Signals and ACV's - Post VietnamBy Denis Hare OAM BEM
1970’s Period
Home from Vietnam
The unit continued to operate as the Task Force Signal Squadron for the
Holsworthy based 1st
Task Force (1TF).
The first few years after the Vietnam War, the Army had downsized,
was in a poor state, with the loss of the national service manpower and
disinterest by the labour government of the day.
However 104 Sig Sqn managed to maintain a high esprit de corp
during this period, as many of the soldiers had served with the unit in
Vietnam.
Background to the Issue
of ACV’s to 104 Signal Squadron
In 1975, as a result of a Defence White Paper,
it was decided that the two of the three Task Forces assigned to 1st
Division were to be re-organised for training and development purposes and
1TF was to develop mechanised skills.
In assigning the new operational requirements
for 1TF, it was noted that initial equipment limitations would preclude
full conversion of all units within the task force to support this new
role, however it was expected that at least one battalion and its
supporting elements would be converted by mid-1977 to permit training and
development to commence.
In 1976, 104 Sig Sqn took over the old artillery barracks (Kokoda Lines)
so that it was closer to the HQ that it served and away from the mothering
of 1 Sig Regt.
The many lessons learned during the deployment of a TFHQ in Vietnam were
not lost on Signals or the Staff and in late 1976; two ACVs were issued to
104 Sig Sqn to support the TFHQ function.
At the same time, 5/7 Battalion (Bn), Royal Australian Regiment
(RAR) began equipping for mechanised infantry trials.
Barry English, the then Transport Sergeant at 104 Sig Sqn, remembered that
there were a few problems, mainly because no one in Signals was trained to
drive and operate the vehicles.
There was little help from the Royal Australia Armoured Corps
(RAAC), either, as they were keen to keep these ‘trades’ as an armour
function.
Not being able to drive and move the carriers became a pain for all
involved and it was not long before some approval was given for signals
personnel to be cross trained to be drivers and crew commanders.
The first of these were Ian Bardwell, Don Mackerson, Arti Koopman
and Bob Martin.
John Melrose and Barry English trained
as drivers only.
The first nickname for one of the ACV’s was “Sandy”, given to the
Communication Centre (Comcen) vehicle as it broke down a fair bit with
sand in the fuel. Sand was
also found in the floor compartment.
When Major Ken Twining (ex CMF RAAC digger and
a 104 Sig Sqn Radio Troop Commander from South Vietnam) arrived as the
incoming Officer Commanding (OC) of 104 Sig Sqn in January 1977 the
squadron already had two ACV’s, one being for the TF Operations (Ops)
Centre and the other as the TF Comcen – the Ops ACV had been allocated to
the squadron, rather than the TFHQ on the basis that as one of its prime
roles was communications, it was better to have it located and maintained
by the signal squadron with its own vehicle.
Both vehicles had to be operated and maintained
to unit level standards by 104 Sig Sqn personnel, thus necessitating the
need to have selected members trained as drivers and crew commanders via
RAAC resources.
The Comcen ACV at the time of Ken’s
arrival had been converted to a
near mirror image fit out of the old Comcen ACV (less air conditioning)
used by 104 Sig Sqn in South Vietnam despite protests from Royal
Australian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (RAEME) and Ordnance
elements about what was being done to the normal internal fittings.
With the Ops ACV, it was left virtually untouched in its standard
fit due the Ops Staff not coming up with a modus operandi for it (this
required the headquarters to actually undertake some set up drills so the
internal requirements for the Ops ACV could be determined).
During the next eighteen months both ACV’s
underwent at least three major internal refits by the squadron techs to
meet the changing needs of the TFHQ as critical lessons were learned,
particularly about the speed and requirement to move often in mechanised
operations (two night moves in total darkness became a regular event along
with the need to operate the ACV’s in a closed up mode for extended
periods during night moves).
