From the 1950s to the 1970s, thousands of young Australian men were called up for National Service. Known as “Nashos,” they trained, served, and shaped the nation’s defence history.
The National Service Act 1964 required all 20-year-old males selected by a birthdate ballot to serve in the army for 24 months of continuous service (reduced to 18 months in 1971), followed by three years in the reserve. An amendment in May 1965 meant that conscripts could be obliged to serve overseas, and in March 1966 Prime Minister Harold Holt announced that National Servicemen would be sent to Vietnam to join units of the Australian Regular Army.
National servicemen march past at their passing out parade at Holsworthy. 11 April 1954. Photographer: Harold Dunkley
Between 1964 and the end of the scheme in 1972, 804,286 Australian 20-year-old males registered for National Service. After excluding those not selected by birthdate, exempted, deferred or rejected as unfit, 63,740 (8 per cent) were called up. Fewer than 25 per cent of those, 15,381, served in Vietnam, where they constituted up to 50 per cent of army units and 200 died in or as a result of service in Vietnam. National Service proved divisive, both socially and politically.
Group portrait or four National Servicemen recruits and room-mates in front of the new three-storied brick accommodation blocks at Kapooka in which they lived while undergoing basic training. Identified, left to right: Stuart Weller; Henry Stefanik; Peter Webster and Bernie Thielemann. Photographer: Stuart Weller.
The scheme enabled the rapid expansion of the army during the Vietnam War, but public debate over sending conscripted men to fight in Vietnam aroused intense passions, particularly after the first “nasho” casualties were reported in 1966. The process of “selective conscription” was marred by the infamous ballot of birthdates drawn from a lottery barrel. That “lottery of death”, as opponents called it, seemed manifestly inequitable since it selected less than one in three of those who registered. Moreover, the 20-yearold men involved were unable to vote against it, the voting age being 21.
Fast Facts
A young man who registered for national service had a:
one in 12 chance of being called up,
a one in 50 chance of being sent to Vietnam
and a one in 4,000 chance of being killed there.
Yet those odds in the lottery seemed to deter few young men. Contrary to popular perceptions at the time, and the prominent publicity afforded to dissenters and conscientious objectors, the levels of compliance were surprisingly high.
The scheme was a selective process to provide the army only young men of the highest fitness and aptitude for training. Regular army officers, from the most senior to battalion and company commanders, consistently remarked upon the outstanding quality of the national servicemen.
One officer observed that the nashos were “more mature, less rattled, less enthusiastic and more stolid, than the general run-of-the-mill Regular recruit ... [They] think of nothing but the ‘number of days to go’, hate saluting, treat you on your merits rather than your rank, are less impressed in general – but work well and take to the jungle like naturals.”
