ALBURY soldier Ernest Grant is among the Vietnam War fatalities whose unit was yesterday awarded a Unit Citation for Gallantry 43 years after the Battle of Long Tan.
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Private Grant, 20, a farm hand from Thurgoona, was among 17 members of Delta Company, 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, killed fighting communist Vietnamese forces on August 18, 1966.
Thurgoona’s Ernest Grant Park honours the soldier.
The Federal Government yesterday announced, after considering a report of a special inquiry, that it would make no further awards to individual soldiers in the battle but would award the citation.
The move comes 41 years after US President Lyndon Johnson awarded the Presidential Unit Citation (Army) to Delta Company but there was no similar unit award available in Australian or imperial honours at the time.
Vietnam veterans have long expressed dissatisfaction with decisions made about Long Tan in 1966, including a refusal to permit South Vietnam government gallantry awards to be given to Australians.
Private Grant, a Regular Army enlistee, was one of 14 soldiers from the Albury-Wodonga district who died at Vietnam and was a younger brother to twins Bob and Jack Grant.
Bob Grant, who recently moved from Albury to Nelson Bay, yesterday welcomed the new honour.
“It’s fantastic and well-deserved,’’ he said.
In a related move yesterday, Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Support Mike Kelly said a RAAF helicopter pilot, Flight Lieutenant Cliff Dohle, would be posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Medal.
This was the contemporary equivalent award to the Distinguished Flying Cross, the original award which senior officers recommended for him in 1966.
Editorial — page 16
