PTE
Kelvin Richards
The following story is an
extract from "Shooting
at the Moon" by Marje Prior and Heide Smith.
I was contacted via email by one of Kelvins ex-girlfriends. Unfortunately
she found out the circumstances of his death from this website
- I have censored her name and addded her email to the bottom of
this page.
CAMBODIA, 1993 – PRIVATE
KELVIN RICHARDS
185928 Private Kelvin Wayne Neihana Richards, Royal Australian
Infantry, United nations Observer Team 523, Stung, Kampong Thom
Province, CAMBODIA, 20 May 1993.
As
the only signaller and the only UN Soldier armed, Private Richards
helped the safe withdrawal of UN Observer Team 523 on the night
of 20 May 1993.
“We
knew Stung was a bad area, because it was always getting shelled. About
two days after I arrived, I was sitting on a balcony in the house
and noticed the markets nearby were suddenly empty at about ten
in the morning with everyone just running for it. Nothing
happened during the day and I was just starting to relax again
when the shelling started at 1900. At about 0230 in the morning,
the first burst of fire went through the house and it was really
dark. No moon, no stars and no light. So you couldn’t
see anything. No one was game enough to put the lights on
in the house. There was myself, Walton, the English Colonel,
a French Captain, a Malaysian Major, a Bangladeshi Major and Jill,
a civilian electoral worker.
Then
the fire just started going through the house. I was lying
low on the floor, hoping they’d keep trying to shoot the
windows and not low. Walton decided we’d get down under
the house and that’s when I had a big adrenalin rush with
the firing going on all around us. You shake a bit at first
and then the shakes go. We started moving down the staircase,
which was at the front of the house, and they were firing at us
from the temple across the road.
Walton
wanted us to get into the bunker under the house. The two
interpreters living next door had joined us and one of them was
crying. He was really upset, clinging onto me. I had
my arm round him trying to cool him down, saying “It’s
alright man, don’t worry.” But he was really
frightened.
Because
there wasn’t enough room for me and the colonel in the bunker,
we stayed outside, moving behind the concrete wall of a latrine. Then
the Indonesian soldiers arrived. We took up position behind
the vehicle in the driveway and I said, “Sir, do you want
me to return fire, or what?” He said, “Yes put
a bit of fire in.” So I put a little bit of fire in,
just a couple of rounds. They were still shooting and the
Malaysian Major got out of the bunker and ran behind us to get
into the Indonesians’ army vehicle. The others tried
to get to the vehicle too, but the Pakistani held them up. His
luggage blocked their way out of the bunker. By this time
the Khmer Rouge switched all their fire onto the Indonesians, drenching
them with fire. So the Indonesians said “Stuff this,
we’re out of here”, and took off with the Malaysian
and Bangladeshi. It felt like there were about 40 to 60 Khmer
Rouge attacking us, with the idea that, if there was another UN
death, they could stop the elections.
We
really thought we were stuffed. Walton, a trained infantry
commander, knew how to move us out – guys at the front with
me going last. We held our fire because we wanted them to
think we had gotten out with the Indonesians. We moved single
file behind the house and hid in a swamp, which was really a sewer. As
I turned around to get in, I could see the Khmer Rouge torches
flashing inside the fence. I got into the water, got really
concerned, because our guys seemed to be making a lot of noise.
Then
I heard this big slapping sound and found out later it was Walton
hitting the interpreter, who was still crying, because this guy
was really going off. I turned around. Oh God, I heard
voices real close. The torchlight was only about 25 metres
away from me and I thought if it comes onto me, I’m going
to shoot. Walton told me to drop the radio but I figured
no, stuff it, I’ll get in the shit if I do that. So
I kept it on my back, which made me feel a bit more secure. I
could see their lights and I tried to whisper it through to Walton
to keep us moving. A dog started barking which terrified
me because I thought it would give us away. We could hear
them shooting vehicles, kicking, yelling and ransacking and shooting
up the local’s houses. This was what sent the interpreter
off, because he could understand what they were saying. He
was a mess. He’d pissed his pants because he’d
been through it all before. The other interpreter had run
off.
We
moved across the road, one by one, with Jill and the interpreter
running off into a compound. We went under another house,
through another little pond and hid in a dark corner of a yard
until the Khmer Rouge left at about 0500. We stayed there
until the Indonesian soldiers turned up to rescue us an hour later.”
Private
Richards received a Chief of General Staff’s Commendation
for his actions on the night of 20 May in Cambodia. In part
it reads:
“On
20 May 1993, whilst providing communications support to United
Nations Observer Team 523, you and the Team were attacked by a
force of 80 – 100 members of the National Army of Democratic
Kampuchea. Due to the amount of heavy rocket and small arms
fire, the team was forced to evacuate the United Nations Military
Observer’s house and withdraw to a swamp area. As the
only member armed to protect the group, you reacted calmly to the
crisis and maintained a high level of discipline/. After
four hours, the opposing forces withdrew leaving the house in ruin. In
this incident, you displayed personal courage and demonstrated
excellent soldier skills during extremely dangerous and demanding
circumstances.
Some
six days later, the team was caught in a National Democratic Army
of Kampuchea vehicle ambush and subjected to both small arms and
indirect fire weapons. As the road was mined off route the
convoy had no choice but to make best speed out of the ambush area. Under
orders, you returned fire and once again became an asset to the
team in a life-threatening situation.
I
commend you for your courageous actions, presence of mind, and
composure in these incidents. Your contribution to the safe
withdrawal of United Nations Military Observer Team 523 has brought
great credit to you, the Australian Army and Australia. Your
actions were in keeping with the finest traditions of the Royal
Australian Infantry Corps.”
Known
as the “Shit Magnet”, Private Kelvin Richards was also
involved in many other contacts. Of particular mention, on
the night of …………..he was one of the
picquets that intercepted a State of Cambodia (SOC) police officer,
who was firing wildly into the Australian Compound at Pteah Australii,
near Pochentong Airport in Phnom Penh. In order to protect
Australian lives and United Nations property, the piquet (Leading
Aircraftsman Jason Sleep), shot and killed the SOC Policeman.
Private
Richards was returned to Australia in October 1993. He experienced
many difficulties in adjusting to Australia on his return and was
subsequently medically discharged from the Army.
In
late 1996, Kelvin Richards was found dead in Cabramatta, in Sydney. He
had suffered a gunshot wound to the head – of his own doing.
