In Fremantle, as a 17-year-old,
he was an assistant furniture
salesman at Locke’s Furnishings.
Two of his mates from the store were
in the Citizen’s Military Force (the
CMF was the forerunner to the Army
Reserve), and Merv was keen to join
them in 7 Field Ambulance Regiment.
If he couldn’t get in with
them, then he hoped to go to
10th Light Horse Regiment.
He joined and was particularly
looking forward to the
annual training camp.
Knowing his mates had already
been given permission at work
to attend the camp, he asked
for a similar dispensation.
But he got a diff erent
response from the boss.
“No, we already have two
other people going, so you
can’t go,” he was told.
“I gave them my notice, went
on the camp, and thoroughly
enjoyed it,” Merv said.
Then came time to pay the piper.
“I spent three months
on the dole before
I found work at a hardware
store,” he said, grinning broadly.
In the CMF he was allocated
to the Royal Australian Army
Service Corps (RAASC) which
ceased to exist in June, 1973.
“I used to do ration break-ups
and I was a POL [petrol, oil and
lubricants] jockey,” Merv said.
“These days, we have a massive distribution
system with fuel tankers, but in those
days, we had a bowser and jerry cans.”
Lots and lots of jerry cans, all of which had to
be fi lled by hand, or a 44gal drum (200 litres
or so) equipped with a hand pump in the fi eld.
He fell in love with Army life and after two
years and 238 days as a reservist, he tied the
knot permanently joining the regular Army in
November, 1968 without a break in service.
In June, the following year, having been
allocated to Royal Australian Infantry
Corps, he was posted to 2RAR.
Almost a year later, the Battalion, with
PTE Merv Dicton in its ranks, deployed
to Vietnam as 2RAR/NZ (ANZAC) Bn.
It was a long deployment - May 12, 1970
to June 1, 1971 - but it also reminds Merv
Top left - Exercise North Star UK 1975
Edinburgh Castle
Top - Post survival training refreshment 1977
Left - Mess dinner 1978
42 | APRIL 2017