Suggy's Men

RAAF Transport Flight Vietnam - The first RAAF Unit in Vietnam

Don Pollock

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English

Rtfv-35sqn Association
20 December 2023

Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000; Military history; Korean War; Military veterans

Summary
Details

In August 1964 Australia deployed six Caribou aircraft and 76 personnel to Vung Tau, South Vietnam, as the new unit, RAAF Transport Flight Vietnam (RTFV). In mid-1966 the unit was renamed No. 35 Squadron and remained in South Vietnam until February 1972. This small team of aircraft and support personnel marked the first deployment of an RAAF unit on operations since the Korean War and the first war in which Australians did not fight alongside British. With only six aircraft, Wallaby Airlines, as the unit's operation became known, notched up impressive statistics over its eight years of existence - 80,000 sorties flying 47,000 hours and carrying over 40 million kilograms of cargo.

RTFV was led for the first nine months by Squadron Leader Chris Sugden, DFC and Bar, a veteran of both the Second World War and the Korean War. Suggy was a generation older than most of the members of his unit and so became a defacto father figure to most of them. There is also no doubt he was looked up to by all and that he enjoyed the highest respect of every member of his unit, aircrew ground crew and support personnel, as well as the many United States and South Vietnamese personnel who came into contact with him.

This is the story, untold to date, of these first 76 members of RTFV, of Suggy and his men, how the unit came into being, and of the first nine months of its existence - a period of operations which in some ways was quite different to those of the remaining seven years the unit was deployed in South Vietnam.

By: Don Pollock
Imprint: Rtfv-35sqn Association
Dimensions: Height: 297mm, Width: 210mm, Spine: 15mm
Weight: 703g
ISBN: 9780646864631
ISBN 10: 0646864637
Pages: 214
Publication Date: 20 December 2023
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active