River patrol in Vietnam DPR/TV/1301

For Australian troops in South Vietnam, the continuous search for the enemy is not all weary slogging through rain sodden jungle. These troops of the 2nd Australian and New Zealand Anzac Battalion with engineers of the first Field Squadron were given the task of patrolling some of the miles of salt arms and mangrove swamp bordering the mainland of Phuoc Tuy province and the South China sea. Using outboard powered aluminium assault craft, the troops prepare for a three day water patrol checking fishing boats and identity cards of Vietnamese. The enemy has often used these miles of mangrove swamps as hideouts, and by night often moves supplies by sampan. Patrol leader, Sergeant Les Dunnett of Mt Gambier, SA, briefs his men and Vietnamese National Police who accompanied the patrol to question fishermen and act as interpreters. Sergeant Ken Hudson of Opotiki, NZ, listens to the briefing. Into the water...and boats move out for the start of three long days in the steaming heat of the mangrove country. In the assault craft, the soldiers keep on the alert. One of their dangers is ambush from the mangroves. Approaching a sampan, one of dozens checked out during the patrol, the boats close in and a National Policeman checks an identity card while troops make a quick search of the vessel...The fisherman could be a Viet Cong...or a sympathiser carrying weapons or food for the enemy. Recently on an earlier mission other Australian troops operating in these waters captured three Viet Cong carrying food for an enemy guerilla group. This man proved to be an apparently innocent fisherman...and the boats move on for dozens of other checks made during the patrol. Moving back to their base as darkness sets in over the mangroves, these soldiers have put in one more day of their year long search for the enemy. Also identified: Machine gunner 1202275 Private David Richard House of Gumdale, Qld.