Radar to help find missing soldiers
A SMALL government-funded team of Australians plans to use ground penetrating radar to find the bodies of two diggers missing in action in Vietnam for more than 40 years.
In Operation Aussie Home, the group leaves for Vietnam next week for a fortnight-long search for the bodies of Peter Gillson and Richard Parker.
Armed with information gleaned from Viet Cong soldiers by Operation Aussie Home leader Jim Bourke, the team will concentrate on a 2.4ha zone in a tree plantation Ñ formerly jungle and since cleared and planted Ñ in rural southern Vietnam.
Using powerful radar, they hope to find the unmarked graves of the infantrymen, who were buried where they fell in the battle of Nui Gan Toi, 24km northeast of Bien Hoa, on November 8, 1965.
The skill of the radar operators is vital.
ÒThe equipment can locate an object the size of a cricket ball 2m below the surface so there is an enormous amount of skill in determining where we will need to dig,Ó Mr Bourke said.
The Defence Department gave $37,500 to help Operation Aussie Home.
© 2007 The Border Morning Mail Pty Ltd.