Ron Boxall entered the Officer Cadet School, Portsea, in January 1959 and was commissioned into the Australian Regular Army in the following December. During the 1966–67 tour in Vietnam of the 5th Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment, he was second-in-command of D Company. He returned to Vietnam in 1971 with another infantry battalion in which he served as a rifle company commander. His military career spanned 31 years; he left the Army as a Brigadier.
