Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Date of Intake 0/2/1968, NS Training 2 RTB, Follow Up Training HQ1ATF Royal Australian Army Corps, Basic Training Puckapunyal

Keith, aged 21 yrs. was an administration officer with the Postmaster-General’s Department when called up in February 1968

L/Cpl Dewar had been attached to B Squadron 3 Cavalry Regiment from October 1968 to January 1969 and had stayed on with that unit without official orders. He was killed when an APC detonated a mine during a land clearing operation in Phuoc Tuy 24th June 1969.
Information from Find a Grave Memorial

In March 1966 it was decided that the 1st Australian Task Force (1ATF) would be assigned to Phuoc Tuy Province and be under the Operational Control of a US Army Corps Headquarters, i.e. II Field Force Vietnam (IIFFV) based at Bien Hoa. For a number of reasons, especially its isolation from the populated areas, the location of the forward operational base for 1ATF was selected at Nui Dat while the 1st Australian Logistics Support Group (1ALSG) was to be located at the port city of Vung Tau, some 25 Km to the south west.

On June 6 2019, Collie-Cardiff RSL unveiled its re-coated and finished M113A1 Armoured Personnel Carrier recently in memory of Collie Boy and Lance Corporal Keith Ivan Dewar, who died in battle after his APC hit a land mine in Phuoc Tuy Province in South Vietnam in 1969. A group of volunteers, alongside Collie-Cardiff RSL president Gary Benton and vice president Grahame Old, Keith's brother Ron Dewar, and sister in law Margaret Dewar all got together recently to reveal the shrine in front of the RSL's APC, which is similar to the one Keith was killed in at age 21.