Army was allocated the largest proportion of men and formed ten National Service Training Battalions. 

• The locations of the  Battalions were: 

  • Queensland, 11 Battalion at Wacol; 

  • New South Wales, 12 Battalion at Singleton and Holsworthy, 13 Battalion at Ingleburn and 19 Battalion at Old Holsworthy and Holsworthy; 

  • Victoria, 14, 15 and 20 Battalions at Puckapunyal and Watsonia; 

  • South Australia, 16 Battalion at Woodside; 

  • Western Australia, 17 Battalion at Swanbourne; 

  • Tasmania, 18 Battalion at Brighton. 

Air Force National Servicemen undertook their training in National Service Training Units and were allocated to Flights, corresponding to platoons, at the major air bases and depots throughout Australia.

• This included 

  • Garbutt in Townsville, 

  • Toowoomba and Oakey on the Darling Downs, 

  • Amberley near Ipswich and 

  • Archerfield in Brisbane; 

  • Richmond, Rathmines, Williamtown, Bankstown, Forest Hill and Uranquinty near Wagga Wagga in New South Wales; 

  • Fairbairn in Canberra; 

  • Point Cook, Laverton, Frognall, Tottenham, Ballarat and East Sale in Victoria; 

  • Mallala near Adelaide and Pearce and 

  • Merredin near Perth. 

  • Trainees from South Australia and Tasmania also went to Laverton. 

National Service Instructors were drawn from all three Services and most had World War Two and Korean combat experience. National Servicemen in both schemes received the standard basic training for all new recruits.   

Navy National Service numbers were followed by NS and were in sequence from the first intake.  An A preceded Air Force numbers. 

• In Army and Air Force numbers, the first numeral (i.e. 2/771128 or  A55100) usually indicated the State in which the trainee was called up:  

  • 1 Queensland, 

  • 2 New South Wales, 

  • 3 Victoria, 

  • 4 South Australia, 

  • 5 Western Australia, 

  • 6 Tasmania and 

  • 1 (later 8)  Papua New Guinea. 

  • First scheme Army numbers had an oblique, Vietnam-era numbers did not. 

However, this was not always the case. In the first scheme, some trainees from southern New South Wales had 3 prefixes and during the Vietnam-era some trainees were assigned numbers from other States. First scheme Army numbers had an oblique, Vietnam-era numbers did not. 

Under the National Service Act 1951, all young men turning 18 on or after l November 1950 were required to undertake 176 days standard recruit training in the Navy, Army and Air Force, followed by five years in their respective Reserves. The first call-up notices were issued on 12 April 1951 and the first National Servicemen marched in during July.  

The Navy required its National Servicemen for 124 days continuous training and then thirteen days training each year for four years in the Naval Reserve. Army trainees initially were required to serve 98 days continuous basic training followed by 78 days part-time training in the Citizen Military Force over three years. Army Nashos without a unit near their home returned to Wacol to complete their obligation. The Air Force required its National Servicemen for a continuous 176 days training. 

In 1955 the Navy and Air Force reduced training to 154 days and discontinued National Service in 1957. In 1957, the Army reduced initial training to 77 days and part time service in the CMF to 63 days over two years.  It also reduced the call-up through a birthday ballot from the second intake of 1957. The last intake of the first scheme was in August, 1959. 

The Australian Government decided on 24 November 1959 to discontinue National Service and on 30 June 1960 all National Servicemen were declared to have honorably discharged their obligation. 

Those in the first scheme did not see active service, but National Servicemen were on Naval ships that visited Korean waters during hostilities and were at the atomic bomb tests in 1952 at Monte Bello Islands in Western Australia  and in 1956 at Maralinga in South Australia. RAAF National Servicemen worked on aircraft that had flown through atomic clouds. National Servicemen were placed on alert as part of a wider standby for active service during the Suez Canal crisis in 1956 but the crisis passed.

With the outbreak of Confrontation with Indonesia between 1963 and 1966 and the Vietnam War, recruiting again was insufficient and the Government introduced the National Service Act 1964. 

In the second scheme men aged 20 were selected by a birthday ballot for the Army. The Navy and Air Force did not use National Service for Vietnam. An alternative allowed those liable to conscription to  elect, a year before the ballot, to fulfil their National Service obligation by six years service in the CMF. Some 35,000 did so until this option was abolished. 

