35 Facts About Ted Serong

Ted Serong instructed the armed forces of Burma in jungle warfare in the late 1950s and was a strategic advisor to the Burmese Army from 1960 to 1962.

Ted Serong was later seconded to the Americans and was senior advisor to the South Vietnamese Police Field Force between 1965 and 1968.

Ted Serong continued to serve in Vietnam until the fall of Saigon in 1975.

Ted Serong was considered a world authority on counter-insurgency warfare and wrote widely on the subject.

Ted Serong was born in the suburb of Abbotsford in Melbourne on 11 November 1915, the first child of William and Mabel Serong.

Ted Serong's father was of Portuguese heritage from the island of Madeira; the family had first settled in Australia in 1824.

In 1928, at the age of 13, Ted Serong moved to St Colman's School in Fitzroy; at the end of the year he won a government scholarship to continue his studies the next year at Parade College, in East Melbourne, where he completed his Intermediate Certificate in 1930.

Ted Serong subsequently completed Leaving Honours, achieving highly in maths, physics and English.

Ted Serong met his lifelong friend, B A Santamaria, who was two years ahead of him at St Kevin's, and with whom he developed a similar world-view.

Ted Serong's politics were further affected by the later events of the Spanish Civil War from 1937, and the coming to power of the Communist Party in China in 1949.

In November 1933 Ted Serong applied to the Royal Military College, Duntroon, but was unsuccessful.

Ted Serong studied the military and civilian subjects that made up Duntroon's first-year curriculum in the hope of gaining entry into the college at second-year level in 1934.

In 1936 Ted Serong won the welterweight category of the RMC boxing championship.

Meanwhile, Serong had married a nurse, Kathleen Blayney, on 19 February 1942, and was promoted temporary captain, returning to Duntroon to complete the first wartime staff course.

In 1943 Ted Serong served as General Staff Officer 2 with the combined 6th and 7th Divisions on the Atherton Tableland in Far North Queensland, where they were resting and retraining prior to conducting further operations.

Ted Serong was later attached to American forces for the landing on Morotai Island in the Netherlands East Indies in mid-September 1944.

Ted Serong was promoted to temporary lieutenant colonel in January 1947; the rank became substantive in October 1948.

Ted Serong joined the Directorate of Military Training at Army Headquarters, Melbourne, in January 1952.

In 1954 Ted Serong was tasked with redirecting Army training towards jungle warfare, in preparation for operations in South East Asia.

At the request of Muang Muang, Ted Serong returned to Burma in 1960, serving in Rangoon as a strategic adviser to the Burmese armed forces.

Ted Serong was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen's Birthday Honours List the same year.

Ted Serong helped develop its doctrine for counter-insurgency warfare, the basis of which he had laid down in several planning initiatives.

In May 1962, Serong was selected to lead the 30-man Australian Army Training Team Vietnam of instructors to South Vietnam.

Ted Serong later became a counter-insurgency advisor to General Paul Harkins, Commander US MACV, but this relationship ended under Pollard's successor, Lieutenant General John Wilton, who reduced Ted Serong's autonomy while continuing to grant him considerable latitude.

In May 1963 Serong accepted an invitation to visit the US Special Warfare School in North Carolina, informing the Military Board only after doing so, and he later visited West Germany to become familiar with intelligence activities there, again without informing Wilton, who reacted angrily after finding out about it from a newspaper report.

Meanwhile, in late 1963, Serong started to redeploy members of the team into combat advisory roles, and by February 1964 some officers and NCOs were working with Special Forces teams involved in counter-insurgency operations.

Blair later wrote that Serong had accepted the defence of South Vietnam from communism as his "personal mission", and his decision to take an early retirement had been due to his increasing involvement with US organisations, the value they placed on his work and his profile as an international figure, as well as a growing "emotional distance" from the Australian Army and its senior leadership.

Ted Serong instructed at the National Defense College of South Vietnam and worked for the Rand organisation, Hudson Institute and other corporations, preparing strategic analyses.

Ted Serong was a consultant to the Pentagon and the policy planning teams of several US presidents, including the Nixon administration.

In 1971, Ted Serong declared that South Vietnam had essentially won the war.

Ted Serong received several US and South Vietnamese awards, including the United States Legion of Merit, the Medal of Honour, Cross of Gallantry, and Knight of the National Order of Vietnam.

Ted Serong was considered a world authority on counter-insurgency operations, and wrote widely on the subject in the 1970s.

Ted Serong supported conspiracy theories about the Port Arthur shooting in 1996 and allegations of government corruption as well as speaking on Australian defence issues.

Ted Serong was at times associated with right-wing individuals or organisations, advocating nationalism and the need for increased defence spending as part of a "forward defence" strategy, as well as strengthening of the peace-time Army Reserve, the development of inland Australia, opposition to gun control, concerns about the loss of national sovereignty and financial autonomy to the United Nations and International Monetary Fund, and limitations on immigration.

Ted Serong died of heart disease on 1 October 2002 and was survived by his wife and their three daughters and three sons.