Louise Markus (Greenway, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On indulgence: I rise to honour the life of Private David Fisher, whose remains were finally brought home to rest on Friday, 10 October at the RAAF Base Richmond, in my electorate of Greenway. A funeral for Private Fisher was held yesterday in Sydney, and I understand that the Hon. David Johnston, shadow minister for defence, attended.

The story of Private Fisher is one of courage, selflessness and duty to his country. The repatriation of Private Fisher is a story of patient persistence by a number of people: by Mr Brian Manns and Major Jack Thurgar of the government investigation team, who were instrumental in locating Private Fisher’s body, and by Jim Bourke and his team at Operation Aussies Home, who worked hard to have repatriation cases like Private Fisher’s brought home. It has taken 39 years to recover Private Fisher’s body from the jungles of Vietnam, but he is home at last.

Private Fisher joined the Army as a volunteer and became a member of the Special Air Service Regiment, SASR. He tragically fell from a rope, approximately 200 feet in the air while suspended below a RAAF helicopter during a ‘hot extraction’ of his SASR patrol at Nui May Tao, 32 kilometres north-north-east of Nui Dat. A hot extraction involves a rapid extraction, often under enemy fire, in which soldiers are suspended by ropes below a helicopter until a suitable and safe location allows them to load on board. Despite an immediate air search by the aircraft involved, followed by a light helicopter search and subsequent ground patrols from the SASR led by the squadron commander and two infantry rifle companies over a 10-day period, no trace of Private Fisher was found.

Those of us who have never faced battle can only imagine the horror of those days and the tragic loss felt by the members of Private Fisher’s Special Air Service unit. To seek and not find their mate, their brother in arms, and then to have to leave him behind I am sure left an indelible sense of loss, which repatriation to Australia, to his final resting place, could only help to give some sense of closure.

The special bond the Special Air Service unit had with Private Fisher has held fast across the years and was strongly evident as former members of his unit accompanied his casket home. It was a very moving moment when Private Fisher’s former commander in Vietnam, retired Colonel Reg Beesley said, ‘I can now close the roll book’ and referred to Private Fisher as ‘one of his lads’. I was privileged to attend the repatriation ceremony and to see the outpouring of love and respect for Private Fisher. He was respected as a soldier and as a man. He will be honoured as a soldier who paid the ultimate price for his country. His name is entered on the Roll of Honour and will never be forgotten.

The repatriation ceremony held last Friday was a sombre affair. I spoke to Private Fisher’s family and met with his step-mother, Peg. Also there were his sisters Annie, Julie and Penny; his brother-in-law Peter; and niece Nicci. They spoke of the hope they had held in their hearts that David would have been found alive, despite the reality of time and geography.

Private Fisher was the last of four Australian Army soldiers lost on operations and not recovered during the Vietnam War. Two of the other soldiers, Lance Corporal Richard Parker and Private Peter Gillson, were repatriated to Australia in June 2007, and Lance Corporal John Gillespie was returned in December 2007. There are still two Royal Australian Air Force personnel, Flying Officer Michael Herbert and Pilot Officer Robert Carver, still unaccounted for.

Earlier I mentioned Jim Bourke from Operation Aussies Home. I would like to acknowledge again his tireless efforts to locate and repatriate our servicemen and women. His work brings comfort to grieving families, mates and comrades. For the wider community, the repatriation of servicemen and women brings home the danger that the men and women in the Army, RAAF and Navy face in the service of our country. I wish Jim Bourke and his team well in their endeavours to recover all of Australia’s lost sons and daughters and bring them home.

As Private Fisher is laid to rest, our thoughts go out to the families of all servicemen and women who have laid down their lives in the service of this country. We as a nation salute their service and honour their memory.

Steve Gibbons (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On indulgence, I too take this opportunity to make some remarks about the return to Australia of the remains of Private David Fisher. Private Fisher was a member of the Special Air Service Regiment and was killed in action in Vietnam on 27 September 1969. He fell from a helicopter while helping to extract an SAS patrol from Nui May Tao. Despite the extensive searches at the time, his body was unable to be located. Thanks in particular to the tireless efforts of former Lieutenant Colonel Jim Bourke and Operation Aussies Home, his remains were recovered and returned to Australia last Friday, 39 years after he gave his life for his country.

