In Memoriam - Brigadier Oliver David Jackson
Brigadier Oliver David Jackson, DSO, OBE
(1919–2004)
Brigadier Oliver David Jackson, one of the ‘elder statesmen’ of the Royal Australian Regiment (RAR), died on 7 May 2004. Jackson has the distinction of being the only officer to command all three original RAR battalions and, over almost forty years, he led Australian infantrymen in five theatres of war: the Middle East, New Guinea, Japan, Korea and Vietnam. Jackson was in command of the Australian Task Force in South Vietnam when it fought, and won, its best-known action at the Battle of Long Tan in August 1966.
Jackson was born in London in 1919, the son of Major General Robert Jackson, a professional soldier and veteran of World War I. Oliver David (known throughout his life as either David or O.D.) was named after his uncle, David, who had been killed at Gallipoli while attempting to rescue a fallen comrade. Following the Great War, the Jackson family returned to Australia, where young David attended numerous schools, including secondary education at Scotch College in Melbourne. In March 1937 Jackson, following in his father’s footsteps, chose to pursue a military career and commenced his training at the Royal Military College, Duntroon.
Jackson graduated in December 1939, two months after the outbreak of World War II. A few months later, in July 1940, he assumed his first command appointment as a platoon commander with the 2nd Battalion, 25th Australian Infantry Brigade. The battalion was deployed to the Middle East the following year, and Jackson saw action against the Axis in North Africa and Syria. By late 1942 the battalion returned from the Middle East and was subsequently deployed to fight against the Japanese in New Guinea. Later, Jackson was among those Australian diggers who fought doggedly from Gona through the Ramu Valley and the Finisterre Ranges to the New Guinea north coast. From June 1944 until the end of the Pacific War in August 1945, Jackson served as an instructor at the Canadian Staff College.
With the end of World War II, Jackson returned to Australia and served in a variety of staff appointments at the Royal Military College, in Army Headquarters and in Headquarters Western Command. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel in 1949 and became a colonel in 1951. On 21 June 1956, he assumed command of the 1st Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment (1 RAR), and was responsible for overseeing the unit’s final operational activities in Korea. Colonel Jackson then took up a two-year appointment in the United States as Australian Military Attache in Washington. At the beginning of the 1960s, he returned to Australia as Director of Infantry at Army Headquarters. Subsequently he assumed command of the 3rd Battalion RAR during 1963, before transferring in order to become commanding officer of the 2nd Battalion RAR later in that year.
In 1965, Colonel Jackson was appointed commander of the Australian Army Training Team—Vietnam, the first Australian unit to serve in the Vietnam War. Promoted to Brigadier in 1966, he remained in Vietnam and became Commander, 1st Australian Task Force, located in the southern province of Phuoc Tuy. Enduring extreme personnel shortages alongside constant harassment from a Viet Cong insurgent enemy, Jackson commanded the task force in large-scale operations during 1966–67 against both the Viet Cong and North Vietmanese units.
These operations included the Battle of Long Tan in August 1966—an important action that ensured the Task Force’s physical dominance of Phuoc Tuy for the remainder of the war. An immensely practical man, Brigadier Jackson championed any initiative in Vietnam that would save the lives of his soldiers. For example, he insisted on the removal of the doors that inhibited troop movement and casualty evacuation to and from Australian helicopters operating in Vietnam. In June 1967, Brigadier Jackson returned to Australia and served in a number of headquarters appointments before his final posting as Chief of Staff at Headquarters 1st Division. Jackson retired from the Army in May 1974 and spent his retirement years in Sydney and the Southern Tablelands, where he indulged his passions for sailing and gardening.
During his thirty-seven years of distinguished military service, Jackson was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1956 and the Distinguished Service Order in 1967. Further recognition of his ability as a commander came in 1966, with decorations from the United States and South Vietnam in the form of the United States Meritorious Unit Commendation and the Unit Citation of the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Palm respectively. Jackson’s leadership, drive and practical wisdom made a profound impression on all those soldiers who served with him, and his example remains an enduring influence on the young infantry officers of today’s Australian Army.
Lieutenant John Bathgate
