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CONSCRIPTS AND REGULARS
Commanding Officer felt that his resourcefulness and courage did much to ensure the prompt evacuation of the other wounded and reflected great credit on him. Lieutenant Dunn, who was quickly on the scene, wrote: The chopper (Dustoff 26) was overhead within 10 minutes but it took us till about 0830 to clear a path through the minefield to Tom and carry him out to the landing point. He was then on board within a minute. He would have been in Vung Tau in 10 minutes. The bravery and fortitude that Tom Bourke showed when very seriously wounded is remembered to this day as an example of his leadership and soldierly qualities. The resultant double leg amputation was a further tragedy for Sergeant Bourke, who had served on the battalion's first tour: his brother Michael (also a sergeant) had been killed in action in Vietnam with 1 RAR in 1965 and Michael's wife's first husband had also been killed in action in Vietnam. Both Private Christie (who lost his spleen) and Sergeant Bourke had to be returned to Australia on 27 July for further treatment. On 15 July at 2241 hours, 1 km north–north–east of the Horseshoe, 7 Platoon C Company was conducting a night fighting patrol with eleven men under Sergeant Edmonds' command. The conduct of these moving patrols was an indication of the skill and confidence of the battalion at this stage of its tour, as well as of the lessening capability of the enemy. The patrols were hazardous. In this case, the patrol saw an enemy about 12 m away from it. Corporal Bob Andrews, one of the section commanders, fired on the enemy who threw a grenade at him and quickly disappeared into the dark. Corporal Andrews was wounded but was able to remain on duty. Corporal McCabe was involved in an incident on 17 July at 0818 hours, 7 km north–east of the Horseshoe when he was in an ambush with Private Gissell and saw two enemy moving. He fired on them at a range of 30 m and, feeling that this was too far for a certain shot, moved forward quickly with a few of his patrol, sought out the enemy and killed them. They were Thanh Lam, a platoon commander of C2 of D445 and an unidentified squad leader from the Reconnaissance Platoon of C5 of D445. The documents they were carrying indicated that D445 was planning to move to a sanctuary area in the May Tao Mountains. Also captured in one of the packs was the first official document originated by the Headquarters of the South Vietnam Liberation Army (the Viet Cong headquarters) since the Cambodian campaign had begun in late April. On 18 July a Hoi Chanh took 7 Platoon C Company to an area 3 km south– south–west of the bridge over the Song Rai on Route 23, where a base camp that belonged to C3 of D445 was found. The camp was destroyed. C3 had moved to this camp because one of its soldiers had rallied. They moved to the Mao Tao hills to avoid being caught by the information from this second rallier. The same evening, half of 4 Platoon B Company (commanded by Sergeant Jim Crowther)