Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Trooper
Robert Peter WILSEN

Born 26-4-1945  ADELAIDE

–

Killed in Action (Landmine) 21-2-1967 SVN

Robert Peter WILSEN was born in Adelaide, SOUTH AUSTRALIA on the 25th day of April 1945.

In August 1949, a 4-year-old Robert was living with his family at Bideford Avenue, CLARENCE GARDENS when Robert swallowed a 1 ½” long badge! He was rushed to hospital where X rays confirmed the badge was in his stomach. Robert spent a week in the Adelaide Women’s and Children’s hospital under observation until doctors confirmed the badge had moved to a safe place where it was unlikely to cause harm in his stomach! The badge was never removed.

As a youth WILSEN was very active and was involved in Scouts. In the New Year break into 1961, Robert attended at a two-week Scouting jamboree in Lansdowne, near Villawood in Sydney NSW. A photo shows Robert with a group of other scouts enjoying themselves at the Jamboree.

A "National Service" Scheme operated in Australia from November 1964 to December 1972. It was based on a birthday ballot of 20-year-old men who had registered with the Department of Labour and National Service. Those chosen by ballot were called up to perform two years' continuous full-time service in the Regular Army Supplement, followed by three years' part-time service in the Regular Army Reserve.

The scheme was designed to create an army strength of 40,000 full-time soldiers. A total of 64,000 were called up, of whom 19,500 served in Borneo and Vietnam and the remainder in support units in Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and Australia. 212 of these died and are included in the 500 Soldiers lost in the Vietnam war.

Robert was conscripted via the National Service Scheme into the army and was heavily into his training in 1966. Given the choice of serving his time in Australia or overseas, he opted to make himself available for overseas service this opportunity came after almost a year of training. At this time Australia had been involved in the war in South Vietnam for a few years.

Robert was trained and assigned a role as a Trooper (mounted Cavalry). On 25th of May 1966 he landed in Vietnam and was assigned to the 1st Armoured Personnel Carrier Squadron. Photos taken whilst he was going to Vietnam show Robert drinking and smiling with his mates.

Armoured Personnel carriers (known as APCs or M113) were developed in the USA and introduced into Australian Army service in 1964. They remained in service with the Australian Army for almost 50 years. They are not intended to take part in direct-fire battle, but are armed for self-defence and armoured to provide protection from shrapnel and small arms fire.

They are designed to protect and transport its crew and up to ten Infantry personnel. (APCs assisted to rescue the troops pinned down at the Battle of Long Tan.)

Some of the first APCs deployed to South Vietnam with 1 APC Squadron in 1966. Later also with 3 Cavalry Regiment until 1969. At the time of their initial deployment the vehicles were fitted with a single .50 calibre machinegun, mounted in a pintle above the crew commander's position. Robert was in some of the latest combat equipment owned by the Australian Army and had been trained in driver and crewman roles.

In 1966, the Australian Army had set up Nui Dat base camp in the centre of Phuoc-Tuy Province, South Vietnam. After the famous Battle of LongTan on August 18, the Viet Cong tended to steer clear of pitched battles with the Australian troops of the Fifth and Sixth battalions of the Royal Australian Regiment.
But in the dry season of early 1967 a "psych" war developed in which the VC made full use of booby-traps (hidden grenades and punji stakes) and mines. After the New Year, a change in tactics and command culminated in a disastrous few months for the Australians.

On 16th January 1967, Robert was transferred to A squadron, 3 Cavalry Squadron. Still operating APCs as a Trooper. Between 16th January and 18th February 1967, Robert and his crew were involved in several missions.

Firstly, it was decided to concentrate on the south-east region of the province and try to deprive the VC of food and local support. This was to be achieved by (a) setting up a fire support base (near the village of Dat Do) on an extinct volcano known as "The Horseshoe", (b) constructing a mined, double barbed wire fence (about 25m apart) 12km long out to the ocean and (c) invading the VC strongholds on the Long Hai hills.
The Australian forces built "The Fence" and South Vietnamese forces, the ARVN, were to patrol it and guard it at night to keep it secure and stop VC from entering and leaving the villages in the area at night. However, the Australian Command ignored three vital factors: (1), the reliability of the ARVN and their ability to carry out their part of the arrangement; (2), the VC support in the area; and (3), the resentment generated when "The Fence" intruded the local rice paddies and (even more importantly) invaded the graveyards of their ancestors.

