Collection related to 2784336 Signalman Stuart Lindsay Weller, 104 Signal Squadron, and his service in Vietnam between 1967 and 1968.

National Servicemen on a training exercise in Canungra evacuate 2783323 Signalman Allan William Boaz, who is suffering from a hernia, from the bush. One of 477 colour 35mm transparencies taken or collected by 2784336 Signalman (Sig) Stuart Lindsay Weller, 104 Signal Squadron, relating to his service in Vietnam between 1967 and 1968. Sig Weller remembers: "We’ve camped in a gully one night and after breakfast start out up the ridge. I’m near the top when word arrives telling us to halt. Typical army – hurry up and wait. Word arrives again – start to clear a path 10 feet wide. Say what? We’re doing it but can’t imagine why. Finally it filters up from below. Boaz (one of our number) has gone down with what looks like a hernia. They’re making up a stretcher now so be prepared to assist with his extraction. In time the stretcher arrives (this slide captures the moment when the carrying group emerges into the sunlight from the depths of the gully) and on it, curled up in a foetal position and looking decidedly secondhand, is Boaz – oblivious to all. Because of the wet and very poor roads some volunteers are required to carry the stretcher a few miles to where a Landrover can pick him up and take him into Kyogle. Because I am now on top of the ridge, have been seen taking pictures and doing little else, I’m an obvious choice – and you don’t argue with logic like that. So for the next hour or so, I and half a dozen other similarly selected volunteers, spend our time slipping, sliding and struggling with Boaz to the pick-up point. He said later he didn’t remember anything after the evening meal and woke up in the Kyogle Base Hospital the next day. He also had one hell of an excuse that ensured he’d miss the Wyangerie march out which was our next task."