DAVO'S VIETNAM WAR HOMECOMING TO AUSTRALIA, JULY 1968

Introduction

In May 1968, I was on a land clearing operation down at the foot of the Long Hai Hills. We were working with some planties from the 9th Engineer Division (U.S. Army). Our total Aussie force was made up of guys from the mortar platoon and a rifle company from the Anzac Battalion, with myself and some plant operators from 1st Field Squadron and 17th Construction Squadron. Our mission was to clear all the scrub from the old cemetery south of Dat Do to the foot of the Long Hai Hills, including any mines and foreign ordinance encountered. My task was to undertake any demolitions required including ordinance disposal.

They Were Like Kangaroo Dung - a whole lot of them

During the TET offensive, the USAF had left us a few thousand odd trinkets to play with, namely CBU's and other ordinance. It just so happened that all this whiz bang was right in the area we needed to clear. We decided that several fire missions would clear most of the ordinance out of the way for us. It did, but it also helped in scattering it all over the place as well. We used one of the dozers with a flail to help clear as well. Anything the arty strikes and the dozer missed was my job to spot and clear. Well, that was meant to be a relatively simple task, so we thought.

The Long Hai's

A few hundred feet up the Long Hai's was a cave, on top of which sat a rather large and prominent white Buddha. This in itself wasn't much to worry about. When night came, there seemed what appeared to be lanterns moving along a ridge line into a known cave. The cave had an entrance to it from the top. These lanterns on their first appearance spooked most of us. A quick 'stand to' and the mortars responded with some well aimed hits down the throat of the cave. The echoes of the rounds bursting inside the cave chilled the night air. Despite the best efforts of the mortar platoon, the lanterns returned each night. It was decided to call in a fire mission with star burst shells first. The 'woomf. woomf' was heard off in the distance at the Dat. Soon after, the shrill note of the shell passing over, then the bang of the shell releasing its flare. The Star Burst rounds preceded the HE rounds. The first fire mission managed to rearrange most of the countryside along with the cooks tent and kitchen area from the base plate of one of the Star Burst rounds. Several HE rounds hit the target and still the lanterns moved around on the ridge line. Only one thing for it, a patrol - off they went, the grunts into the night. 

Mistaken for VC After some time they reported back that the "Fire-Flies" were doing nicely and weren't in the least bit perturbed by all our attempts to dispense with them. Buddha managed to remain in one piece, how I don't know, and the cave managed to get some knew entrances to it. A nice evenings work.

The Dreaded Pit

Whilst all this was going on, we were in "stand to" condition - after all we had to get a fix on the lights (the Long Hai's were a notorious VC enclave). The Lieu' in charge of the infantry platoon with us dived for what he thought was his shell scrape at the same time I dived for what I thought was my shell scrape, only to find that the both of us arrived in the S..... Pit together. The conversation went something like this, "Whose that?" he asked. "Sgt. Poulton," I replied. "Is this what I think it is?  I asked. "Yep," was his reply. "I won't say anything if you don't, " I quipped.  "It's a deal," he said. We were there till stand down.

Mum's The Word...

The next day as dawn broke we both darted off to the bush shower for a rather quick dip, refresh, new cloths etc. Having made ourselves human again, we both returned to our troops as if nothing had happened. Over breaky, one of my sappers asked, "Hey Sarg, who were the guys in the S... Pit last night during stand to?"  I looked him square in the eye and said, "Son, you don't want to know." Son, ha, I was all of 24yrs old. Who said life was boring. 

Fragged...

Shortly after all this an American dozer operator was shot and I was fagg'd by some of the little nasties left over from TET.  I was casavac'd out to 1 Field Hospital, leaving the nasties, the 'fire-flies' and the 'S.... Pit' to others to worry about.  Life sure can be interesting.