Major Barrie Gillman as a public relations officer Headquarters Australian Force Vietnam, South Vietnam 1967-1968, reports from 1st Australian Task Force base Nui Dat, Phuoc Tuy Province, South Vietnam, May 1967

Gillman reports on Operation Puckapunyal, 27-28 April 1967, the first operation for 7th Battalion The Royal Australian Regiment (7 RAR) in South Vietnam, supported by 161st Field Battery (NZ), No 2 Squadron RAAF and two United States Army aviation companies; A Section 1st Topographical Survey Troop, the map-making unit working with 1st Australian Task Force (1 ATF) Vietnamese and other allied units in Phuoc Tuy Province; the role of the 140 men of 106th Field Workshop Royal Australian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers in civic action projects and in maintaining 1 ATF weapons and equipment, such as armoured vehicles and trucks; the service provided by the Australian Services Canteens Organisation, in cooperation with Interflora Australia, for troops to send flowers, on special occasions, to wives/sweethearts/mothers in Australia; the significance of the 'armoured tracks (that is, the armoured personnel carriers) of Nui Dat' to various service personnel and the Viet Cong alike; the use of tracker dogs, Justin and Cassius, against the Viet Cong by 7 RAR in Operation Lismore, 2-8 May 1967; the raid by 7 RAR on a Viet Cong terrorist training school where booby trap manufacturing equipment and other explosive material was located and destroyed; Radio DJ Vietnam, the local radio station at the 1st Australian Logistic Support Group (1 ALSG) base, Vung Tau, run by Corporal Geoffrey John Watts, Corporal Joseph John Borg and Craftsman Graham Lloyd Kemp, all members of 101st Field Workshop; the role of Army Vessel 'Vernon Sturdee' in providing logistic support to Australian forces in South Vietnam; the duties of members of 104th Signal Squadron as base dispatch riders, on signals duties on operations and in defending the 1 ATF base at Nui Dat; establishing the 1st Australian Logistic Support Group's base at Vung Tau, the staff at the base including its Vietnamese civilian staff and the role of 1st Australian Logistic Support Group in maintaining supplies to the 1st Australian Task Force base at Nui Dat; the general living conditions at Vung Tau compared with those at Nui Dat; the role of Vietnamese interpreters attached to 1 ATF in field operational work including the interrogation of Viet Cong sympathisers and the translation of propaganda documents.