Fraser Anning’s Vietnam War claims do not match reality
Fraser Anning can call it a simple misunderstanding all he likes, but the anti-Muslim, pro-gun independent senator has been caught out in what is surely his most questionable act to date, writes military expert Ross Eastgate.
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Fraser Anning’s recollections of his military service with Queensland’s 49th Battalion are at odds with facts.
The Queensland independent senator claims when he registered for national service he thought he was liable to be sent to war in Vietnam. Instead he joined the Citizen Military Forces. They never went to war.
Australia has had two periods of compulsory military service post World War II in response to perceived external threats.
The first from 1950 to 1960 was during the Korean War, when all 18-year-old males were required to register for 90 days full-time service, plus two years in the CMF, now called the Army Reserve which can be deployed on operations.
In 1964, in response to threats from Indonesia to PNG and Malaysia, the National Service Act obliged all 20-year old males to register, with selection for service made by birthday ballot.
Exemptions were given to Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders, the medically unfit, and theology students.
Others were granted exemption on the grounds of conscientious objection based on religious beliefs.
A temporary deferment was granted to university students, apprentices, married men, and those who could prove national service would cause them financial hardship. They were required to serve two-years full-time, with an additional three years in the active reserve.
Those who did not wish to do full-time national service were given the option of joining the CMF before their birthday cohort was balloted. The records show Fraser Anning took that option.
RELATED: Fraser Anning avoided risk of fighting in Vietnam War by joining Citizen Military Forces
The obligation was six-years service (later reduced to five) in Australia only, spread over 33 days per year.
The act was amended to allow full-time national servicemen to serve overseas, which they did initially in Malaysia, Borneo and PNG and from 1966 in South Vietnam.
The Whitlam government suspended the scheme in December 1972 when many of those serving simply left the army.
Although the Defence Act allowed for the CMF to be called up for continuous full-time service, this was rarely enacted, usually only for such exigencies as civil disasters.
The CMF was also not considered to be at an operational readiness for overseas operational service.
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When national service was reintroduced in 1964, the army expanded from three regular infantry battalions to nine.
An additional battalion of the Pacific Islands regiment was also raised in Wewak, PNG.
All units identified for Vietnam service went through a two-year cycle, the first training to full operational readiness including a two-week battle efficiency course at Canungra in the Gold Coast hinterland, followed by a year in Vietnam.
Those serving just 33 days annually in a CMF unit — such as Senator Anning — were never considered to be at this readiness to be deployed.
A special conditions unit, the 49th, also styled the Bushmen’s Rifles, provided a CMF option for those living in remote locations unable to attend weekly parades in other units.
Instead they performed one or two training camps annually to meet their 33-day obligation. Anning claimed the remote locality option.
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Anning’s claim he could have been deployed to Vietnam under the Defence Act does not match reality.
His records indicate he enlisted in the special conditions unit and thereby avoided the prospect of full-time service, not having satisfied other exemption or deferment criteria.
To suggest a drover whose father claimed the Clancy of the Overflow defence — “we don’t know where he are” — would be carrying a copy of the Defence Act in his saddlebags is simply ludicrous.
Ross Eastgate is a military historian, writer and journalist specialising in defence. A graduate of Duntroon and the Army Command and Staff College, he has served in the Middle East, PNG and East Timor.
Originally published as Fraser Anning’s Vietnam War claims do not match reality
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