Raising 103 Signal Squadron for War
By Cliff King
Introduction
After some thirty five years
I feel that its time that I put on paper my recollections of the
Squadron from its inception until its disbandment in 1967. I
hasten to add that this is nearly all from memory except that the
dates shown are from my records.
At first I feel that I must
go back a little-bit to highlight where the number 103 came from.
I was posted to 1 Divisional Signal Regiment in
November 1962. I had just returned from a three year
posting in the United Kingdom and was posted to the Chief Clerk of
the Regiment. The Regiment at that stage was a
Pentropic Signal Regiment and consisted of five squadrons.
They were: 100, 101, 102, 103 and 104 Signal Squadrons.
Another Pentropic Signal Regiment was 3 Divisional Signal
Regiment with its squadrons numbered 105, 106, 107, 108 and 109.
3 Lines of Communications Signal Regiment had 110, 111 and
112 Signal Squadrons.
The Regiment did not operate in a five squadron format. It was an integrated regiment i.e. it had Australian Regular Army (ARA) and Citizen Military Forces (CMF) personnel. It was, I believe, intended that all sub-units were to have their CMF personnel as part of the appropriate squadron. It did not happen. The Regiment was formed on a three squadron basis. They were:
-
Command Operations Squadron (Command Ops) consisting of Australian Regular Army members of 100 Signal Squadron (Administrative Squadron), 101 Signal Squadron (Operating Squadron) Signal Centre etc. and 102 Signal Squadron which consisted of Radio Relay (B70s) etc.;
-
Combat Operations Squadron (Combat Ops) consisting of ARA members of 103 Signal Squadron (Infantry Brigades) and 104 Signal Squadron (Other Arms);
-
CMF Signal Squadron which consisted of all CMF personnel of all squadrons and included an ARA Administrative Officer and an ARA Squadron Sergeant Major (SSM). There was also a CMF SSM.
Very few personnel would
have known to which position on the establishment they were posted.
i.e. Majors were posted to the Regiment not to a particular
position. So were all personnel where
there was more than one trade. Another
example is a SSM. He would have been posted
to the regiment but not a particular squadron.
The position on the manning chart would be
determined by the Commanding Officer (CO). The
only personnel who would have known to which position they were
posted were those personnel who were filling the one slot on the
establishment e.g. the Commanding Officer, the Quarter Master (QM),
the Regimental Quartermaster Sergeant (RQMS), the Regimental
Sergeant Major (RSM), etc. Majors were from to
time moved around, such as from squadron commander to regimental
second in command. The same can be said of
SSM’s. One for example was employed as an
internal checker.
New D
On the 22 December 1964, 1
Divisional Signal Regiment was redesignated 1 Signal Regiment and
reverted to a three squadron regiment. These were
100, 101 and 102. It should be noted that from 22
December 1964, 103 and 104 were now spare numbers and were allocated
to the new independent signal squadrons when they were raised
officially, 103 on 6 December 1965 and 104 I cannot say for sure.
I believe that two squadrons in 3 Divisional Signal Regiment
would have suffered the same fate. There
were no changes in personnel but the manning detail was amended to
reflect the new establishment. The same three
squadron set-up was continued. At this time all
the other signal regiments names were changed.
3 Lines of Communications Regiment became 2 Signal Regiment.
3 Divisional Signal Regiment became 3 Signal Regiment.
Northern Command Signal Unit (Squadron?) became 4 Signal
Regiment. Eastern Command Signal Unit (Squadron
?) became 5 Signal Regiment. Army Headquarters
Signal Regiment became 6 Signal Regiment. 101 Wireless Regiment
became 7 Signal Regiment and a signal regiment in Brisbane, a
Citizen Military Force (CMF), signal regiment became 8 Signal
Regiment. All these regiments were known by their
number. There was no such thing as the First
Signal Regiment or Second Signal Regiment, as some units were intent
to call themselves.
During the middle of 1965 it
was decided to raise an independent signal squadron for service with
a brigade. This was to be called a "Task Force"
and was to become 1 Task Force. This name was
changed later, in
1 Signal
Regiment was charged with the task of fostering the raising of this
unit and in fact supplied the majority of the personnel and
equipment.
On 15 August 1965, the 20th
anniversary of the Victory over
The Officers, initially
were, Major Ken Taylor who was Officer Commanding (OC) Combat Ops,
Captain Reg Elder, recently returned from South East Asia, Lt Mick
Thorne, from Command Ops Squadron. I don’t recall
when 2Lt Bill Lawrie joined us.
After some four months
gestation period the Squadron was born on 6 December 1965.
All the personnel that had been placed in the embryonic
squadron on 15 August 1965 were posted to the new squadron (103
Signal Squadron).
The posting order came with my self
on the top of the order, next was Eddie Tarleton, then Ted Collings
etc.
All of the names were by rank order and
alphabetical within each rank.
The squadron
was still fostered by 1 Signal Regiment but was not under command of
the Regiment.
The strength of 103 Signal Squadron
at this stage was still approximately 80 personnel.
Major Ken Taylor was posted as OC on the 6
December 1965.
In February 1966, Major Peter Mudd
was posted as OC.
Major Ken Taylor had been
promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and posted as CO of 1 Signal
Regiment.
Captain Reg Elder and Lt Mick Thorne
left the Squadron.
Capt Duncan Spencer was posted
in as Troop Commander, Signal Centre Troop.
He
was employed as Squadron 2IC.
