For those who are late on the scene, this is how the cover-up concerning the atrocities at Thua Tich (which resulted in the deletion of all trace of the 2nd D&E Platoon from the records of the war) was brought undone: - in 1972, I sought information about the platoon from Central Army Records (CARO) and was told the platoon didn’t exist. I didn’t pursue it at that time because I was still rehabilitating from war wounds, was uneducated, unemployable, and a wife and young family were my priority - in 2005 I completed the manuscript of ‘The War Within’ which included my recollections of the 2nd D&E Platoon and sought validating information from the Australian War Memorial as to its activities. Both the Director of the AWM (General Steve Gower) and the historian (Ekins) declared that the ‘2nd D&E Platoon’ had not existed and were not going to be swayed from that position. As far as it was concerned, only one such ‘D&E Platoon’ was recorded - together with a number of former members of this platoon, we began the process of validating it- and almost immediately located a large number of photographs held within the AWM’s own Photographic Collection (taken by army photographer Chris Bellis and civilian photographer, Dennis Gibbons) which clearly showed a number of men from the platoon in action at Thua Tich and en route to Xuyen Moc. We pointed out to the AWM that those men pictured did NOT belong to the generic D&E Platoon, put names to their faces, and asked…..so if they didn’t belong to the generic D&E Platoon or the 2nd D&E Platoon, where did they come from? - then, by analysing all the references to ‘D&E Platoon’ in the historical records held by the AWM (LOCSTAT records of incidents/actions/movements etc) we clearly established the fact that two D&E Platoons had to be operating simultaneously because some references indicated that the platoons were in action at the same time - but up to 30 kilometres apart - an enterprising young documentary-maker, Adam Rainford, then stumbled across a reference to the ‘new’ D&E Platoon in, of all places, the Engineer’s Narratives, dated 14th May 1969. It was the only record of the platoon that hadn’t been erased. The key word was 'new'.... - we referred the matter to the Minister for Veteran Affairs at the time (the Hon Bruce Billson MP). Billson ordered the AWM to investigate the matter. He received a response from the AWM that it had carried out a detailed search of all the records, but had found no record of any such platoon. We are now aware (from documents I gained under FOI) that that response to Billson had been ‘crafted’ by a team of bureaucrats using a template provided to them by the national historian, Ekins! In other words, they simply echoed the historian’s stance, and Billson had no idea that he had been deceived - three of us (former members of this platoon) then met with the Director of the AWM (General Steve Gower) the national historian (Ashley Ekins) and a public servant (Helen Withnell) at the AWM on the 18th May 2007 and presented our evidence (as well as personal testimonies). Curiously, Jim Riddle was not allowed to attend that meeting, despite being the key figure. They were shocked at the evidence we had gathered up to that point, but maintained their composure and position regardless. But, we had opened the door to the cover-up - at that same meeting, the AWM stuck to its story that it could locate no records of the platoon- however, they were now prepared to concede that TWO D&E Platoons had existed for about 5-6 weeks in May 1969 and that we belonged to the one of which there was no 'official' record. However, they were only prepared to call it a ‘discrete infantry force’ and conceded that it had been led by a junior non-commissioned officer (Corporal Jim Riddle). These were major developments - undeterred by the AWM's recalcitrance, we now took the fight to the wider veteran community and precipitated a vitriolic debate during which those of us who were pursuing the matter were mercilessly slandered by cowards hiding behind pseudonyms on web sites set up by senior ex-officers of the Australian Defence Force. It says much about the Defence Force that those web sites were administered by men who were despised by other veterans but who had found favour with significant persons in Defence- a convicted paedophile, Keith Tennant, and an admitted coward who had run for his life at the battle of Long Tan and left wounded mates behind- Sgt Bob Buick - two former senior army officers then declared publicly that the 2nd D&E Platoon HAD EXISTED BY THAT NAME (Major George Pratt and Major Barry Parkin). The AWM dismissed these statements by those two officers as ‘assumptions’- as if bureaucrats and the historian knew better than the actual officers who were directly involved - Senator Nick Xenophon then got involved and, like Billson before him, demanded answers of the national historian. It is an outrage that while the historian pretends to be wholly ‘independent and free of any external pressures’, before he sent his responses to Xenophon, he ran them by General Steve Gower first, for his approval. Gower subsequently made ‘alterations’ to those responses. Xenophon, unaware of the extent to which Senators and Ministers could so easily be deceived, was unaware of this and was satisfied by the response. There was no surprise about that. aSome politicians have short attention spans, especially if there's nothing in it for them - in 2008, Major Bill Houston of the Army History Unit finally conceded that two D&E Platoons HAD existed, and with that (plus all the other evidence collected) we presented our case to my local Member of Parliament, Jennie George MP) with whom I had clashed many times before (being on the other side of the political divide). Nevertheless, in turn, she took the matter to Parliament, and after a couple of months of analysis, the Parliamentary-Secretary for Defence Material, the Hon Dr Mike Kelly MP (who had not only been an army officer but a lawyer before entering parliament) issued a statement validating the existence and activities of the 2nd D&E Platoon and stated that it thereafter, ‘be forever enshrined in the histories of the war…’ (see the Kelly Statement, posted) - yet still, the bureaucrats and the historian at the AWM maintained their stance, thumbing their nose at the findings of the government - Ekins fronted a Parliamentary Hearing soon after and when the point was made that historians weren’t always right (even dealing with contemporary history) and when asked specifically about getting it wrong in relation to the 2nd D&E Platoon, misled parliament when he said, ‘…history is a process of evidence. More evidence accumulates and interpretations change over time. I am not going to go into the issue of the 2nd D&E Platoon, for which there was absolutely no evidence by the way, and the Memorial still holds to that position…’ (dismissing the first-hand evidence of the men who were there on the ground and which most historians accept as being the primary source of historical accounts) - the final deceit by Ashley Ekins would be to inform all- comers enquiring about this matter that the actions in which the 2nd D&E Platoon were involved would be ‘comprehensively’ covered in the final volume of the historian’s history of the war- ‘Fighting to the Finish’. This was the final slap the face to the men of the 2nd D&E Platoon, because Ekins DID do what he had promised- except that he gave all credit to the generic D&E Platoon led by Lt Ray Woolan and not to the 2nd D&E Platoon platoon led by Cpl James Riddle. It would come as no surprise to most that Lt Woolan came out of it with a Military Cross. Such deceit. - in 2012, I sought every possible document pertaining to the 2nd D&E Platoon from the AWM. I received some- none of which were particularly revealing, but 235 other documents were withheld. The question is- WHY? What has the AWM got to hide? (I actually know the answer, and they know that I know- but without that documentation we cannot move forward) THAT IS A BRIEF OUTLINE OF THIS MATTER TO DATE.