WHAT A BUMMER! By Bob Meehan, 4 RAR/NZ
Whilst on the subject of “high jinks”, a story has been circulating for over 40 years and has now taken on “urban legend” proportions. The story starts at a swimming carnival held in the Harold Holt Memorial Pool at the Peter Badcoe Club, Vung Tau.
Delta Company 4 RAR/NZ soldiers were involved. The OC of Delta Company, Major Jerry Taylor, was watching the proceedings in the company of the wife of the President of South Vietnam, Mr Thieu.
L-Cpl Warren Dowell mounted the pool’s diving board and proceeded to execute a magnificent double half-pike with an inward turn dive. This dive would have won gold at any Olympic Games, except for one minor indiscretion. L-Cpl Dowell, while in mid-air, decided it was the appropriate time to pull his swimmers down, thus exposing his white buttocks to all and sundry. He entered the water a Lance Corporal, but exited the pool as a Private.
