Toggle Rope: Major David A Chinn

Olive green toggle rope, coiled and secured around a wooden handle with a loop at one end.

This toggle rope was carried by 235066 Major David Alexander Chinn, 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (1 RAR) and Headquarters 1 Australian Task Force (HQ 1 ATF) during his operational service in Vietnam. Chinn joined 1 RAR on 1 October 1968 and was the Operations Officer for that battalion until 15 February 1969 when he joined HQ 1 ATF in the same capacity. Chinn carried this toggle rope on his belt while he was deployed on major operations with 1 RAR. He participated in Operation Windsor, Operation Capital and Operation Goodwood as well as other village cordon and searches. During his service with HQ 1 ATF Chinn kept the toggle rope with his main equipment pack and did not carry it with him unless he was moving outside the Australian Task Force Base. The toggle rope was not physically used by Major Chinn during his time in Vietnam but its main uses were to assist soldiers in creek and river crossings, to restrain prisoners and to fashion makeshift stretchers using bamboo or sapling poles.