William (Bill) Wilcox, Vietnam veteran, interviewed by Stephanie Boyle

Accession Number AWM2022.15.56
Collection type Film
Measurement 1 hr 57 min
Object type Oral history
Maker Preston, Lenny
Boyle, Stephanie
Place made Australia: Australian Capital Territory, Canberra, Campbell, Australian War Memorial
Date made 29 November 2022
Access Open
Conflict Vietnam, 1962-1975
Copyright Item copyright: © Australian War Memorial
Creative Commons License This item is licensed under CC BY-NC
Copying Provisions Copyright restrictions apply. Only personal, non-commercial, research and study use permitted. Permission of copyright holder required for any commercial use and/or reproduction.
Source credit to AWM Oral History Program
Description

Bill Wilcox served as a National Serviceman in South Vietnam with the 1st Field Squadron RAE in 1969. In this interview he discusses his early life and family in Oberon, NSW; trade apprenticeship and horse riding; call up to the Army in 1968; rookie training and corp allocation to Engineers; the training set up, involving faux villages and tunnels; his interest and pleasure in the training and new friends; the reactions of his family and father, himself a WW2 veteran; trip to Saigon and Vung Tau; first impressions of Vietnam; description of R&R in Vung Tau and unease of taking leave in the same place that Viet Cong (VC) members were taking their own leave; work he undertook as an engineer, such as searching through human remains at the aftermath of funerals for South Vietnamese (targeted by VC actions), and searching VC tunnels, finding caches and sometimes people; receiving the call out,on 21 July 1969, to assist members of Third Platoon, 6RAR, who had become trapped in a minefield; comments made by the US helicopter pilots who were listening to the moon landing; description of the scene and actions taken; assisting Frank "Frankie" Hunt, who had been injured; being only two metres away from the officer who stepped on an undetected and undetonated mine, and the consequences and aftermath of the explosion; his own injuries and medivac to hospital, including lack of pain, being read Last Rites and watching the tree tops from his stretcher tied to the helicopter skids; waking up in hospital to a television broadcast of the moon landing; recouperation and treatment; returning to work with the Army for remaining six months of his national service; becoming a truck driver; his marriage and children; presidential and committee duties as RSL president; volunteer and legatee work over the years; reflections on the significance of his Vietnam service and of Redgum's song, "I was only 19"; change in attitude towards Vietnam Veterans (from WW2 veterans and the wider community) following the 1987 Welcome Home parade; role and declining role of the RSL; increasing number of veteran suicides; his returns to Vietnam, including with the watch given him by his late sister, which he was wearing when he was injured; his visits to the Memorial with and without school groups.

The day of the mine incident is the one featured in the song “I Was Only 19 (A Walk in the Light Green)" written and performed by John Schumann of Australian folk band, Redgum. Bill notes that the song references Frankie (Frank Hunt) as "the one who kicked the mine", but in fact it was Lieutenant Peter Hines who detonated the first mine which resulted in his own death and Frankie's injuries. The second mine was located and rendered safe by Bill Wilcox's team and the third, the detonation of which resulted in Bill's injuries, was triggered by a young officer.

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