Australians in Vietnam
- Thread starter pardus
- Start date
Raise my glass to the RAR vets. My contribution to the boys from the Land of Thunder--
Beer's on me when our trails converge.
Beer's on me when our trails converge.
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The Aussies used the L1A1 rifle but many carried M16s. M79s and M60s were ubiquitous with everybody. The only Australian I met in country was a big bearded guy, an advisor, who appeared near our Group HQ one morning, with an M16, a German Shepard on a leash and a half dozen Regional Force ARVNs armed with baseball frags and M1 carbines. I don't remember where he came from or where he was headed, but his counterparts looked like children next to him.
pardus
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I have both of those rifles (L1A1 is a Lithgow too). I'm a particular fan of the L1A1 and did my Lead Scouts course with an M16A1 back in the day. I really liked the M79 (more than the 203), except that it was a secondary weapon for us, which meant it cracked you in the back of the head when ever you dove on the ground. The M60 was used by the Aussies for years, while New Zealand only used it during Vietnam and as doorguns on Iroquois (Hueys) afterwards.
HALO99
Verified SOF
Nice posts Pardus. Thanks.
I'm mates with John Bryant on facey space. Pics of him as a young fella the morning after a particularly big night during the Battle of Balmoral are out of control.
He's out of control generally, that clip was pretty funny. What's with the Owen guns? (A pretty good weapon I might add)
There's a definate fun factor with the 79. One of the interesting things about Vietnam was the huge variety of organic weapons floating around from decades of warfare. MAS 36s, M1s, M3 blowbacks, pistols of every variety...
No, not really though it makes sense as it's a good jungle weapon, an environment I think it was designed for.
Early on in 66 blokes were still carrying the Owen in 6RAR and 5RAR. There is a fairly well known pic of Buddy Lea (of Long Tan fame) with one. Dogs Kearny had one in 5RAR early on, he was given a brand new, still in the plastic bag, M16 while in the field. He had to read the instructions on how to use it and hope it worked as he wasn't allowed to test fire it and it obviously wasn't zeroed either.
Cheers mate, Hope he figured out not to drop it butt down whilst on "Safe". 
Zero an M16?
Zero an M16?
This one has been posted before, but might as well put it in here.
1RAR's tracker/anti tank platoon from 1968. One of the tracking dogs went MIA for a few days during Coral Balmoral. The hound was never the same after the battle.