Private Fisher is the last Australian soldier to be returned from the Vietnam War. Last year, I, along with a former member for Cowan, Mr Graeme Edwards, my good friend, had the privilege of playing a small part in the return of two other Australian diggers missing in Vietnam. I refer to Lance Corporal Richard Parker and Private Peter Gillson. I am indebted to the 7RAR website for this account of the events that led up to that. It reads:

On the 8th of November 1965 A Company (1 RAR), led by Major John Healy, headed across the northern edge of Gang Toi plateau. Around 1030 hrs, 3 Platoon had a contact—

resulting in one enemy casualty. It goes on:

Later on, 2 Platoon found an unoccupied company sized position consisting of fighting pits and dugouts and a little later were fired upon without casualties.

The enemy had escaped again. Later 1 Platoon established another contact and two more enemy casualties were the result. It goes on:

The order of march was changed to 1 Platoon followed by Company Headquarters, the 2 Platoon with 3 Platoon coming up the rear. (1 Platoon was under strength and only had two sections of seven men instead of three of nine). Corporal [Richard] Parker’s section was up front in thick jungle moving towards the feature known as “Hill 82” and the whole Company was in single file, stretched out over almost 300 metres heading towards the top of the plateau.

As the lead section reached the top, the [enemy] opened fire with devastating effect, using three or four well-placed machine guns backed up with other small arms and grenades. The lead section took several casualties almost immediately, then, when the section moved up in support, their Section Commander was also wounded. Two of the wounded from [Lance Corporal] Parker’s section managed to crawl back to the rest of the platoon. Parker lay in front of the enemy gun and was hit again and again. The platoon was pinned down in a vicious crossfire. 3 Platoon meanwhile—

accounted for two more of the enemy—

along the creek line below the action at the top of the plateau. Major Healy asked Clive Williams (3 Platoon Commander) to move up to the left of 1 Platoon and sweep through in assault formation. Reaching the high ground, 3 Platoon formed up in extended line and began the assault and soon struck another strong enemy force on their flank. Using fire and movement, they continued their advance when Private Peter Gilson, a machine gunner, was hit and fell into a tangle of tree roots that he was trying to negotiate while trying to get a better firing position. He was only15 metres from the enemy. Two [of the enemy] tried to get his gun but the wounded Gilson raised himself and shot them at point blank range. 3 Platoon tried to press home the attack but the enemy fire was too intense.

A stop was called to the assault as the Platoon realized they were being outflanked. The Platoon Sergeant, Col Fawcett, crawled forward under heavy fire to try and retrieve Gilson’s body. He managed to feel for a pulse and found none, then made several attempts to retrieve the body but each time sustained bursts of fire hit Gilson. (He later told … he felt rounds striking the body as he was trying to pull Gilson clear). Sergeant Fawcett later received the Military Medal for his bravery under fire. 3 Platoon looked like being cut off from the rest of the Company and were forced to withdraw.

With the support of the highly accurate New Zealand artillery, the Company used fire and movement to extract themselves and the wounded from the killing ground and [accounted for] two more [of the enemy] in the process. They were unable to recover either Parker or Gilson’s bodies. The men of A Company never forgot the horror and perceived guilt of leaving their mates behind.

I am indebted to the 7RAR website for that historical information.

Many members of this House will remember the continuing concern of our former colleague Graeme Edwards for both the victims and survivors of the Vietnam War, as well as his own sacrifice in that conflict. Graeme Edwards continues his passionate support and efforts for not only Vietnam veterans and their families but all Australian veterans and their families now that he has retired from his successful parliamentary career. Graeme and I were in Vietnam last April when, at short notice, we were invited to attend a ceremony at Bien Hoa for the handing over of the remains of Lance Corporal Parker and Private Gilson. It was a sad and sombre occasion, but we both felt that the presence of two members of the Australian parliament helped to convey a sense of importance and reverence all Australians have for their fallen servicemen and women.