Lieutenant Bill
Elliott arrived on 13 April 1966 and was given the job as Radio
Troop Commander.
Second Lieutenant Bill Lawrie
carried out the day to day duties as Troop Commander of Signal
Centre Troop.
Since the inception of the
Squadron, training had been carried out in many areas. We exercised
both North and South of Ingleburn.
The Squadron
was able to deploy
very quickly and were able to move
at very short notice day or night and to commence operating a signal
centre in a few minutes of reaching the new site.
Contact drill was practised together with other minor infantry
tactics.
The OC also introduced some
forms of getting and keeping us fit. e.g. There would
be 'doubling days' when all members of the Squadron would move at
the double whenever they moved around the area.
Another one was that all members carried their weapons one day per
week. We came under some ‘comments’ from the
members of 1 Signal Regiment for this, but we put this down to them
being ‘un-informed’ or just plain 'sour grapes.'
It was water of a ducks back to us.
In January 1966 we received
some 16 National Servicemen and other personnel were posted in to
bring us up near to strength (124).
Training continued throughout the early months of 1966.
We knew where we going and every-one was as keen as mustard.
In March 1966 we were to go
across to Holdsworthy to deploy with Task Force for the first time.
We were all lined up ready to move when word was received
that Task Force was not ready to receive us. As
we were all ready to move it was decided that we would deploy to an
area South of Wollongong. On this night (12 March
1966) the Government announced that
Late in March we deployed
with Task Force to the Gospers Training Area. We
were flown in by Caribou aircraft. We were due to
fly out of a bush landing strip in the Holdsworthy area but due to
fog were not able to do so. We then had to make a
dash to the RAAF Base at
During the time spent at
Gospers we endeavoured to see if we could reduce the noise of the
generators. We even tried to bury the damn
things. This did help to some degree but was
doubtful whether this would work in
The Squadron was scheduled
to go to the Jungle Training Centre, Canungra in May 1966.
This did not happen as our movement to
About a month prior to
departure to
Deploying to Vung Tau, South Vietnam
By early April our equipment
was packed and ready for transportation to
Note: In
the history of the Corps in South Vietnam Vin Good is shown as Vin
Best. I was able to comment on the draft of
the history when a copy was given to the Signals Vietnam Veterans
Association for comment. This and several
other errors were pointed out and I assumed passed to the author.
This was not changed in the final document.
Just what can you believe of history books? This is now taken
as fact and it is not. So much for thorough research.
103
Sig Sqn members arrived at
Tan Son Nhut, Saigon on this Qantas 707
Photo supplied by Reg Dando
The Squadron flew, by
Qantas, during late April and early May. I flew out on 14 May 1966
to join the Squadron which was set up on the edge of the Back
Beach, Vung Tau.
During the descent into Saigon airport the Company Sergeant
Major (CSM) of Headquarter Company and myself were sorting and
passing equipment to all personnel on board. We
had been working for sometime with head down when I had to race for
the toilet as I was violently airsick with the result that my false
teeth (top only) went down the toilet. It took
more than nine weeks to get these replaced. Boy
our troops were well looked after!
1ATF including 103 Sig Sqn at Back Beach, Vung Tau
before deploying to Nui Dat
Photo supplied by Reg Dando
At Back Beach, all of our
stores were under tarps with the exception of those that we needed
for day to day use. Our own cooks were cooking
our meals.
It was about this time that
Task Force became known as 1 Australian Task Force (1ATF) to avoid
any confusion. We were to be under the command of
HQ II Field Force Vietnam (FFV)
of the United States Army. Our
area of responsibility was to be
During this time our radio
detachments were deployed where possible. 5RAR
and the Americans were clearing the area which was to be occupied by
Task Force. It was, during this phase that the
Force suffered its first casualty (KIA). This was
Private Noak, a South Australian National Servicemen.
The Task Force Commander Brigadier Jackson was after answers
as to what happened. I can just imagine the pressure that he was put
under by the politicians.
Vietnamese selling pineapples to
103 Sig Sqn members at Back Beach, Vung Tau
Photo supplied by Reg Dando
Early in June Task Force had
planned the layout of the 1ATF vcombat base and a
area had been chosen about 25km to the
North North East of Vung Tau.
Sergeant Gary Fizzell (Radio Troop Sergeant) and myself were given
the opportunity to do a reconnaissance from the air.
We took off in a UH-1 Huey from Back
Beach, Vung Tau in a chopper with no
doors. As we were climbing, and fast, I asked
Gary to pass the seat belts. We were sitting with
our toes out in mid air. His reply was that there
were no **** seatbelts. We hung on somewhat.
We flew over the area, a rubber plantation near the small
hill which was to be our combat base
called Nui Dat. We didn't see much.
You can't see much from a chopper doing some 80 knots at
tree-top height.
Huey doors open and flying
near Nui Dat.
Photo supplied from internet source
Sorry to leave you up in the air.
Further reading may be found in the Web Book
“Pronto in South
Vietnam 1962-1972 Chapter 4 – Task Force Signals” and
“Taking 103 Sig Sqn to War by Duncan
Spencer”.
L-R SSM WO2 Cliff King, Sig
John Murray, Cpl George Stevenson and Cpl Gary Street
Photo supplied by Cliff King
Cliff King was a long time member
of the Royal Australian Corps of Signals (RASigs) and
the first SSM of 103 Sig Sqn (15 August 1965 to 6 July 1967).
He later served in a
number of posting as a RASigs RSM before retirement.