The Northern Territory news Thu 21 Apr 2011
NT news
The Northern Territory news; NewspaperNT
2011-04-21
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English
Community newspapers -- Northern Territory -- Darwin; Australian newspapers -- Northern Territory -- Darwin
Nationwide News Pty. Limited
Darwin
Copyright. Made available by the publisher under licence.
Nationwide News Pty. Limited
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2019C00042
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/232267
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/664628
22 NT NEWS. Thursday, April 21, 2011. www.ntnews.com.au P U B : N T N E W S D A T E : 2 1 -A P R -2 0 1 1 P A G E : 7 2 2 C O L O R : C M Y K Darryel Binns DARRYEL Biggles Binns was only 19 when he went to war. He likes to say that he went to Vietnam in 1970 a boy and came back a year later an old man. Mr Binns was wounded twice in a month while serving as a sapper with the Royal Australian Engineers. His job was to disarm mines, sometimes with safety pins. The enemy would lay mines along roads at night and Mr Binns and his crew would try to find them and disarm them in the morning. It was a dangerous business. He was blown up twice in armoured personnel carriers; he suffered busted eardrums in the first and pemanent back injuries in the second. Mr Binns, who was a lance corporal, said the Jumping Jack mines were the worst they would leap up to a metre into the air after being set off, usually by treading on the prongs, which were just exposed above ground, and then explode. They caused more deaths than any other mine, he said. The Jumping Jacks were laid in a minefield in Vietnam by Australian forces. But while being guarded by South Vietnamese forces, they were stolen by the Vietcong. And they used them back against us. Mr Binns said serving in Vietnam was a life-changing experience for him. He is now vice-president of the NT Vietnam Veterans Association and a welfare and pension officer helping former and serving Defence personnel. Left: Vietnam veteran Darryel Binns with his medals Above: Darryel Binns (right) and Steve Armbrust search for landmines in Vietnam. Right: Darryel Binns was injured when a landmine wrecked his armoured personnel carrier. Pictures: COURTESY OF THE AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL