When the Battalion held its inauguration parade on 5 November 1965, some 250 conscripts from the first national service intake were present amongst the ranks. In 1965, the 1st Battalion, organised on the Pentropic establishment (in theory some 1,300 men) was split to provide a cadre of regulars to the new 5th Battalion, whilst conscripts were used to bring the unit up to strength. To meet the challenges of these commitments, the Army needed to expand from four to nine battalions. This was a time of expanding commitments for the Australian Army: an infantry battalion serving on rotation in Malaysia since 1955 a training team deployed to South Vietnam since 1962, followed by the deployment of the 1st Battalion in 1965 and then the 1st Australian Task Force from 1966 to 1972 and a battalion commitment to Borneo from 1964 to 1966. According to historian Robert O'Neill, since both 5 RAR and 6 RAR were the first battalions of the Royal Australian Regiment 'to be composed of a mixture of regulars and national servicemen, their formation and development was a particularly vital experiment for this was to be the model for the infantry battalions of the Army from then onwards'. The 5th Battalion was formed at Holsworthy Barracks, New South Wales on 1 March 1965. 4 Commanding officers and regimental sergeants major.
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