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7th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment

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The 7th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (7 RAR) is a regular infantry battalion of the Australian Army. The battalion was formed on the 1st September 1965 at Puckapunyal in Victoria during the expansion of the regular infantry that occurred because of Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War. The battalion served two operational tours in Vietnam between 1967 and 1971, with 33 men killed and 220 wounded, receiving 31 awards for gallantry.

In 1973, with the draw down following Australia's withdrawal from Vietnam, the 7th Battalion was linked with the 5th Battalion to form 5/7 RAR.

In 2006, John Howard announced that there would be an expansion of the Australian regular infantry by two battalions, as part of the Hardened and Networked Army plan. As part of this, a second mechanised infantry battalion was raised by de-linking 5/7 RAR to become the 5th Battalion and 7th Battalion. The 7th Battalion will eventually be stationed in Adelaide. On 5 December 2006, the 5th/7th Battalion was formally de-linked, restoring the 7th Battalion to the order of battle. The new battalion's first deployment was in 2007, when B Company of the 5th/7th Battalion became part of the 7th Battalion while deployed to Afghanistan.

Pipes and Drums

In 1969, following the formation of the Australian Army Band Corps, infantry units serving in Vietnam found themselves without stretcher bearers, who tended to come from unit bands. To solve this problem, the Army directed the regular battalions of the Royal Australian Regiment to form new bands; to avoid competing directly with the new band corps, it was decided that these new bands would be either pipes and drums, bugle and drums or fife and drums. The 7th Battalion decided to form a pipe band. This was then passed to the 5th/7th Battalion on its formation.

Alliances

External links



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Last updated on Tuesday July 08, 2008 at 18:59:47 PDT (GMT -0700)
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