Long Tan veterans win medal battle (after 42 years, Australian veterans honoured)

The Australian ^ | 14th August 2008 | Mark Dodd and Patrick Walters

[naturalman1975]

FORTY-TWO years after the Battle of Long Tan, Harry Smith's long campaign for due recognition for his men is over.

Mr Smith and two fellow officers will get top gallantry awards for the 100-odd men of D Company 6 RAR who on August 18, 1966, fought against 1500 North Vietnamese regular troops and Viet Cong guerillas.

This follows approval by the Rudd Government of the main recommendations of an independent review, by a panel of retired senior army officers, of the battle regarded as a classic study in the use of combined arms to defeat a superior enemy.

It restores the awards recommendations proposed shortly after the battle for the then major Smith and second lieutenants Dave Sabben and Geoff Kendall.

Eighteen Australians died and 21 were wounded in the battle, fought in monsoonal rain on a rubber plantation on the outskirts of the Australian base at Phuoc Tuy province.

Today's announcement is certain to reignite the controversy over conferring retrospective gallantry awards, despite the objections of veterans that they were denied appropriate recognition.

"It will be a bunfight, and cause a huge amount of stress among some families," a leading military historian predicted last night.

The key decisions approved by Governor-General Michael Jeffery, a former commander of the Special Air Service Regiment and holder of the Military Cross for action in Vietnam, means Mr Smith will be offered the Star of Gallantry - which is the equivalent of the Imperial Distinguished Service Order, second only to the Victoria Cross.

[naturalman1975]

The Star of Gallantry.

The Star of Gallantry was established on 15 January 1991 to accord recognition to members of the Defence Force and certain other persons who perform acts of gallantry in action.

The Star of Gallantry shall be awarded only for acts of great heroism or conspicuous gallantry in action in circumstances of great peril. In the order of precedence it ranks after the Victoria Cross of Australia but before the Medal of Gallantry. Subsequent awards to the same person will be made in the form of a Bar.

It may be awarded posthumously. It replaces the British Imperial Distinguished Service Order in Australia's Honours system.

The Star of Gallantry is a silver-gilt Federation Star ensigned with a Crown of Saint Edward in silver-gilt. Each axis measures 37 millimetres.

The obverse bears a super imposed central device of a smaller Federation Star with each axis measuring 22 millimetres. The inner Star is surrounded and partly overlapped by stylised flames representing action under fire.

The reverse bears a central horizontal panel 25 millimetres across and 9 millimetres high superimposed on a stepped background. The Star of Gallantry is suspended from a ribbon 32 millimetres wide and has chevrons of deep orange 3.25 millimetres wide alternating with chevrons of light orange 1:75 millimetres wide angled at 60 degrees.

[atomic conspiracy]

About damned time.

[DieHard the Hunter]

Excellent news for our brave Digger cousins. Brilliant!

I hope that they exercise a considerable amount of diligence as to who gets this medal. I have met a few “Long Tan” phonies in my time: liars who were never there and who should never be able to steal Valor from those who were.

Folks, do you know any phonies who claim military honors from Australia or New Zealand? Here is your chance to dob them in. Check out http://www.anzmi.net — it is a site dedicated to exposing impostors and Valor thieves.

Ask for “Curtains” and tell them that “Chieftain” from NZ sent you. Then tell them what you know.

*DieHard*

[naturalman1975]

I hope that they exercise a considerable amount of diligence as to who gets this medal. I have met a few “Long Tan” phonies in my time: liars who were never there and who should never be able to steal Valor from those who were.

There's no need to worry about that in this case. These medals are only being awarded to men who were recommended for the equivalent Imperial decorations during the Vietnam War. Because Britain was not involved in that war, directly, it was politically difficult for senior officers in both Australia and the United Kingdom to approve decorations for Australian and so significantly fewer decorations were awarded as compared to recommended, and some were downgraded.

This was what happened to these men - they were recommended for particular awards and those recommendations were downgraded to the next level down - so Major Smith received a Military Cross instead of the Distinguished Service Order, while Lieutenants Kendall and Sabben were Mentioned In Dispatches, when they were recommended for the Military Cross.

I'm not entirely aware of whether or not similar things happened to New Zealanders, but if they did, I wonder at the implications for this for Captain Morrie Stanley, Royal New Zealand Artillery, who was acting as a forward observer for New Zealand guns during the Battle of Long Tan, and was awarded the MBE for his actions in the battle. The battle is typically described as an Australian victory - and it was - but the artillery support from the New Zealanders was absolutely critical to holding back the enemy (as was American artillery and air support).

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

Hear,hear!

[NonValueAdded]

“Too Tall, sir!” /obscure

[BeAllYouCanBe]

Wonderful, the Aussies were great to work with. I arrived in country on June 29, 1966 and made my first trip to the Aussie base in September. I drank several times with the Aussies but had no idea that this battle happened. One of my fellow helicopter crews was involved in an ARVN battle near there at about this time. We Americans at the time had our own problems at Chu Chi and didn’t hear about this. (I guess.) Soon after I believe the 9th Infantry landed and helped these Aussies out for awhile.