Adapting the ACV
Some of the innovations adopted involved
swapping the standard ACV auxiliary generator mounted on top of the
vehicle for a 240 volt 2.5 KVA model (this provided through convertors the
required voltage and amperage to meet radio, teleprinter, crypto,
switchboard, lighting and general power requirements), external connection
plugs to accommodate multi pair cable and cutover mains power (the
generator on top of the ACV was rarely removed, and it could actually be
used on the move, although the two operators inside ended up with a fair
degree of bruising) - one of the things never practically solved
in the 1970s was the overheating
problem in the ACV’s when operating in the closed up mode (the techs had
come up with a number of ideas, however the stumbling block was caused by
the need to install an outlet vent in the rear of the vehicles that met
military specs for the ACV).
In the end, it was decided not to modify either
vehicle further on the grounds that changes to a number of supplementary
services and equipment had either been deferred, or could not be made
available (eg the 1 Sig Regt radio relay vehicles were still wheeled
vehicles, none of the step up tracked vehicles could be provided, design
changes to the ACV interconnecting tents had not taken place) – it was
also fairly clear that the mechanised brigade development trial had
reached a state of limbo as it was beyond the Army’s then budget to take
it to the next level.
As well as being deployed on military exercises
in the late 1970’s, the 104 Sig Sqn ACV’s were used in aid to the civil
power operations which included the Commonwealth Heads of Government
protection task at Bowral following the Hilton bombing in Feb 1978 (not
true that the majority of the 28,000 cats eyes reflectors destroyed on the
night move down the Hume Highway between Liverpool and Bowral was done by
the two 104 Sig Sqn ACV’s – Ian “China Royal” Royale driving the lead ACV
only owned up later to about 3,000, blaming 5/7 Bn RAR
armoured
personnel carriers (APC) for the rest). The
quick reaction of HQ 1Bde and
its 5/7 Bn RAR convincingly demonstrated the advantages of mechanisation.
104 Sig Sqn ACV’s were
also used to assist in the Blue Mountain Bushfires in 1978.
The requirement for selected 104 Sig Sqn
personnel to be qualified ACV/APC drivers and crew commanders was the
subject of a special allowance claim for them on the basis that
infantrymen at 5/7 Bn RAR undertaking similar duties had been reclassified
to the higher for them pay scale APC/ACV driver – the claim was still in
the system when Ken left the unit.
Brassard Incident
Ken Twining gives some background on the 104 Sig Sqn brassard used in the late 1970’s.
The concept design for the brassard was done by Lindsay Hough who was on
doggies, bored out of his brain in the Ops ACV on an exercise in the
Holsworthy Training Area. The
original design was for a wild idea he had for painting a large jimmy on
the side of the ACV. I did a
surprise visit to the ACV and he tapped it on me in the hope that the OC
would think it a great idea.
Whilst canning the idea on the spot, I told him to hang onto the design as
I thought it might beable to be incorporated into a new unit sign for the
entrance to Kokoda Barracks.
At some stage later in the exercise a few of the diggers were called out
by the TFHQ RSM for having inked in the figures 104 on the pencil holder
brassards that were fairly commonly worn by a lot of people when working
in the scrub and although they came up with the shift worker
identification excuse, the final retort was something to the effect that
all you in 104 think you are different to the rest of us.
The result of course was that number of pencil brassards with 104 inked on
them increased dramatically and at the post exercise debrief the Brigadier
in a nice way said to me “will you do something about those brassards your
troops are wearing before
Something came up shortly after that was deemed an injury to unit pride
that got up the nostril of
everyone in the unit to the point where some form of retaliation was
required on the TFHQ, and thus the idea of doing something about the
brassards by improving on them was deemed a suitable up you method of
making a stand. Especially after a bit of research had revealed that the
Army Aviation unit patches worn on flying jackets had never been
officially sanctioned (probably never been questioned because Army
personnel were so used to seeing Air Force and Navy pilots and crews
wearing flying jackets with unit and other patches on them).
