same camp occupied by the Sarawak Rangers, disbanded the day before, 15 September. Lt. Col E. Gopsill OBE, DSO, MC of the 7th Gurkha Rifles was appointed the commanding officer and the new battalion of around 100, all formerly servicemen of the Sarawak Rangers, was under the overall command of the Malaysian Army. Amongst the personnel that would be a part of the new regiment was Lt. James Tomlow ak Isa, who was originally granted a Governor's Commission in the Sarawak Rangers and was subsequently granted a regular commission as an army officer by HM the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Syed Putra of Perlis. In October 1963, the nucleus of the Battalion moved out of Baird Camp to Kandy Lines, Trg Depot BDE of Gurkhas at Sungai Petani to prepare and conduct recruit training and continuity training for the new intakes. The recruits went through about four months of basic individual training followed by another two months continuity training. Initially, this British Colonial battalion was almost exclusively composed of Sea Dayak soldiers, veterans of the Sarawak Rangers and a small number of Malay and Indian officers. The 1st Battalion is the premier battalion and remains the icon of the Ranger Corps. Prior to the formation of Malaysia in 1963, the Sarawak Rangers gained their fearsome reputation during the Malayan Emergency. Concurrently, during the post-colonial reconstruction era, the 1st Battalion fought on extensively against the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM), Clandestine Communist Organization (CCO) the military arm of the Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP) and its affiliate the Pasukan Rakyat Kalimantan Utara (PARAKU, the armed wing of the North Kalimantan People's Army) and the Tentera Nasional Indonesia (TNI). Accounts from captured Communist Terrorists (CTs) in the '60s and '70s suggest that other than the (British Royal Marines) commandos, the CPM feared the deployment of the 1st Battalion in the immediate vicinity. The Rangers also saw action at the Malaysian-Thai border The 1st Battalion remains an active unit of the Malaysian armed forces, although rather inexplicably, the recruitment of Iban stock has been gradually declined significantly over the last 20 years. Consequently, its racial composition is about the same as other Malaysian infantry battalions. It is worth noting that in the 1950s and 1960s, the British SAS were taught jungle tracking by Iban soldiers. The Ibans from the jungles of Borneo are particularly suited to jungle warfare, serving as jungle trackers for many