Estate sale book has Vietnam Flag

[Bruce_in_Oz]

Peter asked:

"Of things NVA and VC, I wonder where our old pals in D-445 are now?"

Mostly dead or very retired.

A lot of VC were involved in the famous "Tet" (Lunar New Year) offensive and were very heavily "thinned" by US air power when they were used to perform a series of infantry assaults into the major cities in the south. Being caught, en masse, in the open by marauding "Spookys" is a definite health hazard.

Those that survived, probably tried to go back to as normal a life as they could find, post war. This was apparently "interesting", as the place was suddenly awash with "victorious" regular northern troops, who rapidly went into garrison mode.

I know of at least one retired VC "tax collector" who ended up working in a brewery in Dong Nai province, not far from the old Bien Hoa airfield.

And only five years later, they mounted up again and rolled across the Parrots Beak, to deliver a response to the Khmer Rouge.

Long Tan veteran, Terry Burstall did a book based on his combat experience with D-Coy, 6RAR. (“The Soldier’s Story)” University of Queensland Press, ISBN 0 7022 2002 7).

There is also a “follow-up” volume called “A Soldier Returns”.

See [URL="https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/data/UQ_190986/DA557_8_L66_B875_1990.pdf?Expires=1497405664&Signa ture=Ho98XluNmd4tKKV2rX3Eji6idNzdh4WPZdB-uW8qZH8PnjA87S3Kzc8AmLuUuH0JUgyLMpnXkmByFZxQhbTc0t jV5~itmYJEiDmbN5elxSBOvBihLXGoNw7faHv3hCen1BzkUQgB HnubcEBYNhGHoix8auOXkJE7sWYfcOe53OFuAq7Dz8Xwg4~xBa nVT1Wz3Q5hhV3HZfGwhPznyjzjQTyvo5nPazV7nfT78VncRWTE S~BO3gQQtM3ap1l3nyLbCWjK3dHRKffpeXb8-6wi37TiQ7pRuRrpErQFI2DyyqMQ86umhCiRdyF5-B2L4Id456hCjFB1r3vL3Sl4xtDXAA__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJKNBJ4MJBJNC6NLQ."]

One of the photo plates in the book contains a 1987 photo of D445’s Colonel Bao.

Another from the same trip, shows Burstall in conference with Colonel Nguyen Thang Hong (Hai), one-time commander of the VC forces at Long Tan.