Ted Serong

Francis Philip "Ted" Serong
Born	11 November 1915 Abbotsford, Victoria, Australia
Died	Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Allegiance	Australia
Service/branch	Australian Army
Years of service	1937–68
Rank	Brigadier
Commands held	Australian Army Training Team Vietnam
Battles/wars	Second World War Vietnam War
Awards	Distinguished Service Order Officer of the Order of the British Empire

Brigadier Francis Philip "Ted" Serong DSO, OBE (11 November 1915 – 1 October 2002) was a senior officer of the Australian Army, most notable for his contributions to counter-insurgency and jungle warfare tactics, and as commander of the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam from 1962 until 1965.

Biography

Serong was born in the Melbourne suburb of Abbotsford on 11 November 1915, the first son of William and Mabel Serong. He won a scholarship to St Kevin's College and then attended the Royal Military College, Duntroon. He graduated from Duntroon in 1937, serving with the artillery, then with an armoured regiment until he joined the infantry and saw combat as a staff and regimental officer with the 6th and 7th Divisions in New Guinea between 1942 and 1945. Serong was mentioned in despatches for his actions at Wewak in the last few weeks of the war, whilst serving as a major with the 35th Battalion.

As a colonel, he headed the newly reopened Jungle Warfare Training Centre at Canungra, in south-eastern Queensland from 1955 to 1957.

In 1957, he became counter-insurgency instructor to the Burmese armed forces. From 1960–62 he was strategic adviser to the Burmese armed forces.

In 1962, he was selected to lead the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATV) instructors in Vietnam. That year he was awarded he was appointed as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), while in 1965 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO).

Serong left the Australian Army in 1968 with the rank of brigadier. He stayed on in Vietnam as a security and intelligence adviser to the South Vietnamese Government for some years. He also prepared strategic analyses for the Rand organisation, the Hudson Institute and other US corporations and was a consultant to the Pentagon. In 1971, Serong declared that South Vietnam had essentially won the war.

Serong served in Vietnam until the fall of Saigon in 1975.

Retirement

During his retirement, Serong became involved in various anti-communist organisations and citizen militia groups such as Ausi Freedom Scouts (Australians United for Survival and Freedom). He supported conspiracy theories about the Port Arthur massacre of 1996 and spoke on Australian defence issues.

Personal

Serong had a wife, Kathleen, three daughters, Julie, Elise and Rosemary, and three sons, Michael, Richard and Anthony. He died of heart disease.

External links

• Colonel Francis Phillip Serong – Australian War Memorial