Walk Tall

Australia, in 1962 committed 30 Army instructors to train the emerging Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) with the aim of enhancing a military alliance with the United States of America. The training task continued for 10 years and involved 990 Australians and 10 New Zealanders as the war escalated. This account reflects the experiences of an unlikely member of the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV) who became the last Australian Warrant Officer to serve with the highly regarded 1st ARVN Regiment. With the benefit of hindsight the author describes the culture and character of the ARVN Soldier against a background of military and religious distinctiveness which characterised the 2nd Battalion of the famous Regiment. Using readily available research through the filter of personal experience he points out that ill-informed, sometimes corrupt decisions impacted heavily on the ARVN soldier and his family as Washington and Saigon went their separate ways. The US Army withdrawal was preceded by one of the biggest battles of the Vietnam War Lam Son 719, which had inconclusive results, even though the ARVN and the PAVN achieved their objectives. However the US Army suffered an unbelievably high loss of helicopters and equipment and the death of outstandingly brave aviators during a 45 day period. These losses were sufficient to require a total review of US Air Cavalry tactics. For the people of South Vietnam the shock of the high casualty rate was great but even worse, for the first time ARVN soldiers bodies could not be extracted and were left on the battlefield which for family members was inexcusable. Losses for the Peoples Army of Viet Nam more than doubled the ARVN casualty rate. Despite the fighting qualities of the ARVN it was the soldier who became the eventual victim of the political war. The highly regarded Australian, Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Daly, KBE, CBE, DSO; wrote that members of the AATTV could walk tall in any company, so too can the members of the 1st ARVN Regiment.