(Pertinent, but essentially for the historians among us......) I was very interested to read this comment regarding the activities of the first recon platoon in Vietnam: '.....In 1966 during his service with the 5th Battalion Royal Australian Regiment in Vietnam, Lt Michael von Berg (MC OAM) was honoured and privileged to have been tasked to establish the first Reconnaissance Platoon in an Australian Infantry Battalion. Professor, Dr. Robert O’Neill AO, was the Battalions Intelligence Officer and Captain at the time. The platoon was trained by members of 3 Squadron SASR in country over a two week period and all other tactics, operational procedures, patrol methods and communication skills were developed “on the job” in the initial period of operational activity, to where the platoon became totally self-sufficient and capable in engaging in long periods on patrol and interdiction activities. (The platoons’ activities have been acknowledged in the book “Crossfire” by Peter Haran and Robert Kearney and Channel 9 developed the documentary “The Eyes of the Tiger”.) The establishment of the 5RAR Reconnaissance Platoon was ground breaking at the time and in some quarters questioned as to its role vis-à-vis SAS and its role, which was easily countered through the SAS being engaged in “long range recon patrols” up to 30,000 metres inside enemy territory and the Battalions reconnaissance patrols, filling the gap up to 10,000 to 12,000 metres and never out of direct artillery support range......' I say ‘interesting’ because this was exactly what the 2nd D&E Platoon did in May 1969- without ever having had that 2-week training by SAS which Lt Michael von Berg’s men got. Our ‘training’ for this new way of tackling the Viet Cong was a three-day stint of ‘watermanship training’ on tin craft in the mangrove swamps near Baria- entirely irrelevant to what was expected of us. The other difference (and of most significance) was that unlike 5RAR’s Recon patrol, we operated outside the range of artillery- just as SAS did. Many Vietnam veterans were outraged back in 2007/08 when we argued that we were doing the same job as SAS- unofficially. But Brigadier himself (Task Force Commander) later wrote that he regarded us as ‘assault troopers’- and that outraged the veteran community even more, especially the infantry contingent. Eventually, a former senior officer produced a letter to the Australian War Memorial to the effect that the Task Force had stood SAS down temporarily in May 1969- and that the 2nd D&E Platoon had effectively taken its place. So there we found ourselves on May 29th- a platoon of about 35 infantrymen split up into four locations facing an enemy force estimated (by SAS accounts) of up to 800 enemy….without an officer in charge or a sergeant, without a medic, and outside the range of artillery support. What we were, was expendable pawns in the pursuit of gallantry medals by a clique of senior officers wishing for a big result at that little, abandoned village called Thua Tich…….. But the bigger question is- if the 5RAR Reconnaissance Unit was formally recognised as a sub-unit of 5RAR, why isn’t the 2nd D&E Platoon officially regarded as a sub-unit of HQ Company? And if everything was above board, why does the AWM not release all the records about this platoon?