The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (13097) Warrant Officer Class 2 Kevin George Conway, Australian Army Training Team Vietnam, Vietman.

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by , the story for this day was on (13097) Warrant Officer Class 2 Kevin George Conway, Australian Army Training Team Vietnam, Vietman.

13097 Warrant Officer Class 2 Kevin George Conway, Australian Army Training Team Vietnam
KIA 6 July 1964

Today, we remember and pay tribute to Warrant Officer Class 2 Kevin George Conway.

Kevin Conway was born on 11 December 1928 in Brisbane, one of eight children born to John and Eileen Conway.

He grew up in Wellington Point, Redlands, where his parents owned and ran a boating and fishing business, and went on to work as a fisherman.

Kevin Conway joined the army on 22 January 1947, enlisting for service in the interim Australian Army one month after his 18th birthday. Having served with the Australian War Crimes Section based in Hong Kong, he discharged on 18 February 1949 and worked as a farmer and later for Queensland railways as a bridge painter and labourer.

He re-joined the Australian Army on 19 November 1952 and in January 1955 was posted to the 1st Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment which was deployed to the Republic of Korea on peace monitoring duties. He returned to Australia in March 1956 when 1RAR posted home.

Now a sergeant, Conway deployed to Malaya with 1RAR in late August 1959. By this time the Malayan Emergency was all but over, but the Australians still conducted patrols in Kedah and Perak looking for Communist Terrorist forces that posed a threat. He returned to Australia in early November 1961.

In November 1963 Conway was promoted to temporary warrant officer class two and deployed to South Vietnam as a member of the Australian Army Training Team. He was initially posted to the National Training Centre at Dong Da where, alongside other members of the AATTV, he trained South Vietnamese soldiers.

In June 1964, Conway was attached to a US Special Forces A Team at Camp McBride at Nam Dong, located in a secluded valley 50 kilometres west-north-west of Da Nang. The principle role of this outpost was border surveillance due to its proximity to Laos. The outpost was home to 372 personnel, including 12 US Special Forces soldiers, Conway, a civilian anthropologist, South Vietnamese Special Forces soldiers, and Nung mercenaries.

Just before 3 am on 6 July a Viet Cong battalion launched a coordinated attack on the camp. As mortar rounds crashed down, Conway was among the first to act. He and US Master Sergeant Gabriel Alamo made a 30-metre dash, firing their weapons as they went, to a mortar pit inside the inner perimeter. When they arrived they found another US soldier firing illumination rounds and several Nung soldiers providing covering fire.

As Conway and Alamo entered the mortar pit, Conway was shot in the head and mortally wounded. Alamo was wounded by grenade fragments soon after. Those in the mortar pit made Conway as comfortable as they could during the fierce fighting. He died from his wound around 30 minutes later. Conway was the first Australian battle casualty of the Vietnam War. He was 35 years old.

The battle ended five hours later. As well as Conway, three US soldiers, including Alamo had been killed along with 59 South Vietnamese soldiers. A further 65 men were wounded.

Conway was initially laid to rest in the Mac Dinh Chi Cemetery in Saigon. In October 1964 his remains were transferred to Singapore and interred in the Ulu Pandan Cemetery. In 1975 his remains were reinterred in Kranji War Cemetery. On 2 June 2016, Conway’s remains were repatriated to Australia along with 31 others, many of whom had been killed during the Vietnam War and buried in Malaysia. He was laid to rest with full military honours in Cleveland Cemetery, Queensland.

Conway was recommended for the Victoria Cross, but as Australia was not at war, and Conway’s role in repelling the assault had been limited prior to his death, the award was denied.

Conway’s name is listed on the Roll of Honour on your right, along with more than 500 others from the Vietnam War.

This is but one of the many stories of courage and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Warrant Officer Class 2 Kevin George Conway, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Michael Kelly
Historian, Military History Section