About this Nominal Roll
What is the Nominal Roll of Vietnam Veterans?
Who is included?
Who is not included?
How was the roll compiled?
Where are Service records held?
Assistance with research
What if an individual doesn't want to be listed on the Nominal
Roll?
Data collected
How does the basic and advanced search work?
Photos
Accuracy of the data collection
What Service documents were used to source this information?
Was the information always available from these Service
documents for each individual?
What is the Nominal Roll of Vietnam Veterans ?
The Nominal Roll of Vietnam Veterans is a database containing information on approximately 61 000 Australian Service personnel who served in Vietnam during the period 23 May 1962 to 29 April 1975.
The Nominal Roll provides a 'snapshot' of an individual's service, by displaying a range of information on each person, gathered from Service records and archival material from the period held by the Department of Defence or other institutions such as the National Archives of Australia or the Australian War Memorial. More detailed information on an individual can be obtained from the Service records held by the relevant Department of Defence Record Custodian.This website also contains a separate list of more than 1 600 Australian civilians who were awarded, or were eligible to receive, the Vietnam Logistics and Support Medal (VLSM).
The Department of Veterans' Affairs intends to include on the website a list of the crews of HMA Ships Quickmatch and Vampire during the ships' visit to Saigon between 25 and 29 January 1962. The ships' lists for this period cannot be located and crew members are encouraged to contact the Nominal Rolls team so that the list can be assembled.
Who is included on the Nominal Roll?
The Nominal Roll contains selected Service details of approximately 13 600 members of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), 41 720 members of the Australian Army, and 4 900 members of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).
Criteria for inclusion on the roll is based on Department of Defence and Department of Veterans' Affairs criteria recognising Vietnam operational/active service. The roll includes all Australian Service personnel who were officially allotted to, and actually served in, the Vietnam operational area as defined under Schedule 2 of the Veterans' Entitlements Act (VEA) 1986.
Who is included on the listing of Civilians?
The listing of Australian civilian VLSM recipients includes medical personnel, Merchant Navy personnel, entertainers, war correspondents, Qantas aircrew and employees of various government departments. Their details can be accessed from the Civilians page.
Members of philanthropic organisations, such as the Red Cross and the Salvation Army, who provided various forms of support to Australian Service personnel in Vietnam and were allocated Service numbers, are included with the Service entries. Their details can be accessed from the Search page.
Who is not included?
Australians who enlisted with other Commonwealth or Allied Forces are not included in this Nominal Roll. Respective overseas countries hold the Vietnam Service records for those Australians.
How was the roll compiled?
A preliminary Nominal Roll of Vietnam Veterans was released in paperback format in April 1996. This was followed by the publication of an updated commemorative version in 1997, which was also made available on floppy disc, and an internet version launched in 2006 based on a master version of the earlier Roll held and updated by the Department of Veterans' Affairs.
This version of the Nominal Roll was gathered from Service records and archival material from the period held by the Department of Defence or other institutions such as the National Archives of Australia or the Australian War Memorial.
The Nominal Roll contains some information on veterans who died during the conflict. Further information concerning these veterans can be obtained from the Office of Australian War Graves and the Australian War Memorial.
Where are Service records held?
Navy records of those who served in Vietnam during the period 1962 – 1970 are held by the National Archives of Australia . Post-1970 records are held by the Department of Defence. An index of the 1962 – 1970 Service records can be viewed on the Archives website.
The Department of Defence holds the Service records for those who served in Vietnam in either the Australian Army or the Royal Australian Air Force.
Assistance with research
Should you require assistance to undertake further research, advice can be sought from the Australian War Memorial and the National Archives of Australia.
What if an individual doesn't want to be listed on the Nominal Roll?
Since the Nominal Rolls were first published in 1996, veterans have been given the opportunity to have their details excluded from the published roll if they so wished.
Some veterans sought exclusion in full, others sought exclusion of particular data. Until this version of the Roll, part-exclusion has not been practical, and a request for exclusion of any part resulted in exclusion in full.
This version of the Roll allows for partial exclusion.
A veteran, or a person acting on behalf of a veteran, can request exclusion of data at any time by writing to the DVA Nominal Rolls team . A person acting on behalf of a veteran would need to include documentary proof of bona fides, such as an enduring power of attorney.
Data collected
For each person listed on this version of the Nominal Roll, the following information has been collected:
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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.
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Refers to one of the three Services that form Australia's armed forces - Royal Australian Navy (RAN); Australian Army; Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). Where an individual served in more than one Service, each period of Service will be displayed as a separate record. To view all records for an individual, select 'ALL' in the Service box.
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Service numbers are allocated by the relevant Service and, in some instances, have 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. Where an individual served in more than one Service, a record will be displayed for each period of Service.
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The parent unit or units to which an individual was allotted for duty within the defined operational area of Vietnam.
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The date recorded in the Service record as the date of birth.
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The place recorded in the Service record as the place of birth.
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Service between |
The criteria used by the Services, and by Army in particular, to determine dates in relation to Vietnam service changed over the course of Australia's involvement in the conflict. This Nominal Roll uses the following criteria:
Where a veteran had multiple tours in Vietnam, if a Certificate of Service is printed the 'Service Between' section will show 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 at variance with the Dates of Service found in some other statements of service. For those affected the difference will, at most, be a few days, and actual time physically spent 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.
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Indicates the date of death while serving in the defined operational area.
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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.
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The rank (substantive, acting or temporary) held by the individual on either their last day or date of death in the operational area.
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Branch/Corps/Mustering
Category/Qualification
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These are Service specific terms that relate to an individual's function or speciality within their chosen Service.
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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.
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Indicates you were undertaking National Service at the time you were 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.
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How does the search work?
Two search functions are available on this site: basic and advanced.
Basic search provides searching by Service number OR lastname OR firstname.
All searches are case insensitive. This means specifying a lastname of [BROWN], [Brown] or [brown] all return the same results.
The best results will be obtained by searching using the Service number only.
Advanced search function enables a search to be undertaken using any of the fields displayed.
Certificate of Service
A Certificate of Service can be printed for every Service record. The Certificate is designed to be printed in landscape format.
Photographs
The photographs used in this site have been drawn from the collection of the Australian War Memorial and Office of Australian War Graves. The reference numbers are listed under each photo.
Accuracy of the data collection
Every effort has been made to ensure that the Nominal Roll is as accurate as possible. If you believe the information displayed on the website is incorrect please contact the Nominal Rolls team.
What Service documents were used to source this information?
The following Service-specific documentation was used to source the information:
Record of Service Card |
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B103. Record of Service; AAF A7, Personal Data Sheet; AAF A5, Attestation Form; AAB 83, Regimental Record of Service; Department of Labour and National Service Personal Data Sheet; CARO Notifiable Casualties Action Sheet; Routine Orders. |
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Record of Service; Attestation Form; Posting/Attachment Forms; Application Forms. |
Was the information always available from these Service documents for each individual?
Personnel-related Service documents were used to provide as much information as possible. However, other archival material from the period held by the Department of Defence or other institutions (such as the National Archives of Australia or the Australian War Memorial) was used where relevant information was not available from personnel files. For Navy this material included Next-of-Kin Lists, Reports of Proceedings, Ships' Logs, Navy Lists and Navy Orders. For Air Force it included Unit History Sheets, Personnel Occurrence Reports and Air Force Lists.
Where did the information on the Civilians come from?
There is no single source of data, such as the Service record, for civilians. Therefore only the name and type of participation is displayed. The data was collected from a number of sources including;