Ian Mackay .