Lindsay rejigged his design with the end result being the 104 Sig Sqn unit
patch, with Barry English, John Melrose and Dennis Wynne being given the
job of getting around 130 made
and having them sewn onto an Army green coloured brassard – I think Barry
had done some preliminary costing and reckoned he could get the job done
for around $5 each (in the end the unit members brought them in at a
nominal $2 each after the liney’s organised a “special” raffle – for legal
reasons it was necessary to make financial charge on a voluntary purchase
basis and “somehow” they had 100%
of the unit purchasing the item).
Dennis Wynne explained the first use;
The ideal way to present the brassard to the TF occurred after having just
done an exercise with the ACV's and at its completion the TF did a
route march that was 80 kilometres over 2 days.
104 Sig Sqn got right up 5/7 Bn RAR backside grunting like piggies to keep
cadence and for our enjoyment!
Just before Signals took the salute from the TF Commander, all took the
brassards out of their packs and wore them on the right shoulder. The OC,
Major Ken Twining was with TF Commander, as 104 Sig Sqn went by for the
salute. It was quite funny to see the look of anguish on our Boss's face
when he realised what was happening - he was not in the loop!
Ken, was to comment many years later;
Yes, I was totally caught out by the brassard display on the march past,
seeing as it had been deemed the first showing would take place at the
conclusion of the next task force exercise – admittedly the route march
was a result of a snap decision by the TF Commander, however the brassard
display was obviously well co-ordinated by a few evil turds in the unit
(everyone knew the matter would blow up at some time, with my neck being
on the block – sometimes you have to take a hit for the team).
The words the Brigadier said to me at the time are unprintable but ended
with “I’ll see you in my office later”.
Luckily by the time I was summonsed the TF Ops Officer had somewhat
mollified the Brigadier (David Butler) about our method of retaliation
over insults suffered, along with humorously pointing out that it was the
Brigadier himself who had instructed me to do something about the
brassards, rather than saying get rid of any writing on them (I also
learnt much later he had also told the Brigadier that he would bet that
the OC of 104 Sig Sqn would have some sort of precedent to quote to him if
outright disciplinary action was threatened).
As a result I got a rather mild shellacking, with the Brigadier coming
right out and asking what was the precedence I intended to quote to him
for not taking more drastic action – I told him about the Aviation Corps
unit patches that had not been officially sanctioned and then produced a
photograph from the Army newspaper showing the Commander of 1st
Division in a flying jacket with Aviation Corps unit patches clearly
visible.
In the end he indicated that providing the unit only used the brassards at
appropriate non embarrassing times he would not push to have them
officially removed. The issue
was never raised again during my time with the unit so I guess we played
by the rules.
The Kidnap Caper
Incident
Ken Twining gives some details on what is known
as “The Kidnap Caper” by 104 Sig Sqn and 1 Sig Regt past members;
The incident came at the end of the unit’s infantry minor tactics exercise
week in the State Forest to the west of the Naval Air Station at Nowra.
Normally these unit infantry minor tactics exercises are a bit of a walk
in the park deal if you can pick a good fishing spot, however in the case
of our planned jaunt, the CO of 5/7 Bn RAR (Murray Blake, later Chief of
Army) decided to extract revenge for the infamous “Chooks on Parade”
incident (instigated by the 104 lineys in a brilliantly planned and
executed deal), by conning the Brigadier into letting his Recondo Squad
provide assistance to the Squadron in perfecting our infantry minor
tactics (ie you buggers will have to do it for real, because the Brigadier
will be asking me for an assessment of how you went, seeing as I sent my
super grunts to help you out).
To cut out all the tales of the Nowra Infantry Minor Tactics Exercise, on
the last night the traditional end of exercise scrub bar-b-que was held,
with the Recondo grunts deciding to come to life and throw some good
natured banter at the 104 throng, with somehow a gauntlet being thrown
down, and picked up by this is what we are going to do, and because you
lot are still attached to us you get to participate as well - the
ramifications of the expedition seemed minor as I knew that the CO (Lt Col
Brian Le Dan) and RSM (WO1
John Chenoweth) would take it in good spirit, plus the anticipated rescue
mission piss up reception we had planned for the OR’s Canteen at 104 would
go down well with 1 Sig Regt as a collective group.
