This is the story of the Australian Rifle Company Butterworth (RCB) and its long fight formally since 2006 with our own Australian Government over recognition for warlike service. The RCB served during the Communist Insurgency in Malaysia (1968-1989 -aka Second Malaysian Emergency) in Butterworth Air Force Base in Northern Malaysia between the years 1970 to 1989.
The Australian Government and the Defence Department have been trying to suppress the historical record for over 50 years. The RCB veterans are having none of it.
If you are interested in the twists and turns of Australian foreign policy during the Cold War years, tune in to the Forgotten Diggers podcast and learn how the Australian Public was deceived back then, and still are to this day.
Duty First
Sean Arthur
Retired Intelligence Analyst
Ex-Private Soldier - Rifleman
1 RAR & 8/9 RAR
RCB - B Company 1 RAR Nov 1977 - Feb 1978
Also have a FB page – RCB – and am trying to educate others about RCB.
I was there C company 1 RAR mid 1978.
We do have an election coming up, perhaps we can get it on their agenda.
When I served with 1RAR during 70-71, I was doing RCB duty when I got back 30 minutes late for morning parade and was promptly charged for it. The conversation that played out between Jack Cramp and the company commander was whether I should be charged with being awol or for desertion. After serving my sentence for awol and paying a fine, I noticed my pay book had said “whilst on war service” but when I received my pay book back at the end of my service, they had ruled a line through this. Regrettably the pay book went missing about 5 years ago during a move, before I was aware of any RCB implications. There may be others out there with something similar in their old paybooks.
Incidentally, the difference between the two classifications? Desertion got you 28 days in Tanglin military corrective establishment and the lesser charge of awol got me three days c.b. Doing bayonet charges up and down the parade ground in full kit, even including full canteens.
God I miss those days!
My dad was in this PTE MARK ROGERS