On February 6, D Company 6 RAR was accidentally shelled by the New Zealand artillery, killing four Diggers (including CSM Jack KIRBY who had been awarded the DCM for bravery the previous August at Long Tan).
Eleven days later, a serious miscalculation resulted in B Company 6 RAR stumbling into a heavily fortified VC bunker system in this same area and seven Australians were killed in the ensuing firefight.

On February 21, 5 RAR was ordered to take the Long Hai hills, a-few kilometres south east of Dat Do. (11 miles south east of the Australian base at Nui Dat)
The following is from an interview by Tony WHITE who was the Regimental Medical Officer of the Battalion 1966-67 (This was published in the Canberra Times 22 February 1997.- It is very descriptive of events)

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It was hot and dusty, the height of the dry season. after nine months in country and with three months to go, the troops were weary. They had effectively been on duty 24 hours a day seven days a week apart from five days R&R. They were also intensely wary. Wary from the sporadic inconclusive firefights and encounters with mines and booby traps. The jokes were more sardonic. "Let’s get a shot of you where you still have two legs," were to be heard from the diggers as they lined up for a photo shoot before setting out on patrol.

The boys were only half joking when they talked wistfully about getting a "Homer" a wound decent enough to ensure their evacuation to Australia but not resulting in any great permanent incapacity. On this day's patrol there was to be a sweep through the Long Hai Hills, a Viet Cong stronghold known to be full of bunkers and well defended with mines.

Mounted on APC's, (Armoured Personnel Carriers) the Battalion HQ group and B Company ground out of the village and halted on a gravel road to 'bolt' down a quick lunch and finalise plans. Around us stretched rice paddies, grey-brown and quivering with heat haze. Six months ago they were green and brimming with water.

B Company set off across the paddies into the scrub at the base of the hills. 15 minutes later, just as we were about to follow, we were startled by the sound of a massive explosion. A dark mushroom had formed over the bush in the direction of B Company's line of travel.

Four minutes later there was a second, smaller explosion. A radio report of casualties followed but there was no clear picture as to what had happened.
By chance an army Sioux helicopter was in the area.

The Battalion CO called me over, "Tony get over there and see what you can do." I grabbed my medical backpack and climbed into the Perspex bubble of the Bell 47 helicopter. It was a two-minute skim to catch up with B Company. Banking to find a cleared area to land we saw the astonishing sight of the lead APC on its side.

I jumped out on touchdown and the sound of the rotor blades faded. Only to be replaced by a soundtrack of suffering, groans, cries and mutterings. I was led over to Major Bruce McQUALTER, officer commanding B Company. He had a head wound. With a rifle in one hand and a map case in the other, he was appealing for a hand to help him to his feet, but his eyes were closed and he could not respond to either questions or instructions.

Close by, also with a head wound, lay the lanky form of Lieutenant Jack CARRUTHERS. He was unconscious, stretched out on his side. His trademark ginger moustache was drenched in blood.

The third member was Sergeant 'Tassie' WASS, sitting propped up against his backpack in great pain. Both arms outstretched , both elbows were smashed and his forearms dangled from the butchered joints.

Acutely aware that I had seen only a fraction of what lay around, I made him as comfortable as possible, with dressings splints and morphine.

Ten metres away the APC lay on its side. The back door had been blown off and nearby lay what at first glance seemed to be a pile of discarded uniforms blackened and dusty. Getting closer I realised that the heap was composed of dead and wounded soldiers. In amongst the carnage, I came across the body of Mick POOLE. He had just turned 20 and was a favourite of the village kids because of his cheeky good humour.

He played the tenor horn in the Battalion Band. On patrol, bandsmen acted as stretcher bearers and provided first aid.

I caught up with the B Company medic and three more stretcher bearers all dazed and wounded but getting on with the task at hand. The task was to make a rough order of priority, identifying those in need of first aid and those not in acute need. There was a third group, those mortally wounded and beyond any help.

The situation was out of control. The number of casualties was overwhelming. Horror was piled on horror. Close to the APC lay the torso of its driver. The lower part of his body was missing. Protruding from under the APC was a detached arm, its hand still grasping an M16 rifle.

While moving around this slaughter house, I was powerfully aware that we were stalled in a mine field. At any instant I could find myself joining the dead or, even worse, the living mutilated. At one time I spotted the three prong wires of a "Jumping Jack" mine close to my foot. My heart stopped and I felt a bitter chill despite the stifling dusty bush around us.

Pathetically I found myself moving among the wounded with one hand over my balls even though I knew these mines could ablate not only the genitals but the legs and more I was amazed by the torrent of weird thoughts that surfaced as I worked.

