7 March. ON this day in 1962 HMAS Sydney was recommissioned under the command of Captain Richard Peek OBE, DSC as a fast troop carrier to carry troops and their equipment to Vung Tau in Vietnam.
Her role as an aircraft carrier had ended when she paid off into Special Reserve in Sydney on 30 May 1958 after steaming 315,958 miles since commissioning in the UK in 1948. After refitting Sydney came back into operational commission in July 1963
Interspersed with training and exercise duties, Sydney visited Vietnam transporting troops and equipment on 24 occasions, commencing in June 1965 and ending in February 1972.
In July 1971 Sydney visited the United States and Canada. On her departure for home she was carrying ten additional Skyhawk aircraft for the RAN’s Fleet Air Arm, which had been embarked at San Diego.
So she was once again briefly a carrier of aircraft — if not an aircraft carrier.
