the AATTV advisors taking part in combat operations was lifted. The first advisor officially killed in action was Warrant Officer Class Two Kevin Conway at the Battle of Nam Dong on 6 July 1964. With the war escalating the AATTV increased, first to 60 in June and then to approximately 100 personnel – 15 officers and 85 warrant officers – by December. Soon its area of operations stretched from the far south to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) forming the border between North Vietnam and South Vietnam in the north. After June 1964, members of the team were involved in many combat operations, often leading formations of Vietnamese soldiers. Some advisors worked with regular ARVN units and formations – at first mainly infantry, but after 1967 artillery and cavalry units as well – while others, such as Captain Barry Petersen, worked with the Montagnard hill tribes in conjunction with US Special Forces (USSF). A few were attached to Provincial Reconnaissance Units with whom they became involved in the controversial Phoenix Program run by the US Central Intelligence Agency, which was designed to target the Vietcong infrastructure through infiltration, arrest and assassination. Others were attached to the all-Vietnamese RF and Popular Forces and the National Field Police Force, or served with the USSF Mobile Strike Force. Members of the AATTV served tours of duty of between 12 and 18 months in Vietnam. In mid-1965, Australia's involvement in the war increased as the government committed a full infantry battalion, the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment. Early the following year, this was expanded as the 1st Australian Task Force (1 ATF) was established, operating in its own area of operations in Phước Tuy Province, which was in the III Corps Tactical Zone (III CTZ). But despite the concentration of Australian forces, the AATTV members remained dispersed, often serving with only one other advisor, either Australian or American. Unlike 1 ATF, the majority of team members were deployed in I CTZ and the Central Highlands, where the fighting was often of a higher tempo and more protracted. Thus, due to its small size and widespread area of operations, it was rare for the entire AATTV to be in the same place at the same time; this usually occurred only on ANZAC Day – the only other occasion the whole unit paraded together was when it received the Meritorious Unit Commendation from COMUSMACV on 30 September