People who are dying or who are terrified are said to see their past life rushing by like a speeded-up movie. My mind raced with a stream of images of childhood, home and family. Mixed with these were other bizarre reflections. I thought of 'Tassie' WASS and his shattered, dangling forearms. The absurd line "Look Ma no hands" kept revolving through my head.

I had recognised the distinctive features of Barney GEE the only soldier of Chinese extraction in the battalion. He was quite calm as I got him to press on a dressing I applied to the spurting artery in his arm. His skin was blackened by the explosion. "Red on black — very Chinese" I thought.

I recalled a movie that I had seen as a child in which the minister was trying to halt the alien invaders. With his congregation cowering behind him. He advanced with an open Bible, reciting Psalm 23. He had just mentioned "Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil" when he was carbonised by the alien ray gun.

After an eternity, sappers were choppered in. They quickly went to work with mine detectors, laying white tape on cleared pathways through the mine field. One sapper spotted me "Do you want to get us all killed? For fucks sake stick to the cleared areas" he screamed! I had to bite my tongue to avoid pointing out that I had been walking around here for the previous half hour or so.

A landing zone was cleared for the 'Dust Off' choppers. The critically wounded were shipped out first, then the lesser injured and finally the dead. They were all taken to Vung Tau or Saigon. The evacuation included a macabre audit, matching up corpses with missing parts as they were retrieved. Some parts were never found.

Jack CARRUTHERS died three days later and Bruce McQUALTER after two weeks never regaining consciousness.

I remained with the shaken remains of B Company for a short while. On one afternoon's outing they had lost their company commander, a platoon commander and numerous comrades. It had been an entirely passive event, with no trace of the enemy and no opportunity to strike back. A more potent prescription for anger and despair could not be imagined.

On getting back to BHQ I was too shaken to hold a cup of coffee. I tried to describe the scene and discovered the futility of words for communicating such an experience.

What had happened? It appears that the lead APC had detonated a mine of enormous destructive power.

There was a crater 2metres wide by 1metre deep. The 13-tonne vehicle had been tossed 3 metres away and onto its side and there was a large hole in the hull under the driver’s seat.

The patrol halted and prepared for an ambush. The officers dismounted and summoned the company medic and stretcher bearers. As they walked towards the wounded, there was a second explosion. One of the party stepped on a M16 mine causing more casualties to B Company.

For years, like a diminuendo drumbeat, February 21 was to spook most of those who had participated in this calamitous and futile episode.

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Later, the events were described as follows: -

They set off in a convoy of armoured personnel carriers and although signs of a mine-field were detected by one of the Diggers (Private Colin Cogswell), headquarters radioed an order to proceed stating the area had been cleared the previous day.
The lead APC was blown high into the air and completely destroyed, and in the confusion and movement after anti-personnel mines ("Jumping Jacks") were set off.

The APC landed on its side on top of one of the diggers who had been riding atop of the vehicle before the explosion. The rear doors were blown open and one blown completely off bouncing off the ground and killing a digger behind the carrier as it travelled.
The APC driver and commander and seven Diggers from B Company 5 RAR were killed and over 20 others wounded, some so badly they spent several months in hospitals around Australia. Today, several still suffer badly deforming injuries and two are paraplegics. Understandably many others suffer psychologically from the memory.
Six weeks later, the remnants of this ill-fated platoon (4 Platoon B Coy) were assigned to act as a work party on "The Fence".
One of those Diggers (Ted Lloyd) who had recovered from his wounds on Long Hai was killed on the first day by a "Jumping Jack" mine, so engineers were called in to clear the area with the aid of sweepers.
The next morning, B Coy 5 RARs new young platoon commander (Lieutenant Kim RINKIN) who had just replaced Lieutenant John CARRUTHERS (killed on Long Hai) was in the process of showing us where the area had been cleared when he stepped on a mine in the supposedly cleared area and was blown up. Apparently, the ARVN had failed again to secure "The Fence" during the night and the VC had come in, dug up our own minefield and re-set them.
The military hierarchy finally saw the folly of their plan and dismantled "The Fence". It has been estimated that perhaps as many as 100 Australians died directly from this construction or indirectly as a result of mines being removed and used by the VC elsewhere.
In the first year in Phuoc Tuy (May 1966 to May 1967) 80 Australian soldiers were killed, 24 in February! Years later many still wonder why. “
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Robert is believed to have died in the initial explosion possibly driving the APC. Back home, his parents, still living at Bideford Avenue, CLARENCE GARDENS were notified by the Army of Roberts death. Dead at 21 years of age. In 30 other houses across the country the Army advised loved ones that their soldier was dead or injured in this event.

