Collection related to 2784336 Signalman Stuart Lindsay Weller, 104 Signal Squadron, and his service in Vietnam between 1967 and 1968.

5714255 Signalman Alan Munro Booker and 39023 Corporal Barrie James Edwards unload a US Army truckload of sand bags, which will be used to fortify a mortar pit. One of 477 colour 35mm transparencies taken or collected by 2784336 Signalman (Sig) Stuart Lindsay Weller, 104 Signal Squadron, relating to his service in Vietnam between 1967 and 1968. Sig Weller notes: "Every tent in our unit in Nui Dat was required to be sand bagged to a height of about one metre. The idea was when you were sleeping (we all slept on camp stretchers) the sand bag wall had to be high enough to protect you should the base be mortared and a shell land near your tent. It meant the blast from the mortar would hit the wall or go over the top while you were protected as you lay on your camp stretcher. If, of course, the mortar landed within your tent then you were dead unlucky. And if you were dead unlucky then, sadly, you were dead! But your sand bag wall would confine the blast to your tent and so protect others in tents nearby. Each tent was also required to have a mortar pit to which you could retreat in case the base was attacked and my (our) tent was no different. Initially the mortar pits were dug by hand but shortly after we had built our tent, a big digger arrived one morning and, hey presto, we had a deep ditch at the rear of our tent. All we had to do was put a few sandbags over it - like a few hundred!"