James Raymond BOURKE AM, MG

BOURKE, James Raymond

Service Number: 18252
Enlisted: Not yet discovered
Last Rank: Captain
Last Unit: 1st Australian Logistics Support Group
Born: Ayr, Queensland, Australia, 15 November 1943
Home Town: Ayr, Burdekin, Queensland
Schooling: Ayr State High School, Queensland, Australia
Occupation: Soldier
Died: Natural causes (lung cancer), 25 September 2015, aged 71 years, place of death not yet discovered
Cemetery: Not yet discovered
Memorials:
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Vietnam War Service

9 Jun 1965: Involvement Australian Army (Post WW2), 18252, 1st Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (1RAR)
9 Jun 1965: Involvement Australian Army (Post WW2), Captain, 18252
18 Jun 1968: Involvement Australian Army (Post WW2), 18252, Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV)
18 Jun 1968: Involvement Australian Army (Post WW2), Captain, 18252
13 Dec 1968: Involvement Australian Army (Post WW2), Captain, 18252, 1st Australian Logistics Support Group
31 Dec 1968: Involvement Australian Army (Post WW2), Captain, 18252

Non Warlike Service

Date unknown: Involvement Australian Army (Post WW2), Lieutenant Colonel, 18252

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Biography

James Bourke AM, MG was born in 1943 in Ayr, Queensland, where he was educated. After graduating from the Officer Cadet School (OCS), Portsea, in 1964, he undertook two tours in Vietnam, serving first as a platoon commander with 1st Battalion the Royal Australian Regiment (1RAR) in 1965–1966, and subsequently as an adviser with the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV) and 1st Australian Logistic Support Group (1ALSG) in 1968–69. After leaving the Army in 1986, Jim worked with NEC Australia Pty Ltd until 2005. In 2002, he began investigating the cases of the six Australian servicemen who remained unaccounted for from the Vietnam War, and in 2005, he established an incorporated association, ‘Operation Aussies Home Inc.’, to further these investigations. The Association discovered the remains of the first two of the six men in 2007. In 1998, Jim Bourke was awarded the Medal of Gallantry (MG) for his service in Vietnam during the War, and in 2009 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM), for service to veterans and their families. 

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