7 RAR celebrates second birthday DPR/TV/684

Troops from the 7th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, gained a short respite from most operational duties in South Vietnam on September 1 to celebrate their unit's birthday. It was the first time the battalion had assembled en masse since it arrived at the 1st Australian Task Force base at Nui Dat in April. Only seven of the original group of officers which helped form the battalion at Puckapunyal, Vic, in September, 1966 are still with the battalion. They include the Commanding officer, Lt. Col. Eric Smith, of Mt. Eliza, Vic, and the second-in-command, Major David Drabsch, of Guyra, NSW. During the birthday parade, which was held on Luscombe Field airstrip, troops carried weapons they have used against the Viet Cong in Phuoc Tuy Province during the past five months. They ranged from 7.62mm self-loading rifles, to F1 sub machine carbines and automatic Armalite rifles. After the parade was brought to order by the Regimental Sergeant-Major, 7th Battalion officers took post. Army chaplians remembered comrades who had fallen in battles agasinst the Viet Cong. In its tour, 7th Battalion has lost six killed and 22 have been wounded. Lt. Col. Smith then addressed his troops on the significance of the occasion, while in the background, only a few miles away, stood the Nui Dien hills, which still shelter Viet Cong. After the parade, 2nd Battalion had provided music to celebrate its sister battalion's big occasion. ....Australia's 7th takes time off to celebrate its second birthday...