Life of a Door Gunner | Vietnam Veteran

Our first conversation with a vet - Victor Smith of the RAAF This was an interview with Victor ’Vic’ Smith, a Vietnam veteran who served with the RAAF No. 9 Squadron as a huey door gunner. Despite being a dangerous job, vets who served as door gunners have been overlooked in many interviews, and we felt it was necessary for all of those who served in vietnam to have their story told. Other airfield defence guards like Vic volunteered to work as door gunners with the RAAFs 9 Squadron, which served in South East Asia from 1966 to 1975 (the end of the war) and worked as medevac (dustoff), attack / support, and ’people sniffer’ (a special program for detecting enemy activity by monitoring air components from the UH-1). The importance of the squadron - such as assisting other forces, working with the SAS (and saving them from dangerous situations), and taking casualities and aircraft losses - is not to be understated.