Many people have been involved in the successful search and recovery of our diggers in Vietnam. I have already mentioned the role of Jim Bourke and the Operation Aussies Home team and I again pay tribute to their hard work. I had the privilege of meeting Jim Bourke in Bien Hoa last year and again at the RSL State Conference in Victoria later that year. Jim Bourke is a great Australian and deserves every accolade for his tireless efforts in repatriating Australian service personnel from various conflicts throughout our history, often under considerable personal difficulty. The efforts of Operation Aussies Home could not have been successful without the cooperation of the Vietnamese authorities. Graeme Edwards and I personally thanked the Vietnamese officials who attended the ceremony at Bien Hoa. We found the Vietnamese officials to be diligent, thorough and exceptionally cooperative and helpful. I note that the Prime Minister expressed the Australian government’s appreciation to the Prime Minister of Vietnam during his visit to Canberra recently. It is hoped that this close association will lead to the completion of the recovery task and the return to the two Australian airmen who are still missing in Vietnam—Flying Officer Michael Herbert and Pilot Officer Robert Carver.

It is often said that the war in Vietnam was an unpopular war. There was considerable opposition to Australia’s involvement in that conflict, just as today there is opposition to our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the various views on the rights or wrongs of our involvement are just as irrelevant to those who are fighting today in the burning sands of Afghanistan and Iraq as they were to those who fought in the steaming jungles of Vietnam all those years ago. In the end, the result is the same: our service men and women are asked to put their lives on the line by the democratically elected government of the day. They are asked to do this to preserve the principles that are the foundation of this nation, principles that ensure we have democratically elected governments and the freedom to be able to hold and express differing views without the fear of persecution or retribution—and that is something that is worth fighting for. The preservation of these freedoms is the reason this country has sent so many of its sons and daughters overseas since Federation. It is the reason that so much Australian blood has been spilled so far away from home, on the beaches, in the fields, on the high seas and in the air.

Unfortunately, in the case of Vietnam, we lost sight of this for many years. Veterans of earlier conflicts even said Vietnam was not a real war, but I can remember the horrendous images on the television news each night. From the comfort and security of my living room, it certainly looked like a real war to me, and it would have felt like a real war to those brave young Australians doing the fighting and helping to evacuate their dead and wounded comrades, and it was a real war for the families, friends and loved ones of the 520 young Australians who lost their lives.

During the 40th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan, the former Prime Minister, Mr Howard, in a superb speech in this House acknowledged the appalling treatment that our Vietnam veterans received on their return home. I am sure he spoke on behalf of all Australians when he said the nation had collectively failed those men at that time and ‘they are owed our apologies and our regrets’. His apology was an acknowledgment of their courage, commitment and sacrifice, and went a considerable way towards righting a terrible wrong, to removing the stain on our nation’s past. As the present Prime Minister said in the House on Monday, the passage of time does not diminish our great respect for the bravery and dedication of our service men and women, and their sacrifices will not be forgotten.

I would like to conclude this tribute to the contribution of Private Fisher by acknowledging his ultimate sacrifice in the service of his country. A military funeral was held for him in Sydney yesterday, and I would like to offer my personal condolences to his family and thank them on behalf of the people of central Victoria for his sacrifice on behalf of his nation.

Luke Simpkins (Cowan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On indulgence: it was a great day in late August when Private David Fisher’s remains were discovered, after a lot of hard work, and I would pay tribute to Jim Bourke and Operation Aussies Home, the Army History Unit and others that were involved—people who were motivated and dedicated to getting this job done, to bringing an Australian serviceman home.

Private Fisher met his death on 27 September 1969, and the majority of my comments today are focused on paying tribute to him and the circumstances under which he served and paying great respect to the efforts of the Special Air Service Regiment in the Vietnam War. Of course, the SAS have a great history of service throughout many conflicts. When you look at the conditions under which battles were fought—very small battles sometimes were fought in Vietnam—it is a great tribute to the way these guys operated in their small patrols. We know that in Private Fisher’s case there were five people on the patrol, including a medic, and that that patrol took place over seven days. It is my understanding that over the first six days there was no contact with the enemy as they moved around through the jungle, apart from seeing signs of them. It was only on the seventh day, 27 September 1969, that there was actually contact with the enemy.

I have found some information as to what Private Fisher was actually carrying at the time of his death. It really does show that these guys are very special in being able to operate in these very small groups for a protracted period of time. I am sure there would have been resupplies, but we are talking about a lot of weight here and these guys were yomping around in the jungle. Two hundred rounds of 7.62mm ammunition in three magazines—probably more—is a very significant weight, let alone a Claymore mine with a delayed fuse, grenades, white phosphorus, two normal explosive grenades, two smoke grenades, a radio set, a fuel pack, basic webbing and four full water bottles. These men were carrying a lot of weight over a long time.

If you look at the context of that last date, we know that there were basically two contacts: that first contact where they encountered eight enemy and apparently four were killed by the Australians—probably two more as well—and then, as part of that withdrawal away from that contact, as is normal procedure, they again made contact with a larger group of enemy which then necessitated another withdrawal and the seeking of the hot extraction. Although there is some debate as to exactly what sort of foliage or canopy cover existed in the jungle in that particular area, clearly there was no landing zone, LZ, and that is why the five ropes were thrown from the side of the UH-1H Iroquois helicopter.

I guess the point I am trying to make, particularly with regard to the weight, is that this would have been a very difficult situation. There would have been the noise of the helicopter—or helicopters—from above. I understand that it was raining at the time. They would probably have been a bit tired, having made these two withdrawals and having fought just minutes earlier. To then be standing there and concentrating on clipping onto a bowline with a karabiner attached to themselves—and with their packs, their webbing and their rifles slung—would have been a time when distraction and a difficulty in concentrating was very likely.

I have not found anything that really suggests exactly what happened to Private Fisher. We all know that he fell from the rope. But, whether that was to do with the karabiner or with the bowline not being as good as it could have been or some other reason, it would have been an extremely difficult situation. As previous speakers have said, it was a situation that I do not think anyone here would have ever experienced. In my own military service I had some very limited experience in jungles and with helicopters, and it is very hard going. I remember one day in training—certainly nothing to do with combat—where it took us eight hours to move less than a kilometre through jungle. And obviously that was with no-one doing any shooting. It was careful movement, but the conditions were very difficult. On another occasion—and, again not that I have any great familiarity with this—a very exciting day in my military training was rappelling from a helicopter, not clipping on at the bottom but clipping on at the top and just rappelling out of the side of the helicopter. The way your heart is going and the way you are trying to concentrate hard make it a very difficult situation. And, again, these guys were there for seven days, with two fights minutes earlier, difficult conditions and heaps of weight. It was a unique situation that, as I said before, probably no-one here has ever had to deal with. It is a tribute to the professionalism of the SAS that they can operate under these circumstances.

What we know is that the plan was that they were going to have this hot extraction. They were to clip onto the ropes and be lifted out of the jungle and then moved on to another location, a safer location, and then they could jump inside the helicopter and move back to base. Some 800 metres from where they were picked up various witnesses saw Private Fisher drop from the rope from the height of some 200 feet. As was suggested by the inquiry afterwards, he probably would have died on impact with the ground or at the least shortly thereafter. So there was very little chance that he could ever have been saved after what happened to him, as you would imagine.

As I said before, Private David Fisher was a member of probably the most professional and effective military unit in the world. I believe that is the case today and I am sure it was the case then as well. These guys operated under extremely difficult conditions with the utmost professionalism and Private Fisher served his country exceptionally well. It is a great tragedy that he was lost, that he died that day. It was probably a greater tragedy that his body was not recovered at the time. But, due to the efforts of a lot of people and a lot of dedication, someone who served their country well has now been returned to this country and now lies in Australian soil. I pay tribute to Private Fisher and the SAS and give my best wishes to his family.

Mike Kelly (Eden-Monaro, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Support) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On indulgence, it gives me pleasure to rise in acknowledgement and commemoration of the life and service of Private David Fisher. It was a privilege for me to be in attendance at the ramp ceremony at Richmond last Friday, in the presence also of the Hon. Warren Snowdon, the Minister for Defence Science and Personnel, and the members for Greenway and Parramatta. In particular it was a very moving occasion in terms of the two speeches that were delivered by the minister and also by Major General Tim McCowan, a good friend of mine, currently the commander of the Special Operations Command. They highlighted all the service of David Fisher and the importance of that service to the Australian community and our heritage.

