Private Brown by Kelly Parkin

Photograph of Private Brown, taken by Private Dickson.

Tonight, I would like to express the tragic loss of a brave young man. At the age of 22, Private Lindsay Noel Brown, was lost to the overwhelming impact of artillery fire in 1967. A significant death, that left his wife and family with heartache that could not be healed, and left his comrades with immense pride and sorrow.

Through the tough experiences, unbreakable bonds were formed, and the mates of Lindsay’s were like none other. They were also his brothers. One of his mates took the photo that is shown above. His name is Graedon Dickson, and was a young Australian Private, like Lindsay. He expressed his gratitude of sharing his war service with the -“kind, down-to-earth, gentle” man that Lindsay was.

Graedon had also experienced the same horrific event, but had also endured the pain of returning to his country, that had been overwhelmed with disgraceful comments and dishonourable actions towards the surviving veterans. These men are just as important as those who passed within the foreign lands of Vietnam, as some also passed, or struggled, when they reached home due to the mental destruction that was inflicted, and strengthen, from the changed society, and reality.

Lindsay’s background prior war service:

Lindsay Noel Brown was born on the joyful Christmas day of 1945, in Bendigo, Victoria. He was a true Mallee boy, with a childhood that consisted of days attending the local primary school, and completing simple farming tasks. He grew up on his family’s farming property known as “Glen-Alvie”, located at Upper Lurg near Benalla.

He grew up closely with his twin brother, Rob, and younger sister, Ruth.

Lindsay possessed a friendly personality, that was often shown through his luminous coloured striped socks. Lindsay was a fun loving, but responsible man, and was regularly known to be cheerful, as he always greeted his mates with a common saying “how’d you be?”.

He began his career with the successful completing of an intermediate technical certificate course at Benalla Technical College, at the young age of 15. He then went to work for BV Reynold Chains, as an apprentice fitter and turner.

Lindsay continued his apprenticeship until January 1967, where he finally became a professional fitter and turner, in which made his family immensely proud.

Just before this occurred, Lindsay meet the love of his life, Lorraine, and began his first relationship. He was expressed as an earnest young man, and was keen to settle down with Lorraine, and have children. Lindsay wanted to live out a happy and peaceful life, where he could freely work on his cherished cherry red FJ Holden, whilst helping his mates, by making extractors for their cars.

Lindsay’s potential car.

Unfortunately, the day that every family dreaded, had disrupted his simple-life dream. Just a couple days after Lindsay began to settle down with his companion, and suited career, Lindsay’s winning ball was called out of the deceiving lottery. The lottery had essentially stolen his future family life, and replaced it with military training at Puckapunyal, and two years of National Service in Vietnam.

Lindsay possessed traits that made him a “potential officer”, and was noted as a “polite and well dressed” healthy man. Unfortunately, his twin brother was deemed unfit for service, which prominently affected him long term, after the news of his Lindsay’s death…

After Lindsay’s intense military training, himself, and Lorraine, were married. Unfortunately, soon after they celebrated Christmas, and Lindsay’s birthday, that same year, Lindsay was promptly deployed, and sent to Vietnam to fight in a catastrophic war that he didn’t quite understand. As he left the Australian shores for the first time, he unknowingly said his final goodbyes to his younger teenage sister, twin brother, wife, mother, and father – each one of them meaning the entire world to him.

Lindsay’s life and service in Vietnam: Balmoral/Coral

Private Brown was a part of D company, in the 3rd Battalion of The Royal Australian Regiment (3RAR). The men of this company spent most of their war service within the densest Australian involvement battles of the Vietnam War. The Fire Base attack at Coral, and Balmoral, which were located a few hundred kilometres North-East from Saigon (Ho Chi-Minh), in Bien Hoa.

The long days consisted of hard-working routines that strained the men. They had to construct shelter, sandbag barriers, constantly dig-in, practice shooting, clean their weapons, and eat the tinned food in which were supplied to the men from Huey’s. The Bell UH-1 Iroquois (aka "Huey’s"), were mesmerizing machines that successfully aided the Australian troops with their required materials, medical evacuations, and heightened artillery fire. The Helicopters impacted on many individuals lives, as they saved many wounded men, like Graedon.

These images were taken by Private Graedon Dickson from the grounds of Coral, before himself, and the remaining men of D company, were sent to Balmoral. 

The battle front, varied from a dense forest, to an open-field, like no-man’s land. Like the terrain shown in the images of Coral, the terrain at Balmoral were expressed by Graedon to look like a dried-up swamp, that was soon disrupted with heavy rainfall not long after the arriving of D company.

Within these terrains, nearly every morning, every night, during any weather condition, whether it be heavy rain pour or thick humidity, the men were ordered to dig in. They dug the pits, in which were supposedly make-shift trenches. These pits were significant with Lindsay’s falling, as they were the only barrier that produced armoured protection from the constant artillery fire of the NVA forces, and was the place where Lindsay took his last breath. An example of the digging-in is being passed around as a coloured print, and is a photograph of Graedon.

Home sweet home!

