One year after the 5th Special Forcse Group was organized, elements of the Group began serving temporary duty tours in the Republic of Vietnam. Full deployment of the Group was completed in February 1965. Although young in years of existence, from its operational base at Nha Trang, the Group deployed throughout the 4 military regions of South Vietnam. Its operational detachments established and manned camps at 270 different locations, where Special Forces soldiers trained and led indigenous forces of the Civilian Irregular Defense Group (CIDG) program, as well as regular units of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). Despite being one of the smallest units engaged in the Vietnam conflict, the Group was awarded 20 campaign streamers for its service in Vietnam.