In addition to the presence of those people, we also had the members of the SASR, not only members of the regiment as a whole wrapping their family support, if you like, as part of the defence family around the surviving members of David’s family but also the members of the patrol and the unit that David Fisher served with. It was a very moving occasion for them. I do not think it can be well appreciated or imagined the intensity that forms in these relationships amongst these unit members. A very special bond is generated by not only enduring those difficult years of training but also surviving those intense contacts and conflict situations. I do not think anybody who has not been under fire can really appreciate just how heightened those situations are and the intensity of the relationships that are necessarily formed out of having to depend on someone next to you for your very life. It was very moving to see their response and their reaction as they formed the honour guard for the casket. For such hardened men, such heroic and courageous men, to see their emotional response to that situation was incredibly moving.

We also had in attendance the surviving members of Private Fisher’s family: his two sisters, Annie Cowdroy and Penny Fisher; a stepsister, Julie; and his stepmother, Margaret Fisher. It was very poignant for me to talk to Annie Cowdroy about the experience they had on that terrible day of learning the news, a day which has been experienced so many times by Australian families who have had service men and women involved in conflicts, when the car turns up, there is a knock at the door and the duty officer and the chaplain appear and pass on the shattering news that you have lost that loved member of the family. I certainly know what that is like because, in my Army career, I had to perform that duty. There is no more deeply impressing and difficult situation for a serving officer than to engage in that sort of duty. Certainly, you get to appreciate the cost to real people of the service and the loss of the incredible people in our Defence Force.

Also present on the day was Brigadier Billy Rolfe, who is involved with veterans and repatriation services. Billy Rolfe is a special person in my life; he recruited me into the Army, in fact. Billy Rolfe lost both legs in Vietnam in a mine incident, and he has always been a hero to me. Certainly, he represents to me just about all of the Vietnam veterans that I have had dealings with over the years. They are a very special group of people. In my training in the Army, they were the ones who provided me with military skills that enabled me to survive the various missions and deployments that I served on in my career. I am eternally grateful for the support of those Vietnam veterans who transferred those skills to me.

In recent times, I have had cause to be grateful to them again, when I entered into this political career. During the course of the campaign last year, there were tense moments when certain things were said in the heat of battle attacking my military service. Certain comments were made about me being a war criminal, a Nazi or a murderer because of my service in Iraq and Somalia. It was the Vietnam veterans who really rallied around me at that time. I note that they lived through some incredibly difficult experiences upon their return from Vietnam; the way they were received by the community and by both sides of politics was one of the more regrettable—in fact, disgraceful—episodes in our history. For them, those comments were very resonant of that experience, and I was extremely grateful for the way they rallied around me and supported me through that time. So I feel a special, personal debt to Vietnam veterans, and one of the reasons I wanted to speak about David Fisher today was not only to commemorate his service and his life but to speak on behalf of all Vietnam veterans. I certainly take it as a special responsibility of mine to represent the interests of veterans, being now, as I am, the last remaining member of the parliament who is a veteran.

The incident, as we have heard the member for Cowan describe it, was a traumatic circumstance. These men were engaged in combat against a superior enemy in terms of numbers. The Special Air Service, in its engagements in Vietnam and the long-range patrols, were involved in extremely tense episodes; short bursts of overwhelming concentration, endurance and courage were required. Normally they were in small groups and it was quite often a risk that they would come across larger bodies of the enemy, and so it was on the occasion when Private David Fisher was engaged in this contact involving possibly over 30 of the enemy. The contact resulted, as we know, in the need for what is called a ‘hot extraction’. During my time in the Army, I completed a helicopter assault course. Those courses themselves are testing in the risk that is involved in the training, but to combine the physical effort of engaging in extractions in these situations with the tenseness, fear and risks in having to do that in the face of the enemy, under fire, cannot really be appreciated or imagined.

The fact is that Private Fisher plummeted to the earth as a result of who knows what situation. The understanding that I have from talking to some of his fellow servicemen on Friday is that, while the karabiner is usually connected to the bowline in this sort of situation, it was possibly connected to an incorrect part of the rope and Private Fisher came loose as a result. Certainly, it was a 60-metre fall, so it is highly unlikely that he suffered in the end; it is likely that he would have died instantly from his contact with the ground.

