NewsBite

Gary McKay never wanted to be in Vietnam but earned a Military Cross for his bravery

Gary McKay tried to avoid being sent to war, but wound up a hero after showing extraordinary bravery while under fire.

Aa a 19-year-old, Gary McKay was so determined to avoid becoming a “nasho” and possibly being sent to Vietnam that he enlisted in the Citizen Military Forces for six years instead.

But as fate would have it, Gary wound up in Vietnam anyway as a rifle platoon commander – and earned a Military Cross for extraordinary bravery under fire.

Gary tells his harrowing tale in a new episode of the free In Black and White podcast on Australia’s forgotten characters:

The foreword of Gary’s new book, After the Blood Cools: The Warrior’s Dilemma, is written by the former governor-general of Australia, General Sir Peter Cosgrove, who describes him as a “legend” of that war.

Gary, who jokes he was initially a “draft dodger”, was sent to Vietnam soon after his 23rd birthday and put in charge of the 35 men of 11 Platoon.

While his men survived months of jungle fighting unscathed, that came to an end when he lost four men and was seriously wounded in the Battle of Nui Le on September 21, 1971.

Gary McKay, far right, on HMAS Sydney in 1971.
Gary McKay, far right, on HMAS Sydney in 1971.
McKay in a plaster cast after eight hours in surgery on his shattered shoulder.
McKay in a plaster cast after eight hours in surgery on his shattered shoulder.
McKay with his new book, After the Blood Cools: The Warrior's Dilemma.
McKay with his new book, After the Blood Cools: The Warrior's Dilemma.

Ten or 15 minutes into a fierce battle against hundreds of enemy soldiers, Gary realised two of his machinegun groups in his assault line weren’t firing, leaving his platoon in dire danger.

“It was fairly evident they were wounded, and the noise was so great I couldn’t yell out any orders to anybody to go ahead and do something,” he says.

“So I took off at 100 miles an hour – I only had to run about 20m or so – and plonked down beside my machinegun team, and they’d both been shot in the head and they were dead.

“I got the machinegun, I got the ammunition into it, I took ammunition off the dead soldiers, and I could see the enemy were lining up and were getting ready to assault the platoon.”

Fortunately, another soldier had also realised something was terribly wrong, and raced to the second machinegun group, where he found one man dead and one mortally wounded.

“So between Kevin Casson and myself, we then started shooting at the enemy who were assaulting us, and we destroyed their assault formation with our machinegun fire,” McKay says.

“And that stopped the enemy from overrunning us.”

Gary’s luck ran out later when several AK-47 rounds ripped into his left shoulder, making it impossible for him to shoot, and he was choppered out of the battle zone to hospital.

To learn more, listen to the interview with Gary McKay in the In Black and White podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or web.

See In Black & White in the Herald Sun newspaper Monday to Friday for more stories and photos from Victoria’s past.

Original URL: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/in-black-and-white/gary-mckay-never-wanted-to-be-in-vietnam-but-earned-a-military-cross-for-his-bravery/news-story/0a6f9b7c541584aefa1819f023940457