Fire Support Patrol Base (FSPB) coral remembered

This article is a selection from a larger thesis titled 'Our guys were very good. We were a very capable battery; in fact we were an arrogant bunch. We were good', submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (Honours), University of Wollongong 2014. The thesis's purpose is to provide an account of the role played by seven veterans who fought in the Battle for Fire Support Patrol Base (FSPB) Coral, 12 May to 6 June 1968 in South Vietnam. Concentrating on 12 and 13 May, the veterans' memories challenge the account given in On the Offensive: The Australian Army in the Vietnam War 1967-1968,1 the Official History series devoted to the Vietnam War. The thesis allows seven veterans the chance to tell the story of FSPB Coral in their own words, to set the record straight as they see it. The veterans are: Capt Donald Tait, Lieut Ian Ahearn, Bombardier Laurence D'Arcy, Gunners Thomas Carmody, Robert Costello and David Thomas from 102 Field Battery Royal Australian Artillery, and Lieut Anthony Jensen, second-in-command Mortar Platoon, 1RAR.