1971

Bumps in the Night

John Sinclair

Night, stand-tos and Gunners, calls to mind the one operational stand-to we had in my time at Nui Dat. The order to stand-to was given by Sector Defence just as the Task Force siren, and other Unit sirens started wailing. The Duty Officer sounded ours, which thanks to Claude Palmer and his mob, was of such a superior design it outsounded everyone else's in the Task Force. It was top rooster. It was loud enough to wake the dead but not the OC, who had to be roused.

We stood-to in pitch darkness at about 1 or 2 in the morning, and for some time, but all was quiet, except, that is, for the Gunner's occasional rounds of harassing fire.

And that was what caused the Task Force to stand-to.

A classmate of mine from Duntroon, who commanded another unit, was woken from a deep sleep by the whistle of the harassing fire passing overhead and thought it was incoming and raised the alarm.

It is not just EME Officers that can have troubles because of the Gunners