a pitched battle. During what was supposed to be a rest period, he arranged a helicopter flight to visit a Montagnard base in the Central Highlands. When his return to Malaya was delayed by an aircraft engine breakdown, he managed to join a heliborne operation of the 7th ARVN Division in the Mekong Delta. He returned to the 1st Field Regiment in November 1962 and remained with the unit until August 1965. At this point, Badcoe transferred from the artillery to the Royal Australian Infantry Corps, and on promotion to temporary major on 10 August 1965, was posted to the Infantry Centre at Ingleburn, New South Wales. Badcoe successfully applied for a posting with the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV), and attended adviser courses at the Intelligence Centre at Mosman, New South Wales, and Jungle Training Centre in Canungra, Queensland. He was promoted to provisional major in June 1966. Vietnam War Badcoe arrived in South Vietnam on 6 August 1966 as a member of the AATTV. He was posted as a sub-sector adviser in the Nam Hóa District of Thừa Thiên Province. Sub-sector advisers worked at the district level with two elements of the Territorial Forces, the Regional Force (RF) and Popular Force (PF), which were both forms of full-time provincial militia under control of the provincial chief, who was also the military sector chief. Each sector corresponded with a province, and each sub-sector with a district. The sector and sub-sector advisers had several responsibilities: to accompany the RF/PF, colloquially known as "Ruff-Puffs", on operations; to provide on-the-job training to the RF/PF; to oversee security in the hamlets; and to liaise with the ARVN troops operating in the sector or sub-sector. In his first week at Nam Hóa, Badcoe was advising an RF company on a clearing operation when it came under fire from VC irregulars in a treeline. As the company pressed forward, it came under fire from a bunker. Badcoe unsuccessfully tried to silence the bunker using his rifle and hand grenades, at which point the company commander suggested calling in close air support. Badcoe responded that air support was not necessary. He collected two jerrycans of petrol from a jeep following the company and then, circling around using cover, approached the bunker from outside its arc of fire. He poured both jerrycans over the bunker, backed off some distance and ignited it with a white phosphorus