I would like to tip my hat to Mrs Ahn Davis (Hoang Thi Anh) and her Vietnamese friends and relatives, particularly Mr Tran Huong Ngan, who contributed so much to this operation.

I do this without detracting from the efforts of Mr Alan Davis, Ahn’s husband, Mr Peter Aylett, his son Trent and the other folk who assisted, but without the help of Ahn and her in-country contacts the crash site, which we hope is that of A2-767, would never have been located. Our predicted location was almost 200 metres from where the wreckage was found.

Ahn’s cousin, Mr Tran Huong Ngan was the gentleman who actually located the crash site. He is a proud Vietnamese, who fought in the Long Hai hills against men like Mr Peter Aylett [1] and the other Australian soldiers mentioned below.  What more can we ask of a man other than that he is prepared to defend his homeland?

The actual in-country search for A2-767 took several months to plan and execute. Other contributors to the operation were Neil "Woofa" Matthews, [2] who served with 3RAR and 9 RAR; Nicholas "Tom” Dooley [3] who was a Medic for Lieutenant (now General) Peter Cosgrove; Owen Evans [4] who was with 6RAR Pioneers on their second tour and a member of the team who placed the original cross at Long Tan; and, David Stevens, son of a 3 RAR veteran. Assistance was also forthcoming from Captains Barry Fitzgibbon and Pat Pattendon, skippers on the offshore supply boats.

Ahn not only arranged and conducted interviews with local witnesses but she also did the hard yards through the rugged, scrubby and rock strewn terrain with the search team.

Obviously Tran Huong Ngan was always there to guide the party safely to the site. There was a real need for somebody with such local knowledge to ensure the safety of the party as is evidenced by the unexploded ordnance that was found. See here for a photo of an unexploded M79 round found at the crash site. Basically, The crash site would not have been found had it not been for this man

The role carried out by Mr Alan Davis was to maintain safety and communications for the field team which comprised of Peter, Ahn, Trent, Tran Huong Ngan and other members as available.

Here is a photo of the team on the 25 February 2004 when they discovered the site.

And here is an important point that I wish to make. During the war, Ahn’s relatives were working with the nationalist movement in Viet Nam, fighting against the Australians and the Americans. The war is now over and Ahn and her friends are more than willing to help us find our missing comrades. One should remember that there are in the order of 300,000 Vietnamese nationals still unaccounted from the war.

I think that the example set by Mrs Ahn Davis and Mr Tran Huong Ngan is one that we all could take to heart as regards compassion and how to foster good relations in this world of today.