Technical High School, before gaining employment as a clerk with the South Australian Public Service in 1950. Despite his father's opposition, Badcock held ambitions to join the Australian Army; and enlisted in the Regular Army on 10 June 1950. After a brief posting to the 16th National Service Battalion in early 1952, Badcock entered the Officer Cadet School, Portsea, on 12 July 1952, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Australian Artillery on 13 December that year. This was followed by a short posting to the 14th National Service Training Battalion, then a posting to the 1st Field Regiment in 1953. He returned to train national servicemen at Puckapunyal, Victoria, in 1955–1957. On 26 May 1956, he married Denise Maureen MacMahon in the Methodist Church at Manly, New South Wales. The couple had three daughters – Carey, Kim and Susanne. Badcock was posted back to the 1st Field Regiment in 1957–1958. A junior staff officer in the Directorate of Military Operations and Plans at Australian Army Headquarters from 1958 until 1961, he was promoted to temporary captain in 1958, and substantive captain in June 1960. On 6 February 1961, he was posted to the 4th Field Regiment, and the same year changed his surname to Badcoe. The couple decided to change their surname after their third daughter was born in order to make it easier for them. On training exercises, Badcoe was aggressive and energetic. He was also a quiet, gentle and retiring man who confided mainly in his wife and had a dry wit. His colleagues found him inscrutable. He avoided boisterous mess activities and preferred reading military history. Short and stocky, a teetotaller who did not smoke, he wore horn-rimmed spectacles and regaled his colleagues on military matters when off-duty. In June 1961, Badcoe was posted to the 103rd Field Battery as battery captain, and served a tour with them in the Federation of Malaya, attached to a British unit, in the aftermath of the Malayan Emergency. He was detached from Malaya to South Vietnam over the period 7–14 November 1962, and observed how that country was combating the Viet Cong (VC) and North Vietnamese insurgency. During his visit, Badcoe sought opportunities to experience combat. He spent five days with an Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) battalion on operations in Quảng Ngãi Province, during which the unit had contacts with the enemy, including