Published: April 24, 2019
For some of the Australian soldiers fighting in Vietnam, it was the worst day of their lives. It was also the inspiration for Redgum’s classic I Was Only 19
Bill Wilcox’s watch stopped dead at 2.20pm on 21 July 1969 and never restarted. A field engineer in 1 Squadron in the Royal Australian Air Force, he’d been up in the Long Hai hills in south-eastern Vietnam for around 10 days. He and his mates were due for a break.
It had been dirty work, even by wartime standards: dropping into active tunnel systems used by the Viet Cong, at risk of underground combat or possible asphyxiation and mine demolitions.
Continue reading...from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2DyvB6z
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