Playground equipment for Vietnamese Village DPR/TV/339

The hearts of South Vietnamese children in a small village 12 miles north west of Bien Hoa were the objective when a small convoy of Australian troops rumbled into Ong Huong recently. One truck in the convoy was loaded with 70 bags of ground wheat as a present to the villagers for Tet, the Vietnamese lunar new year celebration. But the village children gathered around another truck as the troops began unloading playground equipment built by technicians of the Royal Australian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, stationed at Bien Hoa. As sets of swings, see-saws, Tarzan bars and a maypole were unloaded and assembled, the children became wide-eyed. They had never seen playground equipment. After sweating in near century heat to assemble the equipment the Diggers turned to and showed the youngsters how to use it. It didn't take long to learn the delights of swings and see-saws for themselves, and soon the maypole was swinging and the swings, some with two or three children on them were soaring high in the air. Similar gifts were given by the Australians to another village in the area.