The forests hid thousands of ambitious killing men who were ready to strike abruptly at any time. The Aussies were strongly reliant on the advanced artillery, but we lacked experienced individuals. Whereas, the thousands of North Vietnamese individuals were comprehensibly stronger, as they each contained an impressive amount of military knowledge that helped their logistics, resourcefulness, and field skills. They also took advantage of using their knowledge of the vegetation to create deadly weapons, traps, and concealed bunkers. With this in mind, Lindsay and his mates had to endure dangerous patrols multiple times a day, and search for the concealed men, which strained the men both physically and mentally, as they also had to have the courage to look into suspicious holes in the earth.

As told by Lindsay’s younger sister, Ruth; Lindsay had shown affection towards the Vietnamese children, as he hoped to have children of his own when he got home. With this goal in his mind, he was eager to get home as soon as possible to settle down and have a family. He had even began counting down the days that he had left in the stinking jungle. He had gained an infinite hate towards the severe continuous that himself, and his mates, had to endure every patrol, which occurred at least once a day. This information was expressed in his last letter to home to his family.

On the 13th of May, 50 Years ago, a common principle of the NVA’s offensive actions caused an abrupt concentration of force and surprise to the newly constructed Fire Support Base of Coral. The base homed Lindsay’s regiment, along with the 1 RAR, and some minor supporting units, who were assigned the task of preventing any retreating enemy soldiers from the major offensive action that had just occurred within the capitol city; Saigon. Consequently, the surprise attack to FSB Coral essentially offered superior military force to the undeveloped base, during the night, when most of the men were asleep, which caused the Australian forces to be caught off guard and vulnerable of defeat. Whilst this destructive attack occurred, the Aussies became strongly reliant on the advanced artillery support supplied from the mortar battalion, and machine gunners who were trapped by continuous waves of north Vietnamese soldiers that seemed to be multiplying from the ground a couple metres ahead. Thankfully, Lindsay had survived through this catastrophic mess, however, only to go through more battles that were increasingly horrific.

Lindsay’s conditions of his death:

Unfortunately, the night came, when Fire Support Base Balmoral’s second attack occurred, which had suffered a similar battlefront as the Fire Support Base Coral attack. At o’3 - 45 hundred hours, Lindsay, and many more nervous men, witnessed a green flare vividly light up the solemn night sky. This marked the beginning of another battle. The sky that had once offered Lindsay soothing support, had now changed abruptly into the familiar artificial weather of enemy artillery fire in a matter of seconds. The intensity of artillery rainfall was drastically altered within this attack, but was of similar density of what was witnessed at FSB Coral. Inversely, the Vietnamese soldiers were closer than those on the attack at FSB Coral, and were attempting acts of bravery to enter through the wire opening-that was earlier used as a doorway for the Mk 5 Centurions. Vietnamese men swarmed in from numerous hidden bunkers that were buried within the Earths soil, and continued to storm eagerly towards Lindsay, and his mates, wave after wave. An onslaught of mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, and machine guns, were used against the Australian troops, however, the blessed presence of the indestructible Centurions helped increase the impossibility of the enemies attempt to march through the barriers. As the attack went on, two Australian men were killed, and 14 men were wounded from 3RAR.

Private Brown was seen lifeless in his comrade’s arms; Private Ray McDonald, in an incomplete-pit that was made hastily the night before. Whilst struggling with a face wound, Private Ray McDonald, endured the pain from the blast that had potentially killed Lindsay. As this occurred, Private Barry Bryan, who was in the sentry duty pit, just eight metres away from his two comrades, eagerly crawled over the sturdy barriers, into the open grounds, as his instinct to save them had formed from his past war experiences. Whilst eagerly crawling towards the pit, Bryan was weakened with shrapnel wounds, but dismissingly powered on. Once he finally managed to successfully reach the pit, he aided the screaming of his mate, Ray, and agreed to Lindsay’s deceasing. Bryon was the last man to hold Lindsay’s lifeless figure for the last time in his arms before the Huey’s came in and took him away.

Private Bryan on piquet duty (similar set up as the sentry duty pit that was significant with Lindsay’s death).

Lindsay was only 22 years old when he was shot,

 and was deeply in love - and profoundly loved back - by his wife Lorraine. He was forced to farewell his twin brother, his mother, his father, and his younger sister, goodbye, from across the cold oceans, that separated the immense conflict from Australia’s soil. His body was thankfully sent back to his home-earth, and was laid to rest- peacefully - nearby the farm that he grew up in.

Lindsay was known to be a kind, down-to-earth, considerate man.

He was a true bloke, and true hero, who gave his life for us, and his comrades.

May he continue to rest in peace, and live on in our hearts. Amen.

Lindsay’s tombstone.

I would also like to thank the people who have kindly supported me throughout the researching of Lindsay’s life before, and during the war, and for the clearer understandings of what the men of the Vietnam conflict had to endure.

I would like to formally thank;

Ruth Prentice, for her personal story of how it affected herself, and the family,

 Graedon Dickson, for his personal photos and experience that he shared with me,

Jenny Dickson, for her valuable information, images, and support to help explain Graedon’s story, 

Ashley Ekins, for his expert knowledge on the FSB Balmoral/Coral, and a clearer view of the Vietnam war,

And a major thanking for Elspeth Grant, who has supported, influenced, and motivated myself-majorly-along this once-in-a-lifetime journey. Whilst offering cherished opportunities to meet a Military History expert, Australian Vietnam veteran, and having the ability to contact Lindsay’s sister, Ruth. Elspeth has truly influenced my passion for History as-a-whole, and has successfully developed an amazing understanding of significant history events.