Vehicle pennant 'WHAM' : 1 Australian Task Force Vietnam

Vehicle pennant divided horizontally. The top half is red and the bottom a faded yellow. The pennant is tied off about 60 mm from the tip with a twine tassel. The letters 'W H A M' (acronym for Winning Hearts And Minds) in brown synthetic fabric have been machine stitched in the centre of each side of the pennant. The wide end of the pennant has been sewn over to form a tube to slide over the rod supporting the pennant on the vehicle.

This pennant was carried on the car used by the Civil Affairs Officer of 1 Australian Task Force Vietnam.

When the Australian Task Force (ATF) assumed tactical responsibility for specified areas in Phuoc Tuy Province in June 1966 it was soon realised that there was a definite need to have personnel to undertake the civil affairs, military civic action and psychological operations. As a result 33048 Major John J Donohoe was appointed the civil affairs and psychological operations staff officer. Donohoe states that he had to "beg and borrow a total of six soldiers from various ATF units. This figure varied from time to time and it was not until June of 1967 that personnel were actually posted to both an established Civil Affairs Unit and to the psychological operations section of 1 ATF."

Donohoe continues: "In order to gain the respect and confidence of the local people it was necessary for me to display to them that we were sincere in our intentions to help them lead a better life. One of the biggest problems I had was to be identified by the people as their 'link' with the Australian Commander. To these people, most soldiers dressed in greens and driving Land Rovers were all alike and therefore some other means had to be found - hence the pennant on the vehicle."

"The colours on the pennant are the same as those found on the South Vietnamese flag. The initials W.H.A.M. (Winning Hearts and Minds) were decided as an afterthought to let our own soldiers know that there was a Civil Affairs programme underway." Donohoe had the pennants made by a Vietnamese woman whose husband had been killed by the Viet Cong.

"Within a month," stated Donohoe, "each time the vehicle drove through any of the five separate villages, the average 'stops' initiated by villagers was in the vicinity of eight. … As more civilians became aware of the help which we could provide so the workload increased and this became too heavy for my small team. Units were asked to assume certain areas of responsibility and this they did to the extent that many soldiers were devoting their one and only rest day to do what they could to help the people in the villages. To maintain this support and as a reward for work done, each participating unit, after a period, was presented with a larger version of the pennant by the Task Force Commander.

"The pennant was flown for over three months before enemy action dictated its removal. However, by this time, the people of the villages well knew those involved in directing the Civil Affairs effort. The enemy [attempted] to reduce the psychological effect the aid provided …[by placing] a price on the head of several of the Civil Affairs personnel and this price ranged from 20,000 piastres (about $200) on a corporal to 50,000 piastres (about $500) on me. An attempt to destroy the vehicle by using a remote control detonated mine failed through malfunction but on four separate occasions the enemy used snipers and although on each occasion the vehicle was hit, no one was wounded. On another occasion a 12-year old boy handed a grenade to my corporal interpreter and told him that he had been told to throw it in the vehicle with the red and yellow flag. The final action which resulted in the order to remove the pennant was an ambush in the middle of Hoa Long village when an enemy group of five men used a machine gun and rifles, wrecking the vehicle but apart from a very light wound to myself, the three of us in the vehicle escaped harm - there was a ditch next to the road and we had some cover. Subsequently a prisoner and a returnee stated that the enemy intended to make a concentrated effort to 'remove' the vehicle with the little red and yellow flag."