Historical information

On 24 May 1966, Private Errol Wayne Noack (Service no: 4717546) became the first Australian National Serviceman to be killed in the Vietnam War. Serving with the Royal Australian Infantry Corps in the 5th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, he was shot during Operation Hardihood, just 10 days after arriving in South Vietnam. His body was repatriated for a full military funeral, and his death caused many protests in Australia.
This is part of a collection donated by Walter Noack (Errol's father) via Pte Grant Wynward Collins (Service no: 4717477) who was a good mate of Errol’s and with him at his death.

Physical description

The two medals are pinned on dark blue background that has a house shape which stands on a white base. The left medal has dark blue, red, yellow and blue stripes and a golden coin of Elizabeth II. The right medal has white and green ribbon and 6 pointed stars with white colour on top of golden colour.

Inscriptions & markings

The left medal has texts: "ELIZABETH II DEI GRATIA REGINA E.D.". The right medal has text "1960".