On This Day
1960-1975 > Vietnam era
On This Day - 1960-1975
- March 20, 1963
Two Westland Scout AH-1 helicopters were acquired by the RAN and operated by 723 Naval Air Squadron. The helicopters were embarked in the hydrographic survey ship HMAS Moresby with one on board while the other was in maintenance at Nowra
- March 11, 1963
The first Wessex helicopter Search and Rescue (SAR) mission occurred when GPCAPT Mather ejected from his RAAF Sabre jet near Lake Bathurst in NSW, and was reported as having landed near ‘a red farmhouse’. Wessex N7-200 was dispatched with two doctors aboard. The first red farmhouse they visited yielded only two dogs and a very scared cat. The second, however, produced a ute with a parachute in the back and the missing Air Force officer on the verandah sipping whiskey. The first SAR by the Wessex was a complete success!
- February 16, 1963
HMAS QUADRANT, (frigate),was sold for scrap to a Japanese ship breaking company.
- February 15, 1963
HMAS QUADRANT, (frigate), was sold out of service for breaking up in Japan.
- February 8, 1963
HMAS QUICKMATCH, (frigate), berthed at Manly Wharf, Sydney to participate in the beach resort’s 175th Anniversary.
- February 4, 1963
HMAS QUIBERON, (destroyer), was rammed by the South Vietnamese escort ship KY-HOA, at Saigon. QUIBERON’S starboard side was opened to the sea and KY-HOA required docking.
- January 22, 1963
The Australian Cabinet approved a contract with Scott’s Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Ltd., of Greenock, Scotland, to build eight Oberon class submarines for the RAN. The order was later reduced to six.
- January 21, 1963
The RAN School of Underwater Medicine was established at HMAS RUSHCUTTER, Sydney. It later moved to HMAS PENGUIN.
- January 8, 1963
CDRE J. C. (Copper) Morrow, CBE, DSO, DSC, RAN, one of Australia’s most distinguished destroyer captains of the Second World War, died in Sydney.
- December 17, 1962
The frigate HMAS QUIBERON, (CMDR V. A. Parker, RAN), rescued 31 Chinese seamen from the merchant ship TUSCANY, aground on a reef in the China Sea.