The Association was formed for all who served with one of the RAE Field Troops in Vietnam. Membership is exclusively for men who served with either 3 Field Troop or 1 Troop, 2 Troop or 3 Troop of 1 Field Squadron in Vietnam. This is not an attempt to exclude our fellow Engineers, but to bring together the Field Engineers. Other units are free to form their own Associations, and many have.

What do you get?

Members receive four issues per year of our newsletter “Holdfast” – without doubt the best unit association newsletter in Australia. Members also receive the superb personalised “Tunnel Rats” membership card shown, which not only sits proudly in your wallet, but also entitles you to 15% discount off all food and beverage purchases at the Peter Badcoe Club in Vung Tau.

Why we formed the Tunnel Rats Association

Our status seemed to be getting a bit blurred. It had reached the point where any member of the Corp of Engineers who served in Vietnam was calling himself a Tunnel Rat. The members of the Field Troops listed on our banner (3 Field Troop and 1, 2 & 3 Troop of 1 Field Squadron) performed a unique role in Vietnam, and payed a heavy price for it. These men are the only Engineers who went out on four and six week-long operations with the Infantry and Armoured units. They fought alongside the Infantry plus they performed their additional tasks of mine and booby trap detection and clearing, bunker and tunnel searching and demolition, and bomb disposal. Of the 36 Royal Australian Engineers killed in Action in Vietnam, 35 came from the Field Troops (the one other KIA was an Engineer posted to the “Training Team” (AATTV). It is the men of the Field Troops who suffered a casualty rate (killed and wounded) of over 30%. At the height of the War, one in three of us was being killed or wounded. By wrongly claiming Tunnel Rat status, some men from non-field Troops had begun to blur the line defining the unique role of the Tunnel Rats. If it became generally accepted that all Engineer units in Vietnam were “Tunnel Rats”, then our status would be reduced. Nobody has a right to do that. We are extremely proud of what we did, in particular of how we worked so closely with the Infantry and Armoured units. We should not allow anybody to diminish something we are so proud of. The forming of the Association is not an elitist thing, it is simply intense pride in what we did and a move to protect our status.

How to join

You can submit the join us form online or download the printable version which you can print out and fill in (if you have no printer facilities, simply write all the details on a piece of paper) and post it to us, along with your payment of $38 either by cheque, money order or credit card (make cheques payable to Vietnam Tunnel Rats Association.

How you can join us

1

Download the printable version which you can print out and fill in (if you have no printer facilities, simply write all the details on a piece of paper) and post it to us, along with your payment of $38 either by cheque, money order or credit card (make cheques payable to Vietnam Tunnel Rats Association

to download printable version of the join us form.