Australian Logistic Support Group complex DPR/TV/1432

For hundreds of Australians living in South Vietnam, home to them is Vung Tau. One of Vietnam's busiest seaports, it juts out into the South China Sea from the Asian mainland and its a vital point on any map. For Vung Tau provides the life blood of the Australian effort in South Vietnam since, as the base for the 1st Australian Logistic Support Group, it provides the goods and services maintaining an Army at war. For any Australian with experience of Vietnam, Vung Tau and the ALSG, as it's called, are synonomous with two things. On the one hand its the off-duty playground for Australia's fighting men. Relieved of the tensions of war in Phuoc Tuy Province to the north, diggers romp over the beaches of the Vung Tau Peninsula, sail boats, water ski, play a host of other sports, sleep in peace without the proverbial reveille of the wee small hours or simply take in a little sightseeing of the important Vietnamese coastal centre which is Vung Tau. Members of infantry battalions and other combat soldiers do this for several days at a time every month or so. But, on the other hand, Vung Tau is the most important link in the chain maintaining the 1st Australian Task Force, 15 miles to its north, at the forefront of operational effectiveness. Without its resources at Vung Tau's ALSG the Army would be hard-pressed to maintain its present role in the continual security of Phuoc Tuy Province, its principal area of interest. The Logistic Group runs with some 1200 Australians. They belong to a variety of units all performing their own peculiar functions in support of the war effort. Their contribution to the success of the Australian Force is twofold. The Logistic Group as a whole is the storeman and book-keeper for the thousands of tons of food and other stores and equipment received from Australia and other places every few weeks. Distributing the goods is just as big a job and forward they must be continually sent to where troops are deployed. But, on the other side of the coin, the Australian complex at Vung Tau is also on the receiving end of another commodity again - one it's given by fellow units further inside Vietnam and the most important consideration of any war - people. At the 1st Australian Field Hospital soldiers wounded in action or suffering from any one of a multitude of Asian ills are given the best of attention and convalescent treatment. Across in other part of the ALSG complex the Australian Force Vietnam (AFV) Amenities Unit is always on the receiving end of other seemingly war torn soldiers. But they're of a different kind. They're just tired from long periods on operations against the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese enemy or else badly in need of a change from the day to day routine of life on forward headquarters. It's forever a two-way exchange relationship between Vung Tau's ALSG and other Australian installations in Vietnam. To complicate its overall function the base also undertakes the repair of worn equipment and provides much of the road transport used when units of the Australian Task Force undergo large scale redeployment. A unit catering for the unloading and loading of ships takes in the harbour calls of the troop-carrier HMAS Sydney and the cargo vessel HMAS Jeparit whilst other units receive and send many of the goods ferried aboard C130 Hercules transport 'planes of the RAAF. To the Australian digger living in the relative safety of the city of Vung Tau, South Vietnam, the day's work is always important. Without him the combat soldier would have a much harder time. Also identified: Warrant Officer 2 Tom Jeffries of Woodbridge, Qld; Trooper (Tpr) Geoffrey Fisher of Grafton, NSW; Tpr David Cameron of Glenn Innes, NSW; Corporal (Cpl) Doug Kilpatrick of Launceston, Tas; Private (Pte) Stuart Ingham of Kellyville, NSW; Pte (Cpl?)Ray Bodsworth of Wangaratta, Vic; Captain Graham Mills, 85 Transport Platoon of Ingleburn, NSW; Sergeant Keith Trapp of Acacia Ridge, Qld; Pte Bob Watkins of Dungog, NSW; Cpl George Watson of Puckapunyal, Vic.