You can imagine the absolute horror and grief for his fellow patrol members in experiencing that situation as well. Certainly, it was not something that they were prepared to let idly go by—just waving goodbye to Private Fisher and not attempting to relocate him. It is a bit of a sacred task and duty for every defence member in the Australian Army to try and bring home your colleagues and leave no-one behind. Certainly a massive effort was put into the attempt to relocate Private Fisher or at least his remains. The members turned around, after having been out there enduring great hardships on their patrols, immediately volunteering to go back out there and try and find Private Fisher. A massive effort was put into that. Unfortunately, notwithstanding that massive effort, they were not able to relocate him.

So, for all these years since that dark day on 27 September 1969, Private David Fisher has been lost to us as a defence family and lost to his own personal family and to his colleagues. It was a burning hole in their existence that he had not been brought home, but he was never forgotten. I think it is another enduring trait for defence members in the Australian Army, and indeed the Australian Defence Force as a whole, that you will not be forgotten.

Recently, of course, we had the formation of the Operation Aussies Home organisation. Jim Bourke and the wonderful people who have been involved in that have been supported not only by this government but by the previous government in their efforts to try and bring home those wonderful service personnel who we had not managed to bring home so far. Certainly, when I used to go on my jogging runs past the Vietnam War Memorial and see the references there to the missing, it always left a little tug in my heart that there were these members of the Defence Force of our own community in a foreign land who we were not able to bring home. It was just wonderful to see that through the efforts of Operation Aussies Home we have been able to relocate a number of the remains and bring home many of our personnel.

In 2007 three sets of human remains were located and recovered, including those of Lance Corporal Richard Parker and Private Peter Gillson, of the 1st Battalion Royal Australian Regiment—‘True Blue’, as we call it—which I was privileged to serve with in Somalia. It is a very proud unit, and it was a great joy to all former serving members of the 1st Battalion to have been able to bring Lance Corporal Parker and Private Gillson home. In addition, we were able to locate and bring home Lance Corporal Gillespie, an Army medic involved in an aircraft accident or downing in Vietnam. His body has also been recovered.

With the repatriation of the remains of Private David Fisher, we have brought home the last of the Australian Army missing, but the job is not completed at this stage because we still have two of our people out there, two RAAF helicopter crewmen, and we are determined, of course, to continue our efforts to bring them home.

I must commend and give thanks for the efforts of the Vietnamese government and Vietnamese veterans in this effort. We had the pleasure of having the Vietnamese Prime Minister visit us recently and of having dinner with him here in Parliament House. The efforts and cooperation that we have had from the Vietnamese government have been outstanding. We certainly would not have been able to recover these remains without that assistance. I thank them very sincerely on behalf of the government and all Vietnam veterans as well.

It was heart warming to see the cooperation that we had from the veterans of the Vietnamese army. It was interesting to note that a Vietnamese soldier had actually attempted to bury Private Fisher’s remains in respect to him. He had moved his body into a shell scrape and attempted to effect a burial. There was respect there, and there is great respect now between the Vietnam veterans of our own Defence Force and the Vietnamese veterans. That is a wonderful link, a healing thing in itself, that we continue to encourage and see grow and flourish. I think that will be a feature of our relationship with Vietnam, as it has been a feature of our relationship with Turkey in the bonds that have been forged from conflict, notwithstanding that we were on opposite sides of those conflicts.

The story of how Private Fisher’s remains were identified was an interesting one in itself. I will not go into all the details of that, but it was a tremendous forensic effort as well, and it must have been a great joy to have been able to identify the fact that some of the equipment there was unique to the SASR and its service in Vietnam. That has led, of course, to the confirmations that we have had since then.

David John Elkington Fisher was a special individual, so it is important that we remember the individual himself. He was a very, very dedicated member of the SAS Regiment. He was a volunteer during a period when national service was first generated in terms of the random selection process. He wanted to avoid that and volunteered his service. His father had been a distinguished bomber pilot in World War II and had transferred to the RAAF. Poignantly, given that the ramp ceremony was held at Richmond, David’s father’s first posting in Australia was to RAAF Base Richmond, so in a sense it was a coming home in many ways. This family has rendered service to the cause of freedom and democracy over many decades in that context.

