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Vietnam War Series - Alan Robson interview Part 2 of 3
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DescriptionInterview of Alan Robson by Julia Wallis - Part 2 of 3
00:00:00 Alan grew up in rural Victoria. When the family moved to Melbourne, he attended Coburg High School and from there to Melbourne University where he studied for a degree in agriculture science. Alan turned twenty in February 1965 and was called up in his final year at Melbourne University. He was successful in securing a scholarship to study for a PhD at the University of Western Australia and arrived in Perth in 1966. He was already married. He finished in PhD in 1969 and returned to Melbourne. Alan had been granted a cadetship to attend university and was required to work for the Victorian Department of Agriculture as part of that cadetship. Three months later, in January 1970 he was conscripted into the army and given a medical. He subsequently discovered that the first intake had been deliberately over-subscribed and then the medical was used as a screening device. University graduates passed the medical in larger numbers. Alan’s experience was that the conscripts were better soldiers than the regular soldiers. Alan did not know a great deal about Vietnam. He was moderately opposed to the war in Vietnam. He learned Vietnamese history during officer training.
00:05:00 The root cause of the problem in Vietnam was post World War Two when the Vietnamese wanted autonomy. Alan was asked to explain his position on Vietnam to the Commandant. By this time he believes that even senior people in the army were opposed to Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam war. Alan shared an office with a fellow PhD student at UWA who was the first person to succeed in being a conscientious objector. Harold Wilkinson, a Quaker and fellow PhD student (son of Senator Lawrie Wilkinson) was very supportive of conscientious objectors. Alan does not recall many demonstrations against the Vietnam war taking place at UWA. He thinks that the marches happened after he left – in the mid 1970’s which would have been about ten years after Australia’s first involvement in Vietnam. Scheyville was expressly set up to train infantry platoon commanders. Almost all of the first class, 1/65 went to Vietnam. Only about ten of class 1/70 went to Vietnam and one was killed there. The others had postings within Australia. If Alan had been married or over the age of twenty-six before he was called up he would have been exempt. He remembers it being very hot when he was transported by bus to Puckapunyal for general recruit training. A rigorous officer assessment then took place.
00:10:00 Out of about 1,000 men, 128 were selected to go to officer training. Alan put himself forward for officer training because the pay was better. By this stage, Alan was married with a child. Even after graduating as a Second Lieutenant he was paid much less than what he would have earned as an agricultural scientist. Alan was separated from his wife for the first six months while he attended the training in Scheyville, New South Wales. Officer training was very demanding. They started at 6am and finished at 10pm. There were evening lectures and dress was inspected about three times a day even to the extent of checking the inside of a brass buckle on a belt!
At the rifle range in Puckapunyal a high-powered weapon was fired into a four-gallon drum that was full of water and it exploded. They said, “That is what it is like when you kill somebody.”
One of the group said, “I want out. I am not going to do another thing.”
He was discharged from the army as a conscientious objector based on that experience. There were weeding people out even during basic training. On the bus going to Puckapunyal there was a recruit who was boasting about how glad he was to be in the army. Once the men are kitted out, they put their gear into a locker and await inspection. His was the closest locker to the door. When the sergeant came in the barracks, he swept everything out of the locker onto the floor and told him to pack it up properly. This man refused and was charged. Alan doesn’t know what happened to him.
00:15:00 Officer recruits took turns to march the platoon around the camp. Alan has trouble differentiating right from left so his demonstrations always went wrong! The army put a lot of pressure on officer training recruits to ensure that they would be adequate leaders. Alan was not a good soldier. He had no experience with weapons, he was hopeless at drill and he hates camping. He did well in the academic component at the officer training unit and passed all the exams. The army recognised very early on that Alan was not going to make the grade as an infantry platoon commander. He won the Commandant’s prize for the cadet most determined to graduate. There were 128 men in 1/70 at the start but by the finish there was only 92. Every morning they would report which cadets were to report to the Commandant and they were never seen again. A report card was generated for every action good or bad. The guidance officer told him that he wouldn’t graduate but Alan was determined he would. Alan was in constant fear that his name would be called and he would be marched out. Alan learned a valuable lesson in life. He realised that most of the time we work way within our capacity and we are capable of doing a lot more than what we think. He also realised that despite being academically excellent there were also a lot of things that he wasn’t good at. He learned about leadership at officer training in the army. A good leader has got to do three things. (1) achieve the task. (2) Maintain the group. (3) Meet individual needs. All three things must be kept in balance. This was useful later in life during his university career. Class 1/70 contained many recruits who had degrees. It was an intelligent group of people and the bonds between them are still strong even today. They still have reunions fifty years after officer training.
