David Kirkpatrick's memories of 26 April 1970 are hazy at best. What he does know is that he would have died on that day if not for the efforts of an Air Force medic who he's been trying to thank for the best part of three decades.

On that fateful day, Trooper Kirkpatrick, serving in Vietnam with B-Squadron 3rd Cavalry Regiment, was dropping off some infantry at Phuoc Hai, about 16 kilometres from the Regiment's base at Nui Dat.

Returning from the insertion at about 1800hrs, the armoured personnel carrier (APC) he was driving struck a landmine, killing the Platoon Commander and seriously injuring four soldiers, including Trooper Kirkpatrick.

Suffering multiple fragment wounds, spinal injuries and with part of his right hip blown away, he managed to drag himself from underneath the 11-tonne vehicle, where he was attended to by personnel from a passing APC.

Despite considerable risks, Trooper Kirkpatrick and the other injured soldiers were duly loaded on to a No.9 Squadron evacuation helicopter, where he remembers being placed on the floor and hearing someone comment that, due to his wounds, his chances were 'slim'.

Lapsing in and out of consciousness, he can recall few details about what happened next.

All he knows is that in that time, 9SQN's Air Force Medic, whose first name was 'Nick', performed an emergency tracheotomy that ultimately saved the trooper's life.

During the life-saving flight, the medic held Trooper Kirkpatrick's head outside the chopper where the wash from the rotor blades forced air into his windpipe via an insertion cut in the Adam's apple.

'I can remember he [the medic] kept saying to me, "Don't die on me little brother," over and over,' David said.

After his condition stabilised, Trooper Kirkpatrick was transferred from No.4 Air Force Hospital, Butterworth, to No.2 Military Hospital in Ingleburn, Sydney, so he could be closer to his family. He was later given a medical discharge from the Army.

Now retired and living outside Melbourne, David's brush with death is never far from his mind. Understandably, neither are the actions of the medic whose quick thinking, courage and skill saved him.

A formal 'thank you' is long overdue.

'It's something I always think about,' David conceded. 'I could have easily lost my life that day. When they got me on that chopper I wasn't expected to live,' he said.

'It wasn't just me either. He was looking after four of us that day.'

David's mother believes the medic in question was admitted to No.2 Military Hospital in May 1970 - about a month after the incident - after an unrelated accident.

She said he visited her son in hospital, but once he left, the family lost touch.

Unconfirmed reports suggested he went to live on a cattle station at Julia Creek in Queensland, but David knows little of his whereabouts since.

David has asked anyone who may have served with 9SQN in Vietnam, or who may know the name of the Air Force medic, to contact him on (03) 9743 6493.

'I just want to say thanks,' he said.

By Ben Caddaye