LITMIR.BIZ

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humour are not about to let us forget that they were there first, and that it wasn't all dangerous work – there was some fun in it as well.

      John M. Sanderson

      Lieutenant General

      Force Commander

      United Nations

      Phnom Penh, Cambodia

      27 July 1993.

      PREFACE

      There are few books about engineers at war, let alone one told from the soldiers' perspective about the war in South Vietnam. Australian soldiers' humour is priceless and it's wonderful to be around at any time; the way soldiers use it as a "pick-me-up" for dangerous, boring, or futile situations is a great credit to their psyche – it keeps them going, through thick and thin, and is an essential ingredient of their "mateship".

      For me, telling the story of 3 Field Troop in Vietnam between September 1965 and September 1966 is the least I could do for them. They were young, crazy, reckless, foolhardy, brave, cheeky, cunning fighters that gave all that was needed and then some more.

      They pioneered the way Engineers would operate throughout that futile war. They took on the Viet Cong at his most dangerous – in tunnels and with booby traps. Their story deserves to be told. It's a true story full of mischief – it will make you laugh and make you cry and make you hold your breath.

      It's not intended to be, nor is it, a military history. It is written so that anyone can gain insights into what it was really like to be an Engineer in Vietnam. At the same time, a young NCO or an officer can appreciate what it's like for soldiers on active service.

      The pressure was on my soldiers from Day One. We served two masters. 173rd Airborne Brigade, a crack United States unit, was based at Bien Hoa, just north of Saigon and had the Aussies of 1RAR Group under its command. 3 Field Troop were responsible at different times to 173rd Airborne Brigade and to 1RAR. That was for the first six months in Vietnam. Then 3 Field Troop moved to Vung Tau where we prepared the sand hills for occupation by 5RAR, 6RAR and 1 Australian Logistic Support Group. 3 Field Troop then went to Nui Dat where we started all over again with a new area to be occupied by the newly-arrived 1 Australian Task Force. For the last three months we served a new master – 1 Field Squadron, our parent unit.

      Originally my story of 3 Field Troop was to have been told by Pat Burgess. Pat was an old friend – a reporter/journalist/war correspondent of renown, whom I first met in Vietnam. Pat, when allowed, would go out on patrol with the soldiers, he was at the second major tunnel we searched and blew, he was a soldier's man. Pat died a few years ago, before I'd gotten off my backside to do this book.

      Through a string of coincidences, beginning with the promotion of my book Piece of Mind, radio producer, Toni Eates, suggested I talk to Selwa Anthony, an authors' agent. She in turn introduced me to an author – Jimmy Thomson. And that was a lucky break for me. Jimmy, in writing this story, adds a dimension borne in his Scottish wit. He gets right into the soldier's mind. So thank you, Jimmy, for a great job.

      I've received a great deal of help with this book; thank you to:

      – The men from 3 Field Troop whom we have interviewed in person and by telephone, and for their letters and their response to the written survey.

      – My wife Sandra for her encouragement, her typesetting and her proof reading.

      – Lieutenant General John Sanderson Commander of UNTAG in Cambodia for writing the Foreword during a very busy schedule ... but more than that ... for being a friend since 1958 at Duntroon and for being a great Engineer.

      – Ian McNamara on ABC Radio 2BL for looking for "lost" members of the Troop through his program "Australia All Over".

      – Dennis Ayoub for all his time and effort in reading the manuscript and adding accuracy to many stories.

      – Pam McLachlan for her transcription of interview tapes.

      – Warren Lennon for being such a great boss and for his interview on Taking Command – Chapter 16.

      – Selwa Anthony for bringing together myself and Jimmy Thomson and for her advice throughout the production of No Need for Heroes.

      – The Directorate of Engineers at the Engineer Centre at Casula (I used to know it as the School of Military Engineering) for the copies of the Engineer badge and the other unofficial badge (Facimus et Frangimus) which many engineers prefer.

      – The War Memorial for providing better quality copies of photos that I originally forwarded to them. (If anyone wants copies of these photos they are available by quoting the numbers shown to the War Memorial).

      – To my Uncle Bob and his wife Lilian for relating stories about his Dad – my Grandad.

      Sandy MacGregor

      Sydney September, 1993

      PROLOGUE

      It is well that war is so terrible;

      else we would grow too fond of it.

       General Robert E Lee

      It's not that I always wanted to be a soldier, it's more that I never thought I would ever be anything else. And the day I was awarded a rifle for being the top Army Cadet at my school, was the greatest of my 14yearold life. It did not set my life on the course it later followed, it merely confirmed in my young mind that the Army would want me as much as I wanted it.

      Three years later, when I joined the army, I chose the engineers. Or maybe they chose me. For I was drawn to them by a fascination for these men who live double lives. They are soldiers in the sense that they carry arms and know how to use them. But they are much more than that: they create as well as destroy and engineers are everywhere.

      Ubique, – means everywhere, and is our official motto; Facimus et Frangimus – "We make and we break" – is our preferred slogan.

      Like other soldiers, engineers can kill and they can die. But when the killing stops, they pick up their tools and work. Engineers have no time to be heroes, they're too busy for that.

      But comes the hour, comes the man. And if you must have heroics, try crawling through a tunnel that's too narrow to turn around in, when the only sound is your own heartbeat pounding in your ears, not knowing if the next corner will bring you face to face with any one of a dozen kinds of death. Try to imagine feeling around in a rice bag for the slender length of fishing line that is attached to a pin, which is attached to a bomb which someone has put there with the sole intention of killing you and your mates.

      It's a different kind of death that you face as a sapper, and it's one you cannot turn and run from, or hide until it goes away. It is your ingenuity against your enemy's, your brain willing your fingers not to fumble, your pores not to sweat, your heart to slow down.

      P/A

      The unofficial badge of the Royal Australian Engineers.

      It's time it was official – most soldiers believe

      it expresses best what we do.

      And if you get it wrong you're just as dead as if you'd charged into a hundred blazing guns.

      Every soldier thinks his regiment is special, but engineers, or sappers as they're known, have qualities no others possess. When, like other soldiers, they lay down their arms at the end of their patrol, engineers pick up their tools and build and dig and create and repair. What's more, the work engineers do in peacetime is often the same as what they do at war.

      They are different. They are special.

      And I'm going to take that one stage further and say that the engineers of 3 Field Troop, the first unit of Australian Engineers to serve in Vietnam – and the only one on "our" side made up entirely of regular volunteers – had different qualities

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