HOME AT LAST!

The Repatriation of
Flying Officer Mike Herbert and Pilot Officer Bob Carver

Introduction

The caskets of FLGOFF Mike Herbert and PLTOFF Bob Carver being ceremonially transferred from the C130 that had brought them from Hanoi to the tarmac at RAAF Base Richmond.Monday 1st of September realised a sight that most RAAF Vietnam Veterans, especially those who had served with No 2 Squadron, never expected to see; the caskets of FLGOFF Mike Herbert and PLTOFF Bob Carver being ceremonially transferred from the C130 that had brought them from Hanoi to the tarmac at RAAF Base Richmond. Along with the dignitaries, honour guard and former squadron members crowding the tarmac to witness their return and resplendent in its operational paint scheme, was the sole surviving flying Canberra (now operated by the Temora Air Museum).

Thanks to the initial inspiration and dedication of LTCOL Jim Burke AM, MG and his team at “Operation Aussies Home” and finally with the assistance of RAAF and other specialists using both modern equipment and painstaking hand by hand search, the wreckage of Magpie 91, lost in flight after completion of a bombing sortie on the night of 3rd November 1970, was located and the remains of Mike and Bob recovered. Testament to the reputation of Australian forces in Vietnam, the search teams were assisted by local villagers as well as Vietnam Government agencies. That Government also expedited the return of the remains, including a formal ceremony at Hanoi where the two caskets, accompanied by an RAAF honour guard and relatives of Mike and Bob were reverently placed aboard the RAAF C130.

Following the formal “Repatriation Ceremony” at RAAF Base Richmond, a ceremony which had previously been conducted for each of the four Army MIAs that “Operation Aussies Home” had located for return to Australia (an enormous feat), Mike and Bob were accorded funerals with military honours. On Thursday 3rd September, Bob was interred at Toowoomba (Queensland) following a church service attended by hundreds of relatives, friends, former colleagues and current members of No 2 Squadron. A solitary F111 passed overhead in a final salute.

Mike was accorded a similar funeral service in Adelaide on 7th September, before a private internment. The Archbishop of Adelaide conducted a Pontifical Celebrated Mass at the Cathedral Church of St Francis Xavier, attended by the SA Governor and Premier, the Minister of Defence and the Chief of Air Force as well as hundreds of relatives, former squadron colleagues and Vietnam Veterans. With flags throughout the City of Adelaide at half mast, Mike’s cortege left the Cathedral escorted by an RAAF honour guard and band with veterans and students from his former school (Sacred Heart College) lining the roadway as a solitary F111 passed over in salute.

After nearly 39 years together as MIAs in a foreign country, they are now at home and at rest within the care of their families!