Between 30 June 1965 and 7 December 1972, a total of 63,790 were called up for two years fulltime service  integrated into regular Army units. This was reduced to 18 months in 1971. 

Of them, 100 served in Borneo and 17,424 served in Vietnam. The other 46,366 served in support units in Australia, Malaysia and Papua-New Guinea. 

After twelve weeks initial training at  1 Recruit Training Battalion at Kapooka, NSW;  2 R.T.B. at Puckapunyal, Victoria; or  3 R.T.B. at Singleton, N.S.W.; National Servicemen were assigned to the many different Corps.  About 1500 were selected for officer training at Scheyville in Sydney and were commissioned as Second Lieutenants.  <<< Badge of 3 Recruit Training Battalion. More details.

Most were allotted to the Infantry, enabling the Army to increase the Royal Australian Regiment from five to nine Battalions for the first time. 

During Confrontation with Indonesia between 1963 and 1966, the Government committed 3 Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment to Borneo in 1965, succeeded  by 4RAR. All Battalions were rotated through Vietnam between 1966 and 1971. Most units gave National Servicemen the choice of active service and most volunteered. Of them, two died in Borneo and 210 in Vietnam. They included six who enlisted upon call-up or re-enlisted and three voluntary National Servicemen. The casualty rate amongst National Servicemen was lower than amongst enlisted regulars.  

Confrontation ended in 1966. The McMahon Government withdrew Australian units from Vietnam in 1971. In 1972, the Whitlam Government, using  the expedient of ‘exceptional hardship’ ,  discharged National Servicemen from the Army and passed the National Service Termination Act in 1973. The Defence Legislation Amendment Act of 1992 repealed the National Service Act 1951 but the then Labor Government retained the power to re-introduce conscription in a time of war with prior Parliamentary approval.

Australia had made training in the Citizens Military Forces compulsory at various times between 1910 and 1945. The 1951 National Service Act revived this with National Servicemen, after their basic training,  completing their obligation in their respective Reserves.  In 1980 the  CMF was reorganised as the Ready Reserve and then the Army Reserve. The Citizens Air Force became the Air Force Reserve. The Naval Reserve remained virtually unchanged. In 2001 the Defence Act was amended so that Reservists could be called up for overseas service. 

Despite the compulsion, National Servicemen of both schemes did their training, active and reserve duties well and honourably and most regarded it as a rewarding part of their lives. They served overseas with distinction in Vietnam, Malaysia, Borneo and Papua-New Guinea.

The distinctive ribbon uses the colours of the three Services during the National Service era - Navy white, Army jungle green and RAAF light blue - and Australia’s then national colours of blue and gold. The ochre strip represents the land.  

Because National Service was drawn from the entire community, many National Servicemen from both schemes later rose to high positions in politics, business, the professions and the community. They include Governors-General Bill Hayden and Dr.Peter Hollingworth; deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer and Federal Minister Wilson Tuckey; Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett; Queensland’s Chief Justice Paul De Jersey; Major-General Rod Fay, businessmen Lindsay Fox and Sir James Hardy; author and television personality Clive James; entertainer Normie Rowe, tennis player Lew Hoad, cricketer Doug Walters and car racing legends Peter Brock and Dick Johnson. 

However, the domestic divisions over the Vietnam War saw National Servicemen, particularly those who had active service, in the invidious position of not only being conscripted by a selective ballot but also subjected to public derision by some of the Australian public on their return. These divisions have seen both sides of politics reluctant to consider National Service to supplement chronic shortfalls in voluntary recruiting.

All National Servicemen are ex-servicemen. They march on Anzac Day, Remembrance Day, National Service Day, Vietnam Veterans and Long Tan Days and Reserve Forces Day in their own right.

No women were called up for National Service.

National Servicemen marched as a contingent in the Army’s Centenary Parade in Canberra in 2001

They wear a wide variety of Service and Corps badges on their hats, caps and berets and many are members of Unit associations in all three Services. 

The late Barry Vicary founded the National Servicemen’s Association of Australia in Toowoomba, Queensland, on 28 November 1987 to seek a better deal for Vietnam-era National Servicemen and a Medal recognising National Service. When Barry learnt of the earlier and larger National Service scheme he immediately widened  the organisation to include them. The Association now has branches Australia-wide and is the second-largest ex-service organisation after the RSL.  

National Servicemen added a new word to the Australian language – Nasho. National Service Day, 14 February, marks the day the last Nasho marched out of camp.   © NSAA November  2005