David himself was one of those people, one of those forces of nature, who seeks to contribute to society in any possible way he can. He had enormous and boundless energy in that respect. I note that he was a rugby boy and played rugby for the Mosman rugby union club. He was very much a rugby tragic like me. On behalf of the rugby community and the parliamentary rugby side, I would like to pass on our condolences to the family and remember one of our own in that respect as well.

David Fisher’s life was special. His service was special. No-one can really appreciate the physical demands and skills that are required of SAS soldiers. They are a breed apart in many respects. To lose any one of them is a great loss. To lose any person is a great loss.

The importance of these situations for the Vietnam veterans as a whole is that they are just another step towards the closure that Vietnam veterans seek. I mentioned the treatment to which they were subjected when they returned home, and I do not think people can appreciate some of the extremely insensitive and cruel aspects of that treatment. To go into these situations of enormous tension, to have to do the things that they did, to kill in the name of your country, and then to come back to your country and be vilified for that effort, when it is even more important for people like that that the society and the community wrap around them to support them through the withdrawal process after their having been in those situations—to have that pulled from under them and to have the value of what they did questioned was the removal of a very significant psychological prop that is essential for a veteran. It is little wonder that that created the problems that it did in the way they struggled to reintegrate into society.

It has been a great privilege for me since the Rudd Labor government have taken office for us to have been able to help bring to Vietnam veterans in general some resolution of longstanding issues that should have been sorted out well before now through the periods of governments of both descriptions. In particular, I refer to the 2nd D&E Platoon soldiers who for so long had been denied recognition of their very existence as a subunit—and of course the extreme gallantry and effectiveness of the service that they rendered in many very difficult battles and situations. I salute their service. It is wonderful that we have now at last put that issue to rest and that they have been recognised. They were certainly extremely grateful for that.

In addition, at last, after 40 long years, we have been able to bring to a closure the Long Tan saga, a situation that should not have been allowed to continue as long as it did. Certainly, in our long discussions with those veterans and with Harry Smith in particular—a man of enormous principle, courage and dedication who was determined, with whatever breath was left in his body, to ensure that his soldiers were properly recognised—we have been able to resolve that issue for him and for his veterans. I note that a review was finally commissioned by the previous government on the matter, but the review itself only went as far as providing some resolution for Harry Smith himself and for the former Lieutenants Sabben and Kendall.

It was a highly significant engagement that led to the breaking of the back of the VC and North Vietnamese army effort in the Phuoc Tuy province. The significance probably was not completely appreciated at the time. I felt that we needed to recognise all of those who participated in that battle. I was pleased to represent in rugby Delta Company of the 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, another very proud unit of the Army and a company which contributed a great deal to the security of the force at the time. That effort at Long Tan was an attempt to destroy the Australian task force altogether, and so that effort was blunted in this battle, against great odds.

It was a pleasure for me to argue the case for these veterans to obtain the former South Vietnamese government unit citation that was denied to them at the time. It had clearly been the intention of that government to award that decoration, and it was only bureaucratic nonsense that prevented that from happening. So I am really delighted that we have been able to push through that measure as well, in recognition of all of the diggers who put their lives on the line in that battle and, of course, the many who lost their lives in that battle.

The return home of Private David Fisher is another episode in seeking closure for our Vietnam veterans. I would like to finish with this comment: David Fisher, welcome home, cobber; you are not forgotten.

Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On indulgence: it was my privilege to be at the Richmond airbase last Friday, 10 October, when Private David Fisher finally came home. We lost David Fisher on 27 September 1969, when he fell from a rope under a helicopter into thick jungle in Xuan Dong province in Vietnam, and it has taken us 39 years to find him and bring him home. The story of Private David Fisher is one of courage, loss and mateship, and before I talk about the courage of the man I would like to pay tribute to the loyalty and commitment of his mates, who did not forget their mate during the 39 years that he lay on foreign soil.

Private David Fisher was one of six Australian servicemen killed in action during the Vietnam War whose bodies were not recovered: four solders and 2 RAAF aircrew. In 2002, a group of Vietnam War veterans began working to find them and bring them home. They called themselves Operation Aussies Home. After four years of painstaking work and calling attention to their cause, the Deputy Chief of the Army, Major General Gordon, directed the Army History Unit to investigate the possibility of locating and recovering the remains of our four missing soldiers.

