Herald Sun News
PETER MICKELBUROUGH
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION EDITOR
SUNDAY HERALD SUN
MARCH 15, 2014
Shortly after being sent to Vietnam Mr Richardson was busted from corporal to private for going AWOL and drinking while on duty a month and a half before being shipped overseas.
Although Mr Richardson told a newspaper in 1980 that he served 15 months in Vietnam, his record of service shows he spent a year and 14 days there between May 1965 and June 1966.
A VIETNAM veteran and Order of Australia Medal recipient whose recollections of storming Viet Cong tunnels appeared on the Australian Government’s official online history of the war has been branded a phony by his fellow servicemen.
The Department of Veterans’ Affairs stripped three video interviews with Robert William Richardson from its war commemoration website, Australia and the Vietnam War, after being contacted by the Herald Sun.
“In cases where serious concerns are raised about material on our website we remove it until the completion of an investigation,” spokesman Shane Haiduk said.
Veterans of Operation Crimp want the “false history” expunged from the record permanently, saying Mr Richardson was a clerk with a bad record who “never stepped outside the wire”.
Mr Richardson conceded to the Herald Sun his recollections were faulty and that he did not take part in the battle.
“I do not stand by my testimony as being 100 per cent accurate. I was not on Operation Crimp,” he admitted.
“That is one operation I will not forget,” he recalled. “I reckon it was the beginning of all my troubles. We got sprayed by the American C130. They said it was a mistake. I have suffered nausea and been treated for a skin rash ever since. Now they are testing for chemical poisoning.”
Veterans say the claims are fanciful and an insult to the US paratroopers, with pay book entries signed by Mr Richardson showing he was 70km away at the time of the battle.
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