A DONATION WITH MESSAGE

L/Cpl Brian Budden, ex 5 RAR and veteran, has donated to the Foundation on three previous occasions.  On each, he has dedicated the bequest to one of the men killed while he was on operations with the battalion in Vietnam.  The latest donation is to remember Major Don Bourne, the story below.   

Donald Mackenzie Bourne, of Watson, ACT completed two tours in Korea with the 1st and 3rd Battalions, between 1954 and 1955 and later served in Malaya during the Emergency. As a Major, he initially served in Vietnam with Headquarters, 1st Australian Task Force before being posted to the 5th Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment (5RAR) in 1967.  In early 1967 he was appointed commander of C Company, 5RAR in SVN.

On the morning of 14 February 1967, during preparations for a cordon-and-search operation of the village of An Nhut, Major Bourne was killed by a concealed Viet Cong mine. Another Australian officer, 29635 Captain Robert Bruce Milligan, and a New Zealand Army Officer, Captain Peter Williams, were also killed along with five other men who were wounded He was 36.

The Board extends our sincere thanks for the donation.

We will remember them.