Most of you may already have heard but for those who worked at Channel 9 in the old days, you will be saddened to hear of the passing (today) of JACK WONG SUE. Jack was known as the Host of the Channel 9 program called Down Under.
The following has been passed to me by Bruce Dargie:
Decorated Australian war hero Jack Wong Sue has died in a Perth hospice, aged 84.
Jack Sue was a member of the Z-Force unit, the predecessor to the SAS, during World War II.
He served behind enemy lines in Borneo for six months when he was a 19-year-old.
There he witnessed the Sandakan prisoner of war camp. Only six of 2,000 Australians returned from the camp alive.
Mr Sue was awarded the Army’s Distinguished Conduct Medal and the United States Submarine Combat Insignia.
He wrote several books about his experiences in the war.
Regards June Holmes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Wong_Sue
Jack Wong Sue, OAM, DCM, JP also known as Jack Sue, was born 12 September 1925 and died in a Perth hospice, 16 November 2009 (aged 84). Wong was a prominent Chinese Australian from Perth, Western Australia. Wong Sue served behind enemy lines in Borneo as a member of Z Force (also known as Z Special Unit), during World War II.
After the war, Wong Sue became a prominent businessman, with a diving store. He was also an author and had worked as a guide for tours of Borneo. Wong Sue was also a musician and performed with bands in Perth for about 60 years.
http://www.pacificwrecks.com/reviews/blood.html
What a man!
What a life!
What an Australian!
Jack Wong Sue was seconded to a covert unit called Special Operations Australia (SOA) cover name Services Reconnaissance Department (SRD). Z Special Unit was an Administrative and Logistics unit to cater for Australian Imperial Force (AIF) (army only) recruits as well as a holding unit for all covert operatives under the umbrella of Allied Intelligence Bureau (AIB) prior to it being formed it was Special Operations Executive – Australia (SOE-Australia) a British covert unit. He did not spend six months on active service as he was extracted for medical reasons for a period of time before returning to Borneo. He did not witness any Death marches in Borneo as he was nowhere near the areas of the march. This is all covered at National archives Australia and can be seen on line. He was awarded the DCM, but not the United States Navy Submarine Combat Patrol Insignia. That was only awarded to US Submariners that had gone on a patrol and sunk Japanese shipping. Jack’s only trip on a US Submarine was a coveert insertion from Darwin to Borneo. One of the crew may have given it to him, but he would not have been awarded it by the US Navy. I am researching SOA and I intend to start up a web site on the operations carried out by SOA during WW2. The Australian SAS Company that was formed in July 1957 was on the same model as the British SAS that was serving in Malaya and Borneo. The Australian SAS whilst in Borneo was operating in parternship with the British 22 SAS
Whatever comments are made about these brave soldiers, by would be historians who rely on faulty and incomplete (often fabrications by military personnel who were not even in the field)information, it cannot be denied that they willingly risked their lives behind enemy lines; living in the threat of betrayal and exposure, or torture and death, with no back-up in the field. The details of what they did, or did not do is insignificant. They put their lives on the line for their Country and that in itself should be enough! People of Lynette Silver’s ilk might do well to remember that. Could she have done what they did? We will never know!