00:20:00 There was a great deal of support and friendship within the group. There were a lot of exercises out in the bush in the Blue Mountains. One six day exercise was training for enemy attack and ambush. Alan got very fit in the army. He lost weight because you were doing physical education classes three times a week and there was lots of running and running with packs. It was exhausting physically and mentally. The group helped one of the men who was asthmatic. Alan got concussion and broke his nose playing football in the army. Towards the end of officer training Alan was asked if he would like to go to Vietnam in civil action as an agricultural scientist. He declined because he wanted to go back to his family. A colleague who went Vietnam as an agricultural scientist suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome.
00:25:00 Lots of the Vietnam veterans have had difficulty with mental health issues. The army told the recruits they were worth nothing. To be able to lead, you had to tolerate belittlement and pressure. One day a recruit refused to carry the machine gun. They called up the helicopter and flew him off the course immediately. Just before graduation, another recruit argued with the football umpire and that was the end of him, too. One of Alan’s friends told him that he was in constant fear that he would be marched out and Alan was as well. He was enormously relieved when he graduated. Alan was posted as Adjutant Quartermaster to 6th Central Ammunition Depot in Gladstone, South Australia. It was on a railway junction enabling ammunition to be easily transported around the continent. There were three officers and about a hundred staff – half military and half non-military. Alan ran the administration and the quarter master’s store. It was also used as a residential training centre. People came to learn how to blow up unexploded ammunition. Every regiment that left for Vietnam was trained there. The facility had been fenced off since World War Two and it was inhabited by enormous numbers of kangaroos. There was a golf course and Alan organised for sheep to be grazed there and for the establishment of a camp vegetable garden.
00:30:00 One of the national servicemen was a butcher and was given the task of killing and dressing the sheep. The camp did well as they could supplement their rations with their home-grown produce. Alan was here for 18 months with his wife and child. Alan left the army in November 1971. Alan had a sergeant-major who mentored him in army etiquette. He got into trouble with the commanding officer on one occasion for letting a corporal (and therefore a subordinate) call him by his Christian name during a game of tennis. By this time, there was a great deal of anti-Vietnam sentiment in Australia. There were big demonstrations in Melbourne. Servicemen told Alan that they were actively discriminated against when they returned home from Vietnam. Veterans received no recognition from the Australian public until many years [later].
Creator (organisation)UWA Historical SocietyOther creator (person)Julia WallisPerson featuredAlan RobsonJulia WallisFormInterviewLanguageEnglishOral historyRobson, Alan David - Oral History - Vietnam War Interview Series
00:00:00 Alan grew up in rural Victoria. When the family moved to Melbourne, he attended Coburg High School and from there to Melbourne University where he studied for a degree in agriculture science. Alan turned twenty in February 1965 and was called up in his final year at Melbourne University. He was successful in securing a scholarship to study for a PhD at the University of Western Australia and arrived in Perth in 1966. He was already married. He finished in PhD in 1969 and returned to Melbourne. Alan had been granted a cadetship to attend university and was required to work for the Victorian Department of Agriculture as part of that cadetship. Three months later, in January 1970 he was conscripted into the army and given a medical. He subsequently discovered that the first intake had been deliberately over-subscribed and then the medical was used as a screening device. University graduates passed the medical in larger numbers. Alan’s experience was that the conscripts were better soldiers than the regular soldiers. Alan did not know a great deal about Vietnam. He was moderately opposed to the war in Vietnam. He learned Vietnamese history during officer training.
00:05:00 The root cause of the problem in Vietnam was post World War Two when the Vietnamese wanted autonomy. Alan was asked to explain his position on Vietnam to the Commandant. By this time he believes that even senior people in the army were opposed to Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam war. Alan shared an office with a fellow PhD student at UWA who was the first person to succeed in being a conscientious objector. Harold Wilkinson, a Quaker and fellow PhD student (son of Senator Lawrie Wilkinson) was very supportive of conscientious objectors. Alan does not recall many demonstrations against the Vietnam war taking place at UWA. He thinks that the marches happened after he left – in the mid 1970’s which would have been about ten years after Australia’s first involvement in Vietnam. Scheyville was expressly set up to train infantry platoon commanders. Almost all of the first class, 1/65 went to Vietnam. Only about ten of class 1/70 went to Vietnam and one was killed there. The others had postings within Australia. If Alan had been married or over the age of twenty-six before he was called up he would have been exempt. He remembers it being very hot when he was transported by bus to Puckapunyal for general recruit training. A rigorous officer assessment then took place.
00:10:00 Out of about 1,000 men, 128 were selected to go to officer training. Alan put himself forward for officer training because the pay was better. By this stage, Alan was married with a child. Even after graduating as a Second Lieutenant he was paid much less than what he would have earned as an agricultural scientist. Alan was separated from his wife for the first six months while he attended the training in Scheyville, New South Wales. Officer training was very demanding. They started at 6am and finished at 10pm. There were evening lectures and dress was inspected about three times a day even to the extent of checking the inside of a brass buckle on a belt!