Robert was the 34th “Nasho” (National Servicemen (NS)) killed in service. The first was in Borneo on the 31st July 1966, and only 6 months later he was one of 5 in one day, his death being listed as the 34th of a National Serviceman.

Also killed in/by the incident were:
A Squadron, 3rd Cavalry Regiment.
L/Corporal Kevin Leslie MITCHINSON, 22, (NS) single, of Pt Lincoln, SA.
5 RAR

Major Bruce McQUALTER, (MID) Officer Commanding B coy, 5 RAR.
Died of wounds, South Vietnam, 5 March 1967, aged 29 years

Lieutenant Jack CURRUTHERS, (MID) Platoon Commander 4 Pltn B Coy.
Lt. Carruthers died of his wounds at 36th Evacuation Hospital Vung Tau on 24th February 24 1967.

L/Corporal George B GREEN, 21 (NS) from Granville, NSW.

Pte Donald Murray CLARK, 21, (NS), single, of Geraldton, WA.

Pte Michael Damien POOLE, 20, single, of Dromana, Victoria.

Pte Richard Wayne SANDOW, 20, married, of Windsor, Brisbane.

Pte James Clifton WEBSTER, 22, (NS) single, of Orange Grove, Perth.

Australia deployed over 60,000 servicemen and women to the conflict in Vietnam between 1962 and 1975; Australians served between 1962 and 1973, and again for a brief period in 1975.

During this operational commitment, 521 Australians lost their lives and the majority of these were repatriated to Australia for burial and commemoration.
Since 1966, Australian service personnel who die in conflicts overseas are repatriated to Australia if practicable and if requested by the next of kin. The official commemoration for each of the Vietnam War dead in Australia was either at the gravesite or crematorium or separately in a Garden of Remembrance, this is the choice of the next of kin.

Roberts body was recovered and eventually returned to Australia and the family. After a military funeral and cremation, he was interred at the Centennial Park Cemetery, South Australia on the 20th of July 1967, almost 5 months after he was killed.

Robert Peter WILSEN is still very much remembered and honoured by his family.

WILSEN is remembered with honour on the following memorials:-

Adelaide South East Asian Conflicts Memorial,
Adelaide Vietnam War Memorial,
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour,
3rd Cavalry Regiment Memorial (Lavarack Barracks)
Cavalry Memorial (Tongala) Vietnam 1965-1972,
Grafton Clarence Valley Vietnam Veterans Memorial,
Hilton Australia's National Servicemen Memorial
and at the Moriarty Community Hall, Moriarty, TASMANIA.

LEST WE FORGET

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Ross WOOD has given a first-hand account of the soldiers serving in the area at the time.

"The base of Hon Vung that afternoon of Tuesday 21 February 1967, was a terrible place.

What remained of the Armoured Corps, FOO group, and B Company 5 R.A.R. with initially one Field Engineer and later more engineers were very professional and as Doc White explains the recovery operation under the circumstances was very well handled.

The recovery of the wounded, plus our defence were our primary duties. This was done, while preparations for a night defence in that position were carried out.

Late in the afternoon A Company reached the rear of the column, and Major Max Carroll came through our position, had a look and assumed overall command of the two companies on return to his blokes, across the creek behind us.

During the night VC or VC and PAVN forces using lanterns began to come down Hon Vung, however finally U.S. Army heavy 8 inch guns stopped that, and when we came out from inside the remaining APCs shortly after midnight, the hill was a silver coloured mass of steam and smoke under a brilliant moon lit starry night.

Operation Renmark -
5 R.A.R. ordered into the Long Hais began on Saturday 18 February 1967. On the movement to the pepper plantation at the base of Hon Vung where the first IED explosion and then the M16 Jumping Jack mine exploded, there were VC signs indicating they didn't like us.

The Horseshoe was first occupied by B Company 5 RAR on 6 March 1967. The Fenced minefield construction was commenced by C Company 5 RAR on 16 March 1967.

The two minefield explosions involving 4 Platoon B Company 5 RAR of 6 and 7 April 1967, immediately north of the little hamlet of Phuoc Loi were bloody awful.

At about 3.00pm on the Saturday afternoon when B Company first drove in the TCVs (trucks) through Phuoc Loi, the look on the village ladies' faces as we drove through before disembarking the trucks and moving west into the Long Hais, I will never forget that look on their faces."