The location of the CO and RSM at 3pm on a Friday afternoon, was well
known to me as I knew they would be attending the weekly unit activities
meeting held in the 1 Sig Regt conference room (and having served at 1 Sig
Regt I knew the internal building layout) – this is where the snatch took
place.
The CO and RSM were only informed by myself about the drinks invitation
once they were inside the grab team ACV and we were moving – from halt to
go the whole thing took about 75 seconds, it was that well-rehearsed and
the only thing that got really damaged was the conference room door that
kind of got totalled when four guys hit it at once (none of this turn the
handle crap, plus we had a carpenter come in and replace it at our expense
on the Monday in any case).
5/7 Bn RAR Recondo detachment
commander who was located in the lead ACV (protection party) was heard
muttering as the ACV’s turned into 1 Sig Regt “you guys are not seriously
going to do this, are you?”
During drinks the 104 Sig Sqn orderly room clerk came into the bar and
said to our me in front of everyone "The Adjutant at 1 Sig Regt wants
to know when they can have the CO back". Needless to say the bar broke
up with laugher! The
CO, 1 Sig Regt after hearing the message from his adjutant, phoned him
back to ask about the rescue mission, only to be told, sorry everyone has
gone home – he and the RSM were mortified (we did the right thing and
returned them in comfort to 1 Sig Regt and I think they ended up with a
complimentary brassard as well).
Unfortunately, I missed the 1 Sig Regt retaliatory raid as I was at a TFHQ
conference where at the end the Brigadier (with a grin on his face) said
“Murray (CO 5/7 Bn RAR), what did your Recondo guys have to say about the
Sigs Infantry Minor Tactics?”
“Well” says Murray, also with a big grin. “they said that despite the lot
of them (104) being absolute nutcases, they seem to know their minor
tactics, it was the weirdest exercise my guys had ever been involved in,
with very few rules, resulting in something which seemed like a free for
all from the moment it started until it finished, and by the way, my guys
do not want to go back out with them next year as they reckon by then, 104
will have taken things to the skinning prisoners alive stage”.
“Interesting” said the Brigadier, “Bit of a message here I think from 104,
particularly after the little drive they took to Ingleburn after returning
to Holsworthy, don’t mess with the chooks!”
As an aside, the unit did tone down its future retaliatory type actions,
probably because the unit was viewed as a bunch of crazies (we missed out
on the following year’s infantry minor tactics exercise thanks to us being
deployed at the time to Bowral as part of the Commonwealth Heads of
Government protection task).
1980’s Period
In 1982, the
"brigade" designations was readopted by the Australian Army and 1st
Task Force was renamed 1st Brigade (1Bde).
Early that year, the 1st Armoured Regiment was placed
under the 1Bde’s command, as part of the Army's ongoing mechanisation
trials. The new role the 1Bde, as a mechanised force was confirmed in 1983
and following this the capability was developed. This saw 5/7 Bn RAR
re-equipped with APC’s, which they began to receive in July 1983.
During the 1980’s, one of the brigade's other infantry battalions,
the 3 Bn RAR began developing the Australian Army's parachute capability,
and by late 1983 it had become a specialised parachute infantry battalion.
So as well as mechanised skills, 104 Sig Sqn had to also train some
of its members
as paratroopers to work with the airborne Bn.
In 1984 104 Signal Squadron moved into Malaya Lines.
This move encompassed the occupation of a vehicle and
administration compound at Holsworthy and the acquisition of the old TFHQ
building.
The
squadron was amalgamated
in 1986
on a trial basis with Headquarter Company 1Bde
to form Headquarter Squadron 1st
Brigade under the command of the OC, 104 Sig Sqn.
