1st Battalion RAR concentrates in Vietnam. DPR/TV/278

Troops of the 1st Battalion Royal Australian Regiment (1RAR), were taking up tactical positions within two hours of their arrival in Vietnam on Friday 4th June 1965. From the Tan Son Nhut airbase in Saigon, where the troops landed they were carried in US Army buses esorted by 'gun jeeps' direct to the battalion concentration area some miles out of Saigon. The buses disembarked them straight onto the ground on which the battalion HQ was to be located. In temperatures of an estimated 90 degrees with almost 90% humidity the soldiers immediately started to dig-in and erect their individual shelters. Clearing patrols had already been through the area before the troops arrived but sentries were mounted to protect the soldiers as they worked to make themselves comfortable for their first night in Vietnam. Identified personnel: Major John Healy of Melbourne, Private Geoff Cave.