OCS graduates would generally be familiar with the fact that, in addition to the three Australian Regular Army officer academies of RMC, OCS Portsea and WRAAC OCS, for the period 1965 to 1973 there was a fourth academy established to train and graduate National Service officers of the day. This was the Officer Training Unit (OTU), located at Scheyville near the town of Windsor, north-west of Sydney in New South Wales.
Little known is that a wing of OCS was established at OTU to accommodate the training of three OCS ‘overflow’ classes in the Vietnam-era, over the period February 1972, until December 1973 to meet the requirements of what was then an expanding 45,000-strong Regular Army. The OCS candidates were selected through a separate process to that of the conscripts, to train to become Regular Army officers, completing the full 44-week OCS syllabus but at Scheyville. This produced an actual 68 OCS (Scheyville) graduates, all attending their graduation parade at OCS Portsea.
This is their story.
A tribute to graduates who have since passed away is contained in this document.