1st Brigade Mechanisation
The Chief of the General Staff directed that 1Bde develop armoured and
mechanized capabilities. As a
result, Headquarter Squadron (104 Signal Squadron) was issued with more
M113 armoured vehicles and by 1986 had 7 x ACV, 3 x APC and 1 x M548
Tracked Load Carrier (TLC).
In order to operate effectively it was necessary to train more signals and
its other Corp members as drivers and crew commanders for the carriers.
Vehicle nicknames used including this period was “CONAN” for the Radio
Troop ACV and “ARMAGEDDON” for the Comcen ACV.
Greg “Happy” Kirk the Bde Ops Sergeant at
the time gives some details;
Armoured vehicles were located at 104 Sig Sqn about 180 metres away from
the Bde HQ.
I was seconded from 2 Cav Regt , given the job of training non-RAAC
personnel, who were the "trained" drivers, in Armoured deployments,
gunnery, etc.
The drivers were all from Brigade units 104 Sig Sqn, 5/7 RAR, 8/12 Mdm Bty
and 1 Const Regt. They were
posted to 104 Sig Sqn (2 Cav Regt were Div troops not on Bde's orbat).
All Crew Commanders were Bde HQ officers, except for myself.
I was the Crew Commander of “Callsign OA” or Ops One as it was
designated.
One APC was used for the Bde Commander and another two were used for the
Bde Air Liaison Officer (BALO) and Arty Ops functions.
Arthur “Chappy” Chapman was in charge of ACV Ops 2 was bitten by Tiger
snake on Exercise Tasman Warrior in Schoalwater Bay, Oct 1985. Nigel
Shelton gives some details;
I think from memory Chappy had been out at the Generator that we had dug
in and what he thought was a stick he brushed up against turned out to be
a tiger snake. Never forget him standing at the door of the ACV ready to
do a shift change and seeing him collapse in a heap. Good to see everyone
and everything swing into action to get Chappy out that night. Can't think
of our medics name but he did a great job.
Harbour Bridge Incident
In late 1986 the Bde was preparing to depart on Exercise Kangaroo 86
(K86), and the vehicles were loaded and parked within the 104 Sig Sqn
Transport Compound. The hatch
latch of the Ops One ACV was broken so it was only dummy locked.
One of the 104 Sig Sqn LCPL drivers was having marital problems at
the time.
Peter
Zajac gives some details;
The LCPL was a quiet bloke who did his job and didn't annoy anyone.
He was in fact AWOL at the time he climbed over the transport
compound fence, knowing that the latch was broken, he entered the ACV
started it and then drove it through the gates out of the barracks and
onto the freeway towards the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
The police escorted the ACV onto the Sydney Harbour Bridge where
the LCPL stopped the vehicle.
The LCPL also did security work in his part time and unknown to all he
still had his security pistol on him in the armoured vehicle.
When the police approached the carrier he pulled the pistol on the
police officer. The police
officer shot the LCPL with his revolver.
From the Police Officer involved, Ron Mason;
We knew he was going to kill somebody so I ran after him and when I hopped
on the front he appeared from the hatch and pulled a gun on me.
We each fired a shot during the ensuing struggle and the LCPL was
killed.
Greg “Happy” Kirk gives his details;
In the later half of 1986 we were a week out from K86 to be held near
Emerald, Queensland when the ACV,
fully fitted out for Exercise, including maps, but excluding push bikes,
fishing rods, tennis racquets, golf clubs etc, was taken just on dark from
the 104 Sig Sqn compound and driven onto the harbour bridge where the
driver was shot dead by police.
It was my vehicle! As
one would expect, HQ produced another ACV out of thin air, because OA was
impounded by the police, and we re-fitted it for the Exercise.
Two days out from the Exercise, the original was returned, unwashed
from the shooting. Hay Plain Incident
Another incident in 1986 remembered by Nigel Shelton on Exercise Predators
Passage;
We were on the Hay Plains, Darren Druitt, Brad Beaumont
and myself moved into a harbour up
area, not knowing that we were under the power lines,
Darren and Brad were putting up the RC-292 antenna and a large
lightning flash occurred!
