View details - Scootle

Graeme Burgess remembers army training for the Vietnam War, 2006

TLF ID R8834

This is an edited sound recording of a former Australian soldier, Graeme Burgess, speaking about the School of Military Engineering (SME) in Casula in western Sydney where he trained in 1967 before being sent to fight in the Vietnam War. Burgess gives details of the type of engineer training provided at the SME. He also describes how the SME tried to prepare soldiers for deployment to South Vietnam by building a model of part of a Vietnamese village. The recording was made in April 2006 and lasts for 1 min 22 s.

Share this resource:

Educational details

Educational value

This recording gives an insight into how the Australian Army prepared some soldiers for Australia's participation in the Vietnam War (1962-72). Burgess outlines what was taught at the SME at Casula, where a large number of Australian soldiers did basic military engineering training before being sent to South Vietnam. He learned how to establish water supply to camps, build pontoons, make barbed wire entrapments and lay explosive devices.
Burgess refers to the VC (Vietcong), the name used by the South Vietnamese Government and its allies for the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam, a communist-led guerrilla force fighting against them in the Vietnam War. The Vietcong were closely supported by the North Vietnamese Army, which brought the War to an end in April 1975 when it captured the South Vietnamese capital, Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City).
The recording reveals attempts by the SME to simulate actual conditions in South Vietnam and to constantly update the simulation with new information from the warzone. The 'VC Village' mentioned by Burgess included huts that were intended to closely resemble those found in South Vietnam. He also describes displays of booby traps such as 'punji pits', which comprised hidden holes in the ground filled with sharpened bamboo stakes.
Burgess also makes mention of a tunnel system at the SME used for training. For years during the Vietnam War, the Vietcong operated from a sophisticated system of interconnected tunnels that stretched for hundreds of kilometres under a large part of South Vietnam. The mosquito-infested tunnels included living areas, hospitals and command centres used to plan night-time attacks.
About 50,000 Australians served as part of an allied force led by the USA, which fought with South Vietnamese Government forces in the Vietnam War. Many, like Burgess, were conscripted. A total of 520 Australians died and almost 2,400 were wounded before Australia completed its military withdrawal from South Vietnam in December 1972.

Topics Military service Radio drama Civil wars

Other details

Contributors

Author

Person: Graeme Burgess
Description: Author

Contributor

Name: Education Services Australia Ltd
Organization: Education Services Australia Ltd
Description: Content provider
Address: VIC, AUSTRALIA
URL: http://www.esa.edu.au/

Name: Education Services Australia
Organization: Education Services Australia
Description: Data manager

Person: Graeme Burgess
Description: Author

Name: Education Services Australia Ltd
Organization: Education Services Australia Ltd
Address: VIC, AUSTRALIA
URL: http://www.esa.edu.au/

Publisher

Name: Education Services Australia Ltd
Organization: Education Services Australia Ltd
Description: Publisher
Address: VIC, AUSTRALIA
URL: http://www.esa.edu.au/

Resource metadata contributed by

Name: Education Services Australia Ltd
Organisation: Education Services Australia Ltd
Address: AUSTRALIA
URL: www.esa.edu.au

Access profile

Colour independence
Device independence

Learning Resource Type

Audio

Rights