8 RAR arrives in Vietnam DPR/TV/1211

The last of the present battalions of the Royal Australian Regiment - the 8th Battalion - has begun its year of duty in South Vietnam. Five hundred and forty of the men arrived on board the fast troop carrier, HMAS Sydney, off Vung Tau, during the early hours of November 28th. The Commanding Officer of the returning battalion, 9 RAR, Lt Col A. L. Morrison of Inverbrackie, SA, arrived to see his men off - he is flying home soon - and to greet the CO of the incoming 8th, Lt Col Keith O'Neill of Alderley, Qld. With the navy's medium landing craft alongside the 8 RAR men passed their baggage down into the well of the craft before filing down themselves to make up the first load ashore. HMAS Sydney, is a veteran of trooping runs to Vietnam, this is her 15th visit to the waters off Vung Tau. While waiting for their turn to board the men of 8 RAR line the rails to get the first glimpse of the country in which they are to fight the battalion's first battles. All aboard for another run to the shore, the LCM pulls away from the Sydney and heads for the harbour at Vung Tau. Overhead flies a giant Chinook, carrying an Army Pilatus Porter aircraft ferried to Vietnam on the Sydney's deck. On the way the landing craft passes another, similar, craft carrying the homeward bound men of 9th Battalion. The ramp goes down and the men file on to the soil of Vietnam. After passing through checks, they board trucks and head, in convoy, for the 1st Australian Task Force base at Nui Dat, 15 miles north in Phuoc Tuy Province. Inside the base, the convoy heads to the SE corner, recently vacated by 9 RAR, which is now 8 RAR territory. There, in strange surroundings which will become increasingly familiar, the men are shown to the tents which will be home for the next 12 months.