The commitment to Vietnam was not fully supported in the community and as early as September 1965, a mere three months after the National Service scheme was implemented, anti-Vietnam protests were planned for Puckapunyal. The raising of the 7th Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment and the Second Recruit Training Battalion was directly related to the Australian Army's commitment in Vietnam and the increase in troop numbers that the war required. The following year was significant for Puckapunyal with the raising of the 7th Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment at Puckapunyal and the introduction of the second National Service scheme, which resulted in the Second Recruit Training Battalion also being raised at Puckapunyal. This was the first time the tanks had been moved across two state borders using the standard gauge rail network and proved tanks were able to participate in interstate exercises. It was in 1964 that some variety was seen for the First Armoured Regiment with B Squadron being moved by rail, road and army landing ships to Tin Can Bay and later Shoalwater Bay in Queensland for battle group exercises. Many of the tank crews were national servicemen who had continued to serve in the Citizen Military Force after their national service commitment had been completed. This type of training was repeated again in 1962 with soldiers from all three squadrons from the Lancer Regiment qualifying on the tank's weapons and wireless equipment. In 1960, 150 men from B Squadron of the Lancer Regiment spent their annual camp participating in two weeks of intensive tactics, gunnery and wireless operation with the regular soldiers of the Armoured Regiment and the Armoured Centre. In the early 1960s, 1st/15th Royal New South Wales lancers, a Citizen Military Force armoured unit based in Sydney, which was also equipped with Centurion tanks, regularly sent troops to Puckapunyal to train with the First Armoured Regiment and the Armoured Centre, or the School of Armour as it is now known. However, that did not mean that the training could not come to them at Puckapunyal. The excellent field training and gunnery ranges as well as a perception that the tanks were not transportable over long distances had precluded the regiment's attendance at interstate training exercises. Since its establishment in 1949, the First Armoured Regiment had been fairly secluded at Puckapunyal. However, Mob Siding and the Tel-El-Kebir barracks in Seymour continued to operate throughout the decade but with reduced significance as the army presence in Seymour diminished.ĭysart Siding was also still in use but become less important as movement of troops and stores became less reliant on rail and more reliant on road and air movement. The early 1960s brought significant change to the Seymour military facilities with the School of Infantry moving to Ingleburn in Sydney, the School of Tactics and Administration, which would later become the Army Command and Staff College, moving to Queenscliff and the remaining land being disposed of with the exception of the married quarter blocks in the old site 13 area along the Goulburn Valley Hwy.Īny remaining smaller units either moved interstate or relocated to Puckapunyal.
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