Wheatley VC Rest Area
Lake George, NSW
Federal Highway (M23)
At a Glance
Victoria Cross Recipient
Warrant Officer Class 2 Kevin Arthur Wheatley VC
Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV)
Kevin Arthur 'Dasher' Wheatley was born in the Sydney suburb of Surry Hills on 13 March 1937. He joined the Australian Army and served with the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment in Malaya from 1957 to 1959, before further service with the 2nd and 1st Battalions. He was promoted to Warrant Officer Class 2 in August 1964 and posted to the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam in 1965.
On 13 November 1965, Wheatley was on a search-and-destroy operation in the Tra Bong Valley, Quảng Ngãi Province, with fellow Australian Warrant Officer Ronald 'Butch' Swanton, when their platoon came under heavy fire from Viet Cong forces. Swanton was shot and gravely wounded. Under intense machine-gun and rifle fire, Wheatley half-dragged and half-carried Swanton out of open rice paddies into the comparative safety of nearby jungle. Although told that Swanton was dying, Wheatley refused to leave his mate. Urged a second time to withdraw, he still refused. He pulled the pins from his two grenades and waited beside his motionless companion as the enemy closed in. Two grenade explosions were heard, followed by several bursts of enemy fire.
Wheatley was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross — the first Australian to receive the VC in the Vietnam War. His extraordinary loyalty and refusal to abandon a dying comrade, knowing it meant certain death, remains one of the most poignant acts of mateship in Australian military history. He was twenty-eight years old.
Born 13 March 1937, Surry Hills, NSW. Died 13 November 1965, Tra Bong, South Vietnam.
References
Remembrance Driveway
Stop 16 of 20 along the Remembrance Driveway
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- Gratwick VC Rest Area
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- Anderson VC Rest Area
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- Newton VC Rest Area
- Edwards VC Rest Area
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EPIC (Exhibition Park Campground)
$? · 27.6km