In April 2007, the remains of Lance Corporal Richard Parker and Private Peter Gillson were found, and the remains of Lance Corporal John Gillespie returned home in December 2007. The fourth Australian soldier, Private David Fisher, was located and returned home finally last Friday. Mr Jim Bourke from Operation Aussies Home was there to welcome him to see the finish of what he had started some six years ago, and some of his comrades in arms from that time told me about the way they plan to change the plaques at the Vietnam War Memorial. There have been six plaques with the names of the soldiers and ‘missing in action’ engraved on them in front of the war memorial; four of them will now have ‘no longer missing in action; home at last’.

The government continues to work to locate the remaining two RAAF personnel. Two Australian airmen, Flying Officer Michael Herbert and Pilot Officer Robert Carver, are still missing, and we hope that in time we may also find the remains of these missing airmen and bring them home as well. But I think it is fair to say that it was the work of a group of Vietnam vets who would not let the matter rest until they had brought their mates home that resulted in the Army and the government’s involvement and their commitment to seeing all our servicemen come home.

I would like to pay a special tribute to David Fisher’s mates who escorted him on the journey: Colonel (Retired) Reg Beesley, David’s former commanding officer in Vietnam; Dave Lewis, National President of the SAS Association; Dennis Mitchell; Rod Wallis; Mick VanDroffelaar, David’s patrol commander; Mick Malone; John Cuzens, who was a member of David’s patrol; and John Matten. They showed great dignity, and the respect and the care that they showed for Private David Fisher on his return tells us much about David but also much about them and the relationship that they shared. It was extraordinary to see so many of the men of the 3rd Squadron of the Special Air Service Regiment there at Richmond airbase to see the last of their company return home. There were also Vietnam veterans from our Vietnamese allies, now Australians, who fought alongside us. They were there to pay tribute to the Australians who risked their lives and sometimes gave their lives fighting for freedom in their homeland.

Private David Fisher was lost on 27 September 1969 after the culmination of three days of intense action by the members of the Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol No. 11 of the 3rd Squadron of the SASR. The Minister for Defence described the circumstances that led to the loss of Private David Fisher at the ceremony on Friday, and I will draw from part of that description:

[The patrol] had been deployed on a reconnaissance mission west of the Nui Mao Tao Mountains, a strategically important base to the opposing force.

The area was heavily contested and patrol 11 had sighted the opposing soldiers on a number of occasions and been engaged by them twice.

On the last occasion, a force of 30 soldiers had fired upon them using automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenades. The contact was fierce and deadly.

It is against this backdrop that the Squadron OC ordered the ‘hot extraction’ of the patrol to take place.

The RAAF mission leader, given the dangerous situation on the ground, decided to deploy with a Heavy Fire Team consisting of three helicopter Gunships to protect the SAS soldiers and the three ‘slick’ helicopters to be used in this dangerous mission.

The Mission Leader anticipated and indeed expected fire to be directed onto his aircraft during this ‘lift’.

It was under these circumstance that Private David Fisher lost his life, falling 60 metres into the jungle below.

Despite searches over the following days, the body of David Fisher was not recovered.

Private David John Elkington Fisher had, until August of this year, been lost to us after he fell from a rope beneath the helicopter during that hot extraction in now Xuan Dong commune of Dong Nai Province in Vietnam. And what happened to David after this remained a mystery until Major Jack Thurgar and Mr Brian Manns and their team engaged in precise investigative work and driven research that revealed his final resting place only a month or so ago. Then on Friday, 10 October 2008, one of Australia’s truly brave and courageous sons came home.

Nothing I can say about David’s family, who were there on Friday, can repay them or compensate them for the loss of their son and brother so many years ago in the defence of our nation. But I would like to acknowledge the family and friends of David Fisher. The loss of David was first and foremost their loss and, after watching them on Friday, I cannot even imagine the pain at that time and the feelings that they must have had watching David’s remains finally brought home to be laid to rest. That his sacrifice did not go unnoticed by a grateful nation is a message that we well and truly must give to that family.

I also thank David Lewis, the National President of the Special Air Service Association, who freely gave his time, care and support to the Fisher family over many, many years. Private David John Elkington Fisher was just 23 years old when he served and sacrificed his life. It took us 39 years to bring him home, and we salute him for his service and finally welcome him home.