Karl William BAUDISTEL

BAUDISTEL, Karl William

Service Number: 17073
Enlisted: Not yet discovered
Last Rank: Captain
Last Unit: Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV)
Born: Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 15 November 1938
Home Town: Bondi, Waverley, New South Wales
Schooling: Charters Towers Secondary School, Queensland, Australia
Occupation: Army Officer
Died: Killed in Action, Thua Thien, South Vietnam, 13 August 1967, aged 28 years
Cemetery: Albany Creek Memorial Park-Cemetery & Crematorium, QLD
Memorial Location: Columbarium 6/Section 1. Also (DVA) Official Commemoration - Memorial Location: Wall 2/Row H; AT the Queensland Garden of Remembrance (within the grounds of Pinnaroo Lawn Cemetery) Graham Rd - Bridgeman Downs, Qld, Australia.
Memorials: Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Canungra - The Grove - AATTV Row of Memory, Canungra Australian Army Training Team Vietnam Roll of Honour, Grafton Clarence Valley Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Kallangur Vietnam Veterans' Place, Port Pirie Vietnam Veterans Honour Wall, Seymour Vietnam Veterans Commemorative Walk Roll of Honour
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Vietnam War Service

2 Jan 1967: Involvement Australian Army (Post WW2), Captain, 17073, Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV)
2 Jan 1967: Involvement 17073

MEMORIES - Story about Karl Baudistel

http://www.aattv.iinet.net.au/advisor.htm

Memories

I received this from Chaplain James L. Burnham USA

Shortly after arriving in Viet Nam (July '67) I was assigned as battalion Chaplain to the 2/327 Battalion of the 1st Bde, 101 Abn Div. There were several colorful characters in the battalion - the Battalion Commander was a man of Arab descent, Lieut. Edmund Abood; we had a Polish Cpt Stephanovich; and a Cuban Cpt. with the call sign Cacique, an Indian word meaning chief.

But to me, the most colourful was Karl W. Baudistel, an Aussie Captain assigned to our unit. I loved his bush hat, his accent, and the little 9mm automatic rifle he carried.

On Sept.13, l967, our unit made a combat assualt onto a hill top inland from Chu Lai (If my memory is correct). We went in under intense fire, then as we were digging in, a major accident occurred - a smoke grenade set the grass on fire. Our ammunition dump exploded, we lost our artillery and mortars, and we had to abandon the high ground due to the fire and explosions. Karl told me that he had a bad feeling about the place, for he said that he had been there before and was run off by superior forces.
Many of us lost our personal belongings. Karl showed me something he had salvaged, a badly burned New Testament.
That night we were attacked by a large enemy force. We suffered about a dozen men injured, some seriously, and one killed. Thanks to Black Panther's (Ltc Abood's) cool directing, and Puff the Magic Dragon overhead, we survived the night.
The man killed, the man who had a bad feeling about that hill, was Karl Baudistel, call sign Kangaroo. I was told that though badly wounded, he refused to leave his strategic spot on a saddle between the hills that was one of the places where the enemy had concentrated their attack. He died from loss of blood.
Within two months of my arrival in Nam I had lost two of the first three men I had considered as special friends.
Signed:

Chaplain James L. Burnham

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Biography

17073 Captain Karl William Baudistel

(Awarded the US Presidential Unit Citation)

Karl William BAUDISTEL was born on 15th November, 1938 in Brisbane, Queensland - his parents names are unknown

He married Betty Ellen (surname unknown) before he enlisted with the Australian Army - He was from  29 Mews St, West Chermside, Brisbane but was temporarily located at 2/156 Ramsgate Ave, Bondi, Sydney NSW

His unit was the Australian Army Training Team (Vietnam) attached to the Royal Australian Infantry

He was Killed In Action on 13th August 1967 in South Vietnam - he is commemorated at Albany Creek Crematorium, Albany Creek, Queensland, The Australian War Memorial and the Vietnam Veterans Honour Wall, Port Pirie,  RSL Iroquois (Huey) Museum in South Australia - His final rank was Captain

 

"Officer killed

An Australian officer has been killed and a bombardier slightly wounded in Vietnam. The officer, Captain Karl Baudistel, 28, married, of Bondi, NSW, and a member of the Australian Army Training Team, was killed in Thua Thien province, after contact with the Vietcong..." - from the Canberra Times 16 Aug 1967 (nla.gov.au)

 

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