1st Commando Regt; The Green Berets

After WW2, the Army disbanded the M and Z Force and the Independent Companies that made up Australia’s first Special Forces units. During the 1950’s it was found necessary to maintain the techniques and skills developed by these units. As a result two Reserve Commando companies were raised, 2 Commando Company (2 Cdo Coy) in February 1955 and 1 Commando Company (1 Cdo Coy) in June 1955. These companies operated independently, training reserve and regular commandos and maintaining the skill-set.

Several members of these companies went on to assist in and man the Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) when it was raised. In February 1981 it was decided to raise a headquarters to coordinate, command and control these companies and to provide the ability to round-out and augment staff at Special Operations Headquarters (SOHQ). 1 Cdo Regt provided training teams to assist in raising and training 4 RAR (Cdo) in commando skills.

In 1961, 301 Signal Squadron (301 Sig Sqn) was raised to provide specialist communications in support of 1 Cdo Regt. This role was then adopted by 126 Sig Sqn until June 2002 when 301 Sig Sqn was re-raised to carry out its previous role in support of the Regiment.