Nasho

National Service was meant to turn boys into men and make the Yellow Peril think twice about moving south. It was universally known as Nasho – a typically Australian diminutive.[…]But the most brutal fact about Nasho was the initial seventy-seven-day period of basic training, most of which took place at Ingleburn.

2009, Raja (Arasa) Ratnam, The Dance of Destiny, page 166, […] an English acquaintance. He had been one of the national servicemen from the UK stationed in Malaya, and had had his share of duty on the night train. He explained that many of his ‘nasho’ colleagues were sensibly afraid of being shot at.

The white Rhodie ‘nashos’ (another derogatory term for national servicemen—this time from the Brit regulars), however, brought to the battalion a level of education that was previously unknown.

Apart from 1 RAR, all the battalions included National Servicemen (Nashos), but in the field there was no distinction between the Nashos and the Regular soldiers (Regs).

Two groups of soldiers made up the Australian forces in Vietnam—members of the Regular Army and National Servicemen. The Nashos, as they were popularly known, had been plucked willy nilly from the general male population, chosen by lottery.[…]Officially only National Servicemen who volunteered to go to Vietnam did so, but many Nashos said they had never been given an option.