1st patrol 7 RAR DPR/TV/613

One week after their arrival in Vietnam, troops of the 7th Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment, went into action in jungle north west of Task Force base at Nui Dat. Swarms of American helicopters lifted the troops from the dusty Task Force airstrip in what became a two-day "shakedown" action code named Puckapunyal, after 7th Battalion's home base in Victoria. For most of the soldiers the short flight into action was their first experience of actual battle conditions. But they showed their home training had been well learned as they expertly took up defensive positions in the helicopter landing area. Major Graham Chapman, of Puckapunyal, and the Battalion Commanding Officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Eric Smith, of Melbourne, Vic, led their troops through vine entangled jungle in an area that had brought several sharp clashes with the Viet Cong in the past 12 months. No contact was made with the enemy during the operation but it provided a valuable introduction to Vietnam jungle warfare for the newly arrived troops.