Remains of soldiers found in Borneo

Forty-four years ago, four of Australia's elite soldiers waded into a flood-swollen
Borneo river in pitchy darkness only to be swept away in the driving rain. Two were
never seen again.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd revealed their bodies had finally been found
where they were buried by Indonesian villagers.
They are Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) Lieutenant Kenneth Hudson, 30, of
Brisbane, and SASR Private Robert Moncrieff, 21, of Newcastle, whose remains will
soon be returned to Australia.
Mr Rudd said the families and loved ones of the two soldiers had been left with
uncertainty for the past 44 years.
"Now their remains can be brought home to their final resting place in Australia,"
he told parliament.
Lieutenant Hudson attended Brisbane Industrial High but was conscripted in 1955 then
enlisted for fulltime service in 1956. He joined the SASR in 1965, with the
selection board noting his reliability and steadfastness, which earnt him the
nickname "rock."
Private Moncrieff attended Cooks Hill High and entered the army in 1964, joining the
SASR in April 1965. He was described as a keen parachutist and surfer from his early
life in Newcastle, as well as an avid "bird watcher" on Perth's Cottesloe Beach.
This was the time of "confrontation" when Indonesia's President Sukarno had
threatened to obliterate the new Malaysian confederation, launching military
incursions into Malaysian Sarawak.
Both Australia and Britain deployed troops into Sarawak to ensure its security.
From July 1964 to July 1966, Australian and British special and other forces
conducted clandestine missions across the border, ambushing Indonesian troops and
gathering intelligence.
This was top secret and details of these so-called "Claret" operations were not
revealed until the 1980s and only officially admitted in 1996.
Lt Hudson and Pte Moncrieff deployed to Borneo as members of 2 Squadron SASR in
February 1966. The fateful mission took place on March 21, 1966.
In line with enduring sensitivities about these operations, Mr Rudd said only that
they were conducting border security operations.
In fact, the four-member SASR patrol was on a reconnaissance mission around three
kilometres inside Indonesian territory.
Around 3am, in driving rain, they began to move to a fresh position, which required
crossing a fast-flowing swollen river.
In the darkness, all were swept away but the two survivors, privates Frank Ayling
and Bruce Gabriel managed to drag themselves ashore some 500 metres downstream.
Because this was Indonesian territory, there was a limited ability to mount a
thorough search. Nevertheless, a patrol returned two days later, withdrawing after a
fruitless 11-day search.
Both men were declared dead on April 1, 1966, two of the three Australian SASR
soldiers to die in Borneo. The other, Lance Corporal Paul Denehey, was gored to
death by an elephant.
Defence Personnel Minister Greg Combet said that in 2008 the Australian army
launched an investigation to find the two men, with the Indonesian Armed Forces
(TNI) agreeing to help last year.
He said the residents of Sanggau province, where the men disappeared, offered
significant assistance.
"The team discovered that at the time of the disappearance it was local Indonesians
who had found the bodies of the two men and recovered them and gave them respectful
burials," he said.
"It was the same Indonesians who helped the joint team locate the burial sites and
recover the remains."