Vietnam War Service

Veteran Details

Name	THORP, Ralph William
Service	Royal Australian Air Force
Service Number	A216966
Date of Birth	22 Nov 1939
Place of Birth	SYDNEY NSW AUSTRALIA
Rank	Corporal
Mustering	Instrument Fitter

Unit History

Unit Name	Start Date	End Date

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Field	Description
Name	The individual's full name as recorded on the official record of service document. If the individual served under an alias, that information will also be displayed where known. Nicknames will not be displayed, as they are not recorded on the service record. If a woman married while enlisted, and the military authority amended the service record to her married surname, then that surname is displayed. This approach has been taken so that the displayed surname aligns with the surname recorded on the service record. In such cases, a maiden name may not have been collected.
Service	Refers to one of the three Services that form Australia's armed forces - Royal Australian Navy (RAN); Australian Army; Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).
Service Number	Service numbers are allocated by the relevant Service and, in some instances, changed during service. The Service number used in the Nominal Roll is the one held by the individual at the time of their departure from Vietnam or the date of death in Vietnam.
Unit	The parent unit or units to which an individual was allotted for duty within the defined operational area of Vietnam.
Date of Birth	The date recorded in the Service record as the date of birth.
Place of Birth	The place recorded in the Service record as the place of birth.
Service Between	During the course of Australia's involvement in the conflict, there were changes in the criteria used by the Services, and by Army in particular, to determine dates in relation to Vietnam service. This Nominal Roll uses the following criteria: Service is taken to have begun on the day of the individual's departure from their last port of call prior to arrival in the Vietnam operational area. Service is taken to have ended on the day of the individual's arrival at their first port of call after departing the Vietnam operational area. Where a veteran had multiple tours in Vietnam, a Certificate printed from the website will show in the 'Service Between' section the commencement date of the first tour and the completion date of the last tour. Ports of call used in the above criteria include those outside Australia (e.g. RAAF Butterworth in Malaysia). As a result, the dates on this website may be different to the dates of service found in some other statements of service. For those affected, the difference will be a few days, and actual time in Vietnam will not be affected. The dates on this website have no standing in any capacity whatsoever in relation to an individual's eligibility for service medals or veteran's entitlements.
Date of Death	The date of death recorded with the Office of Australian War Graves, where the death has been attributed to war service and occurred before 29 April 1975.
Place of Official Commemoration	The location where those Australians who died during the Vietnam War are officially commemorated. Many Vietnam war dead have private commemorations and are officially commemorated in an official Garden of Remembrance. Although the Office of Australian War Graves ensures the names of those privately commemorated remain legible, the location of the private commemorations are not listed here.
Rank	The rank (substantive, acting or temporary) held by the individual on either their last day in the operational area or the date of death recorded with Office of Australian War Graves.
Branch / Corps / Mustering Category / Qualification	These are Service specific terms that relate to an individual's function or speciality.
Honours	Indicates any Imperial or Australian honours (1999 End of War List) and awards conferred on an individual during the Vietnam War. Service or campaign medals are not recorded. Foreign honours and awards are also not recorded. The issuing of honours and awards and service and campaign medals is the responsibility of the Department of Defence.
National Service	Indicates National Service at the time of serving in Vietnam. The National Service Act 1964, passed on 24 November, required 20-year-old males to serve in the Army for a period of twenty-four months of continuous service (reduced to eighteen months in 1971) followed by three years in the Reserve. The Defence Act was amended in May 1965 to provide that conscripts could be obliged to serve overseas, and in March 1966 the then Prime Minister announced that National Servicemen would be sent to Vietnam to join units of the Australian Regular Army.