The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (216304) Corporal John Joseph Kennedy, 5th Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment. Vietnam.

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Richard Cruise, the story for this day was on (216304) Corporal John Joseph Kennedy, 5th Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment. Vietnam.

216304 Corporal John Joseph Kennedy, 5th Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment
KIA 15 June 1969

Today, we remember and pay tribute to Corporal John Joseph Kennedy.

John Kennedy was born Annandale, New South Wales on 14 December 1939, the son of John and Mary Kennedy.

John attended the Christian Brothers school, St Thomas’, at Lewisham. But after completing his second year, he left. He held a number of different jobs over the following years, including as a builder’s labourer on Garden Island.

John met his future wife, Patricia when he was 13. The two became a couple two years later and married in December 1958, when John was 19 and Patricia 18. Between 1959 and 1964 they welcomed five children into the world. The following year, John, who was working as a station porter for the New South Wales Government Railways, decided to join the Australian Army, which offered stable employment and a way to look after his family. At this time Patricia was pregnant with their sixth child.

On 10 March 1965, two weeks after the birth of his sixth child, John Kennedy joined the Australian Regular Army, signing on for a period of six years.

He spent the next six months in training, progressing from being a recruit at Kapooka, to a qualified rifleman after completing infantry training at Singleton. At the end of September he was posted to the 5th Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment, where he joined D Company.

Kennedy’s leadership potential was recognised at an early stage, and in early 1966 he was sent on the first of many courses to ready him for promotion. His first promotion, to lance corporal, occurred on 1 March. Life in 5RAR was busy as the battalion had been told to prepare to deploy to Vietnam. The next three months were taken up by a hectic training schedule. 5RAR arrived in Vietnam in May and had begun their first operation by the end of the month.

Kennedy was promoted to temporary corporal on 1 August, after which the battalion conducted a clearing operation in the village of Binh Ba, a place that would become all-too familiar during 5RAR’s second tour. The battalion returned to Australia in April 1967 and Kennedy’s promotion to corporal was made substantive.

Kennedy continued with training courses for promotion, but stopped short of completing the final subject for sergeant. He did not want to be removed from the men, who he looked after with great care and pride. His diggers good-naturedly referred to him as ‘Pops’ or ‘Poppy’. His men revered him, and even though he was only a few years older than this, his status as a father leant him a paternal and caring demeanour.

In late 1968 John and Patricia welcomed a seventh child into the family. Five months later, Kennedy deployed to Vietnam with 5RAR for a second time.

On 6 June 1969, D Company was the 1st Australian Task Force’s ready reaction company. Due to a large number of officers and men being on promotion courses or on leave, the company was under strength, and Kennedy was acting as 12 Platoon’s commanding officer.

After receiving news of Australian armoured vehicles being attacked at Binh Ba, north of Nui Dat, D Company and supporting armoured personnel carriers and centurion tanks were sent to help the local South Vietnamese force clear the village. Although the initially thought they were facing around two platoons of North Vietnamese Army soldiers, the Australians soon realised they were up against a far more significant force.

The men of D Company, supported by the APCs, Centurion tanks and helicopter gunships of 9 Squadron, RAAF, conducted the initial assault through the village. During this time Private Wayne Teeling, a recent replacement to the battalion, was killed.

Kennedy led his men to clear as many houses as they could during brutal and often hand-to-hand fighting. But after reaching the centre of the village they were forced to withdraw to the south. The company took part in a second assault of the village later in the afternoon. But as light began to fail, parts of Binh Ba were still occupied by enemy soldiers.

Still supported by armoured vehicles, D Company moved out of the village and occupied defensive positions nearby overnight. The next morning Kennedy and his men again began to advance into Binh Ba. After finding the enemy had withdrawn during the night, the rest of the clearing was handed over to local South Vietnamese forces. The exhausted D Company returned to Nui Dat for rest.

On 14 June, Kennedy was the orderly room corporal, and had to the battalion’s wet canteen at 8 pm, much to the displeasure of one of 5RAR’s attached artillery forward observers who had been trying to buy a round of beer. Kennedy explained the decision in the manner of a corporal who was on the right end of the argument.

The next day, D Company was sent to Dat Do to relieve a company from 9RAR. After arriving and taking over, D Company’s commanding officer ordered his platoons to form a defensive circle in a grove of rubber trees at the southern end of the village. 12 Platoon, commanded by Sergeant Rod Lees, was given the task of occupying the 12-4 position.

Lees was in the process of siting the platoon’s machine guns when he stepped on an M-16 anti-personnel mine. When the dust from the ensuing explosion cleared, it was clear that 12 Platoon’s headquarters group had been devastated. Corporal John Kennedy and the platoon medic Private Peter Jackson were dead.

Sergeant Lees suffered severe wounds to both legs; although he was initially given no chance of survival, he did pull through. Another 22 members of the platoon were wounded, one of whom died several days later in hospital. Nearly every man in 12 Platoon had been wounded. Engineers called to the scene located another two mines in the grove. One had been faulty and had failed to detonate, while the other had remained undisturbed.

Kennedy’s remains were repatriated to Australia, and he was laid to rest with full military honours in Liverpool Cemetery. He was 29 years old.

Kennedy’s name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with more than 500 others who died as a result of their service during the Vietnam War.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Corporal John Joseph Kennedy, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Michael Kelly
Historian, Military History Section