Darren was thrown back through the hatch of the ACV and Brad was blown off
into the side of the camouflage net.
At the same time Mihran “Avi” Avedissian was hooking up his ACV via
a landline and got a chunk blown out of his finger.
Avi and Darren were evacuated from the exercise area.
139 Signal Squadron
During the 1986/87 period 139 Sig Sqn also started using
ACV’s and Doug Purcell, a 104 Sig
Sqn Vietnam Veteran recalls;
I had a license to drive APC and ACV when posted to 139 Sig Sqn in about
1986/7. We first took charge of the
vehicles about that time. I
got in the shit for doing wheelies in the vehicle compound (as a SGT) in
the first of our ACVs. Chewed
up the bitumen. Drove them many
times on exercise (day and on night lights,(scary stuff)).
We kitted them out with VHF and HF
radio setups. Often used for
step-up.
1990’s Period
Many Exercises occurred in the1990’s, using the ACV’s in support of the
1Bde and Michael Ryan recalls that one of the ACV’s had a gas leak that
nearly took out ithe crew.
Also a RT-524 Radio Set came out of its cradle smacking the troop
commander in the head.
104 Sig Sqn moves to Darwin
In 1992, the
brigade began the process of moving to the Darwin area as part of a force
structure review focused upon relocating defence assets in the north.
104 Sig Sqn held their last parade in Holsworthy on 22nd
October 1996 before moving to Darwin or to be more precise, Robertson
Barracks, Palmerston which is 30km South of Darwin.
The unit became fully operational again in early 1997.
However 104 Sig Sqn was absorbed
into 1st Combat Support Unit (1CSU) as 'A Sqn' on 1st
Jan 1998.
Few details are known for the late 1990’s period onwards but it was most
likely the normal business of exercises plus rewiring and testing the
ACV’s and other carriers as new communications equipment came into
service. Also all the original
ACV’s were rotated through the re-build system at Bandiana, Victoria, with
overhauled replacement vehicles issued to the unit. From the late 1990’s the Australian Defence Force has be on continue operations and peacekeeping since the International Forces East Timor (INTERFET) coalition began deploying to East Timor on 20th September 1999, as a non-UN force operating in accordance with UN Resolutions. Led by Australia, who contributed 5,500 personnel and the force commander. Members of 1Bde and its signals personal have served in East Timor, Iraq (Gulf War), Solomon Islands and the ongoing war in Afghanistan and are still serving the nation today in that war zone (2012).
Rebirth of 104 Sig Sqn
On the 18th May 2001, A Sqn name was changed back to 104 Sig
Sqn as part of the new 1st Command Support Regiment (1CSR).
By this time a large fleet of
armoured vehicles was owned and operated by the Regt including many ACV’s
and other vehicles from the M113 APC family.
1CSR was renamed the 1st Combat Signal Regiment (1CSR)
in 2008 with a Regt HQ, a Support Squadron and
two operational Signal Squadron’s,
104 Sig Sqn and 105 Sig Sqn.
Final Deployment of the ACVs at 1CSR
Approval was given for one ACV to remain at 1CSR
and the selection process was simple. Whichever
vehicle started without the need for considerable RAEME assistance would
be the worthy champion. There was
only one “Sandy”. She started first
time and rumbled her way to a safe haven, driven by Sig Daniel Banks and
commanded by Maj Gareth Robinson, both Royal Australian Corps of Signal
members of 1CSR.
1CSR moves into new buildings at Nui Dat Lines, Robertson Barracks in 8th
Dec 2011 and as a final tribute to the long service of the M577A1 ACV’s,
Sandy” was positioned permanently outside the new RHQ, with a new callsign
painted on the old ACV “85C”..
T
1.
Writings by Ken Twining on the use of ACV’s in 104 Sig Sqn 1977/78.
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