 | Fleet Air Arm |
| Fleet Air Arm |
Updated 18 October 2011
Paul Ham book review: A Bloody Job Well Done
Note: A Bloody Job Well Done, by Robert Ray and Ian Speedy, is now available as a second edition. Copies are available at the shop of the Fleet Air Arm Museum, Nowra or you can use this order form (PDF file, 130kb).
Excerpts of A Bloody Job Well Done have been published in the winter edition of the United States Military History Quarterly (MHQ). Copies of the magazine are available from Robert Ray @ $10 including postage. Contact .
Aircrew of the RAN Fleet Air Arm faced one of their most dangerous, least recognised, unusual and thankless tasks when they flew combat missions for the RAN Helicopter Flight Vietnam (RANHFV), 1967-1971.
This book, superbly edited by Lieutenants Max Speedy and Bob Ray, is the long overdue record of experiences of those men - the extraordinary courage, discipline and skill of young pilots, observers and airmen during the worst years of Vietnam, that peculiarly bitter and controversial war.
The stories re-told here - and every member of the unit is represented - reflect the whole exhilarating, terrifying and sacrificial experiences of the war in the words of men who survived the ultimate test. They speak their minds, and Speedy and Ray rightly make no apology for the 'politically incorrect' language of aircrew who fought 40 years ago.
The RANHFV was indeed one of the Navy's most dangerous missions. Its members were subjected daily to 'death and disbursement'. As one pilot, Lieutenant Tom Supple, wrote: "It was in your face every day". They typically flew around 1,000 combat hours - supporting ground troops, escorting dust-offs, hovering above the maelstrom of war.
Perhaps a tenth of those missions were deadly assaults which "I hated with a passion as did everyone else", recalls Speedy. The RAN pilots literally flew into combat blind, their only 'eyes' being two dimmed nav lights and the "next aircraft's instrument panel". "We had no radio altimeters back then and using landing lights guaranteed incoming fire just as a candle brings moths". Daylight combat was no less lethal, as shown in the casualty figures: five airmen killed and thirteen wounded in action, a far higher rate than the RAAF sustained in Vietnam.
Yet it was also one of the least recognised jobs. Few Australians are aware of the extraordinary performance of the RAN aircrew in Vietnam. A glance at the medal count offers one measure of the courage and exceptional skill necessary to fly an assault helicopter into battle in Vietnam: three of the four Navy MBEs, eight of nine DSCs, all six DFCs and several high USA awards. It remains an affront to the aircrews' achievement that so few of their countrymen are aware of this extraordinary unit.
The RANHFV was unusual. Because it served for years in-country as part of the US Army's 135th Assault Helicopter Company - an unprecedented arrangement that might, on first inspection, have seemed a marriage made in hell. In fact, the relationship was largely successful, and in many cases the Australian Navy and American Army members struck up a bond of friendship that persists to this day.
And it was thankless, because the Australian Navy and the country at large have failed to recognise the achievements of the RANHFV.
The Defence establishment has woefully underserved these servicemen who risked - and in several cases - gave their lives for a cause that was seen as unjust by many Australians at the time. They were maltreated on their return to Australia and their wives, whilst they were in Vietnam, poorly housed, at least compared to other units.
The RANHFV's experience of airborne combat surely offered lessons to the Australian Armed Forces. Yet the RAN did not grab the nettle. The admirals seemed underwhelmed by, indeed dismissive of the valuable legacy in their gift.
The aircrew's tour of duty in Vietnam seems rather to have blunted, than enhanced their subsequent careers. These men, who daily risked their lives on active duty, had the misfortune of serving in Vietnam when opposition to the war had reached a crescendo.
It is impossible to do justice in the space provided to this excellent chronicle. The uninitiated will be shocked and awed by the collective experience of these men; they will learn of dustoffs, booby traps, in-ground pools, emu shoots, escort duties and much else.
The initiated - those who know what it means to deliver a 'hot-insertion' - will quietly mouth the words "we shall remember them", and grievously turn their shoulders against the chill of the winds of an ignorant, indifferent nation.
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