At the rifle range in Puckapunyal a high-powered weapon was fired into a four-gallon drum that was full of water and it exploded. They said, “That is what it is like when you kill somebody.”
One of the group said, “I want out. I am not going to do another thing.”
He was discharged from the army as a conscientious objector based on that experience. There were weeding people out even during basic training. On the bus going to Puckapunyal there was a recruit who was boasting about how glad he was to be in the army. Once the men are kitted out, they put their gear into a locker and await inspection. His was the closest locker to the door. When the sergeant came in the barracks, he swept everything out of the locker onto the floor and told him to pack it up properly. This man refused and was charged. Alan doesn’t know what happened to him.
00:15:00 Officer recruits took turns to march the platoon around the camp. Alan has trouble differentiating right from left so his demonstrations always went wrong! The army put a lot of pressure on officer training recruits to ensure that they would be adequate leaders. Alan was not a good soldier. He had no experience with weapons, he was hopeless at drill and he hates camping. He did well in the academic component at the officer training unit and passed all the exams. The army recognised very early on that Alan was not going to make the grade as an infantry platoon commander. He won the Commandant’s prize for the cadet most determined to graduate. There were 128 men in 1/70 at the start but by the finish there was only 92. Every morning they would report which cadets were to report to the Commandant and they were never seen again. A report card was generated for every action good or bad. The guidance officer told him that he wouldn’t graduate but Alan was determined he would. Alan was in constant fear that his name would be called and he would be marched out. Alan learned a valuable lesson in life. He realised that most of the time we work way within our capacity and we are capable of doing a lot more than what we think. He also realised that despite being academically excellent there were also a lot of things that he wasn’t good at. He learned about leadership at officer training in the army. A good leader has got to do three things. (1) achieve the task. (2) Maintain the group. (3) Meet individual needs. All three things must be kept in balance. This was useful later in life during his university career. Class 1/70 contained many recruits who had degrees. It was an intelligent group of people and the bonds between them are still strong even today. They still have reunions fifty years after officer training.
00:20:00 There was a great deal of support and friendship within the group. There were a lot of exercises out in the bush in the Blue Mountains. One six day exercise was training for enemy attack and ambush. Alan got very fit in the army. He lost weight because you were doing physical education classes three times a week and there was lots of running and running with packs. It was exhausting physically and mentally. The group helped one of the men who was asthmatic. Alan got concussion and broke his nose playing football in the army. Towards the end of officer training Alan was asked if he would like to go to Vietnam in civil action as an agricultural scientist. He declined because he wanted to go back to his family. A colleague who went Vietnam as an agricultural scientist suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome.
00:25:00 Lots of the Vietnam veterans have had difficulty with mental health issues. The army told the recruits they were worth nothing. To be able to lead, you had to tolerate belittlement and pressure. One day a recruit refused to carry the machine gun. They called up the helicopter and flew him off the course immediately. Just before graduation, another recruit argued with the football umpire and that was the end of him, too. One of Alan’s friends told him that he was in constant fear that he would be marched out and Alan was as well. He was enormously relieved when he graduated. Alan was posted as Adjutant Quartermaster to 6th Central Ammunition Depot in Gladstone, South Australia. It was on a railway junction enabling ammunition to be easily transported around the continent. There were three officers and about a hundred staff – half military and half non-military. Alan ran the administration and the quarter master’s store. It was also used as a residential training centre. People came to learn how to blow up unexploded ammunition. Every regiment that left for Vietnam was trained there. The facility had been fenced off since World War Two and it was inhabited by enormous numbers of kangaroos. There was a golf course and Alan organised for sheep to be grazed there and for the establishment of a camp vegetable garden.
00:30:00 One of the national servicemen was a butcher and was given the task of killing and dressing the sheep. The camp did well as they could supplement their rations with their home-grown produce. Alan was here for 18 months with his wife and child. Alan left the army in November 1971. Alan had a sergeant-major who mentored him in army etiquette. He got into trouble with the commanding officer on one occasion for letting a corporal (and therefore a subordinate) call him by his Christian name during a game of tennis. By this time, there was a great deal of anti-Vietnam sentiment in Australia. There were big demonstrations in Melbourne. Servicemen told Alan that they were actively discriminated against when they returned home from Vietnam. Veterans received no recognition from the Australian public until many years [later].
Creator (organisation)UWA Historical SocietyOther creator (person)Julia WallisPerson featuredAlan RobsonJulia WallisFormInterviewLanguageEnglishOral historyRobson, Alan David - Oral History - Vietnam War Interview Series
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Place of publicationPerth, Western AustraliaPublisherUWA Historical Society
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Subject (person)Alan RobsonSubject (organisation)The University of Western AustraliaSubject (topic)Vietnam War
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ContributorUniversity Archives
Vietnam War Series - Alan Robson interview Part 2 of 3. UWA Collected, accessed 26/03/2026, https://collected.uwa.edu.au/nodes/view/39957