Exceptional Personal Bravery
The Vietnam War does not readily spring to mind when considering the award of a VC, and yet four were earned there by Australian soldiers during the late 1960s.*
Keith Payne was born at Ingham, Queensland, on 30 August 1933, and after school and apprenticeship as a cabinet maker, he joined the Australian Army in 1951.
After service at home, Japan, and in Korea, he returned to serve again in Australia before deployment during the Malayan emergency. Other service at home and overseas followed and he ended up with the Australian Army Training Team in Vietnam in February 1969.
In May 1969, when Warrant Officer II and commanding the 212th Company of the 1st Mobile Strike Force Battalion, the unit was attacked by a strong enemy force. His company was isolated and, surrounded on three sides, Payne’s Vietnamese troops fell back.
Payne, wounded in the hands and arms and under heavy fire, covered the withdrawal before organising a defensive perimeter. He then spent three hours scouring for isolated and wounded soldiers, all the while evading enemy troops, who kept up harassing fire.
He eventually found 40 wounded men, brought some in himself and organised the rescue of others, leading them back through enemy-dominated terrain. Years later, asked whether he was afraid, he replied: “My God yes, yes, I was.”
Payne’s actions earned him the VC, the full details being detailed in the citation below. He received his VC from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia, in Brisbane, on 13 April 1970.
He received the Distinguished Service Cross and the Silver Star from the United States, and from the Republic of Vietnam the Cross of Gallantry with Bronze Star. He retired from the army in 1975 but saw further action as a captain with the Army of the Sultan of Oman during the Dhofar War.
Today, Keith Payne is the only living Australian holder of the old ‘Imperial’ Victoria Cross which has now been replaced by the Victoria Cross for Australia. (see also page 115)
In recent years, Keith Payne donated his VC and impressive group of medals to the Australian War Memorial, Canberra. *The other three Australian soldiers who earned a VC in Vietnam were: Major Peter Badcoe, WO Kevin Wheatley, and WO Ray Simpson. Of these, the awards to Badcoe and Wheatley were posthumous.