Coming home....Flying Officer Michael Herbert and Pilot Officer Robert Carver.
It was a controversial war but one that saw many young Australian men take up arms. Now finally, nearly 40 years after they went missing, the bodies of two young servicemen are to return home.
Australia’s commitment to the Vietnam war started off with just a light deployment in 1962 but throughout the course of the conflict more than 60,000 Australians were serving in Vietnam and it became one of the longest wars the nation has fought.
Flying Officer Michael Herbert, 24 from Glenelg, South Australia, and navigator Pilot Officer Robert Carver, 24, from Toowoomba, Queensland both died when their Canberra Bomber crashed whilst returning from a mission on November 3, 1970. Tragically it was around this time that Australian forces were being withdrawn.
The two men remained the last of the Australian servicemen to be recovered from the Vietnam region. Following a campaign by Operation Aussies Home, established by former infantry Lt Col Jim Burke, official interest was sparked in finding the six remaining Australian personnel who were still missing in the remote wilderness of Vietnam.ÂÂ
In 2007 the bodies of Lance Corporal Richard Parker, Lance Corporal John Gillespie and Private Peter Gillson were found and brought back home. Then last year Lance Corporal John Fisher was also discovered. Which left only the two airmen. They were considered the most difficult to retrieve because no-one was exactly sure where the Bomber had crashed.
But with the invaluable assistance of former North Vietnamese as well as many Vietcong soldiers and local villagers, the army history unit were able to access thick jungle in remote Quang Nam province. It was here that the crash wreckage was discovered, along with the remains of the stricken airmen.
Defence Personnel Minister Greg Combet personally offered his thanks to the “compassion and commitment” of the Vietnam people in assisting with the recovery. He also stated that: “Relatives of the two crew members have been advised of the discovery and air force will continue to keep them updated,” he added; “I hope finding the remains of the airmen will bring some comfort to the families.”
A timetable for the repatriation of the two men’s bodies has yet to be agreed between the Vietnamese and Australian governments, when that happens their families will decide arrangements for their funerals and burial in Australia.
It is hoped that Australia can now close that particular chapter of a war that saw 521 of its military personnel killed and 3,000 wounded.
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