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Teen singer Little Pattie whisked away from hell of Long Tan

She had packed three dresses and a few pairs of nylon stockings. But it wasn’t until she arrived in Vietnam in August 1966 that Patricia “Little Pattie” Thompson realised it was going to be too hot to wear nylons

TWAM-20171209 EMBARGO FOR TWAM 9 DEC 2017 NO REUSE WITHOUT PERMISSION Little Pattie with Col Joye performing for troops in Vietnam 1966 Pic : courtesy Patricia Thompson
TWAM-20171209 EMBARGO FOR TWAM 9 DEC 2017 NO REUSE WITHOUT PERMISSION Little Pattie with Col Joye performing for troops in Vietnam 1966 Pic : courtesy Patricia Thompson

She had packed three dresses to wear on stage with a few pairs of nylon stockings. But it wasn’t until she arrived in Vietnam in August 1966 that Patricia “Little Pattie” Thompson realised it was going to be too hot to wear nylons.

Her clothing was one of many things the 17-year-old entertainer, who had shot to fame in 1963 with the hit He’s My Blond Headed, Stompie Wompie, Real Gone Surfer Boy, was unprepared for when she arrived in Nui Dat. She was there to sing for the Australian troops as part of an entertainment troupe that also included Col Joye and the Joy Boys.

But if her arrival in Vietnam was exciting for the young Sydneysider, her evacuation on the
day the Battle of Long Tan broke out a few kilometres away, would go down in history.

Long Tan became the most recognised Australian battle of the Vietnam War, ultimately claiming 18 lives, with 24 wounded.

Thompson was one of hundreds of Australian performers to travel to South Vietnam to entertain the troops. But her story is perhaps one of the most amazing, in part due to her age (she was the youngest female to perform in Vietnam) but also because of how close the pretty teen singer came to the war zone.

“We were doing three shows in Nui Dat on that day,” Thompson said yesterday of the day the battle of Long Tan started. “We could hear the noise that we all knew was gunfire in a nearby rubber plantation, but it wasn’t until the third show in the afternoon that we could hear explosions as well as gunfire.

Little Pattie tries on a slouch hat ahead of her tour of Vietnam in 1966
Little Pattie tries on a slouch hat ahead of her tour of Vietnam in 1966

“We kept performing because no one had told us to stop, but I could see several officers leave the area, I knew instinctively something was going on. Our escort, Major Don Chappell, did the fingers-across-the-throat signal for us to stop the show and we were rushed off stage. Jeeps came in through the torrential rain with sirens blasting and all hell broke loose.

“We were whisked away in a chopper. The next day Col and I visited the 36th Evacuation Hospital to chat with the injured from the battle and hear their stories. These boys reminded me so much of my brother, they were his age. But I still don’t think I realised the significance of that battle.

“The importance of Long Tan came to me later when I was in Iraq in 2005 or 2006. Every time I met a US soldier, they would put me up on a pedestal when I told them I was in Vietnam at the time of Long Tan. They told me they studied that battle in the military and that it was the best fought battle and that only Australians could have fought it. It made me feel so proud.”

Little Pattie tries on a slouch hat ahead of her tour of Vietnam in 1966. Singer Col Joye is on the left.
Little Pattie tries on a slouch hat ahead of her tour of Vietnam in 1966. Singer Col Joye is on the left.

The battle of Long Tan broke out when the Vietcong attacked the new Australian base of Nui Dat early on August 17, 1966. Australian troops, in an attempt to locate the insurgents, ended up in a rubber plantation in the village of Long Tan. At 4pm on the 18th, the exact time Thompson and Joye were being evacuated just four kilometres away, the Australian troops came under heavy fire.

“As we flew over the battle, the mood in the chopper was very sombre,” Thompson said. “There were hundreds of red lights below us and we knew they were tracer lights and that the Australian soldiers were being fired at.”

The events are the focus of a new film Danger Close: The Battle Of Long Tan starring Travis Fimmell, Richard Roxburgh and Daniel Webber, out on August 8.

At the time Thompson was asked to go to Vietnam, little was known about the atrocities that would later flood newspaper and television reporting.

Australian troops rest during the Battle of Long Tan.
Australian troops rest during the Battle of Long Tan.

“I still remember the day I was at home with my mother and someone from the government called to ask my parent’s permission for me to go to Vietnam,” Thompson said. “None of us knew much about the war, it was early days, the barrage of media coverage came later. All I knew was that some of our soldiers were in this place called Vietnam and we were helping the Americans, that was the line.

“Dad said no at first but he relented and my parents were told I would be well looked after, get three meals a day and plenty of sleep. It took three months to prepare for the trip with briefings at Victoria Barracks and heaps of health checks.

“A Daily Telegraph photographer was at the barracks one day when I had to have 13 needles and he kept saying ‘Smile for the camera’, which I did through gritted teeth.”

While Thompson didn’t return to Vietnam again during the war, others continued to make the trek to help lift the morale of the soldiers. Singer and actor Lorrae Desmond, who would go on to win a Gold Logie and work on shows like Number 96 and A Country Practice, made five tours to the war zone between 1967 and 1971. Stage and television performer Ian Turpie, who would later be best known as the host of The Price Is Right, performed in the Christmas concert in Bien Hoa in 1965. And singer/songwriter Normie Rowe, who was conscripted to national service and was stationed in Vietnam for most of 1969, would often jump up on stage with his fellow performers.

Only one entertainer failed to return from Vietnam.

Cathy Wayne, a young Sydney singer was performing at a US Marine Corps base in 1967 when she was shot in the chest mid-song and died.

The bullet was fired, not by the enemy, but a US sergeant believed to have been aiming at his commanding officer.

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Original URL: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/teen-singer-little-pattie-whisked-away-from-hell-of-long-tan/news-story/9ed52eb357a5a756a72f23c866fae09c