Category Civic Action Patrols

by Sgt Kev Horton C Company 1PIR 1971 As I walked through the oppressive heat on the tarmac at Port Moresby Airport, M16 slung over my shoulder, I had no idea that I was about to experience a month that…

by Sgt. John Meyer I was among 30 soldiers sent on a Civic Action Patrol up into the Gulf Area of Papua New Guinea in January/February 1970. Two Landing Barges were sent on the month long assignment to a remote…

by 2Lt John Stringfellow In June 1967 Delta Company of the 1st Battalion of the Pacific Islands Regiment, under the command of Major Colin Adamson, flew to Ningerum to conduct military training and to win the hearts and minds of…

by 2Lt John Stringfellow I was instructed by my company commander, Major Greg Warland, to take my 11th platoon of D Coy, 1st Pacific Islands Regiment from Kerema on the south coast of Papua to Wau in New Guinea via…

MEETING WITH THE HEWA PEOPLE The Hewa people are an ethno-linguist group living in the remote north-western corner of the Southern Highlands near the junction of the Strickland and Laigaip rivers. Strickland River Valley and the valley of the Hewa…

PATROL INTO THE WESTERN HIGHLANDS OF NEW GUINEA 18 APRIL – 31 MAY 1970 Sgt Greg Smith ‘Didiman’ (ie Agriculture Instructor) Education Corps 2 PIR, Wewak (1969/70) We stood on the banks of the mighty Sepik River and gazed at…

19th April to 29th May 1970 by Sgt. Boyd Robertson, 2PIR MOEM Barracks The platoon of twenty nine, including one Pacific Islands officer, two sergeants, two assault pioneers, two signalers, one medic and twenty one infantry soldiers departed by Caribou…

Sgt Terry Edwinsmith One of the most important tasks of the Australian Army in the 1960s -1970s was to assist the development of the Pacific Islands Regiments in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea and help guide the military…