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#1
01-12-03, 06:34
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Officer's Mess Dinner
Attended subject event last night. As usual, with a Highland Infantry Battalion hosting, it was a blast...good meal...good haggis...good company of men.
Guest of Honour was Colonel Pat Stogran, he, PPCLI, was OP COM during the Canadian first rotation in Afghanistan (Op Apollo). That's when four of our guys got blown to hell by Schmidt's F16 of the USAF in his mis-guided mission. Stogran, during his post prandial speech, alluded to certain facts that you won't see printed in our left-lib press. I can't divulge anything further... Suffice it to say that our Canadian Forces need to be ramped up into the new century. Why is it that we have an experienced combat commander, having done a tour in Afghanistan, now driving a desk in Ottawa? Same thing happened to Lewis McKenzie. I just don't understand the logic behind these postings. Of course, not being a Liberal, perhaps I'm not supposed to understand these moves. Political rant ends, but military rant is still brewing up!
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PRONTO SENDS 
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#2
02-12-03, 17:51
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Jon,
I can't help but make an observation here. As Canada has more officer ranks per enlisted soldier of any country in the world, and more generals per soldier than any country, it would seem that the answer is obvious: too many people for too few positions. This is not a result of govrnment policy left or right. JD
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Here we go in bull low, stuck in four wheel drive....
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#3
02-12-03, 19:10
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Reply to JD
Quote:
It was the Federal government which made National Defence Headquarters (NDHQ) from the Department of National Defence. In so doing, the establishment came to be that military appointments had to have the same rank at the pecking order table that the civilian bureaucrat had. Thus a serviceman working in a particular department had to be of equal rank. If an Assistant Associate Deputy Minister was the incumbent, the serviceman had to be classed as a ( for example) GS 3 which equates to a (for example) Major General. That is why we have more generals than soldiers. Why we have more officers than soldiers can partly be explained by, apart from the above, the fact that all officers are not at the pointy end. A common mistake is to include the 2500 or so Cadet Instructor Cadre (CIC) officers who have nothing to do with the current order of battle. I suspect that even Honourary Colonels and Colonels of the Regiment are included in the total officer count. Just because one is an officer does not mean that he is factored into the roughly 4000 combat ready troops. all
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PRONTO SENDS
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#4
02-12-03, 23:34
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Jon,
Despite your fair and valid point on the NDHQ reorg by the Federal government, I feel that if the generals REALLY wanted to change the system to better facilitate the sharp end they could. There are examples within the post Hellier CF. The politics of peace time have gotten in the way of a fighting force. And if I have read my history correctly, in Canada, it has ever been thus. Re Gen. Creerar/McKenzie King. JD
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Here we go in bull low, stuck in four wheel drive....
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#5
08-12-03, 05:58
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Re: Officer's Mess Dinner
Quote:
Not long after being posted to NDHQ, he retired (prematurely).
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