From: Thomas Barclay <Thomas.Barclay@s...>
Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2003 15:07:03 -0500
Subject: Ranks/Services/Etc.
Someone called into question my ordering of Canadian Generals. Without delving into classified matters (sorry, a jab at another thread), let me tell you the simple rhyme that I was taught for memorization of this heirarchy "Bite My Large G*n*d!" (Brigadier, Major, Lt, full General). That isn't easy to forget or screw up. On another note about compartmentalization and secrecy, I recall when the pam on how to assemble Canadian combat webbing was RESTRICTED. Now, why this was, I can't imagine. I actually suspect domestic security (keeping anything military from our news guys) was behind it. And of course, this was in a time where the Liberal Gov't which hates the Forces was in power.... oh wait, we're back there again. As for the "amalgamation": It had disasterous morale impacts, drove out a lot of our best NCOs and officers, and left us with the Duds we now have in NDHQ. And we ended up eventually rebuilding "services" within the larger CF umbrella (now the Navy wears blue, the army green, the air force lighter blue again). And it has left some formations like the EW/Comms guys in an odd position (interestingly, they are not army - they are some sort of 4th service). And then there are a whole bunch of people in our military who are "purple" (owing allegiance to no particular parent unit, just to CF as a whole). One of my close friends is working in Ballistic Early Warning for the Canadian Forces Joint Space Support Team, and he's purple. As to trades, some do span services. Firefighting on board ship is something that many MARS, MARE, and ranks train for. They are expected to be capable of fighting in the specialized shipboard environment and are very profficient at it. And they're Navy. Yet, none of them has the trade Firefighter as far as I know. But I know many ships do not have a "Firefighter" aboard. It's interesting to read some of the old declassified materials - I acquired a bunch when our armouries was clearing out its basement. Things like nuclear weapon tables showing destruction radii for various warheads etc. And then some of the interesting things they'd collected about our supposed opponents. (On that note, I note that we called our targets (informally) Herman the German, but the large five pointed red star on the helmet was a pretty good indicator of what Generic Silhouette was supposed to represent at the time). I also have a buddy whose brother is a CF Major who is a a PubInfo type officer about two steps from the CDS. He does briefings from NDHQ whenever stuff needs let out (Bosnia, Kosovo, etc). Interestingly, *his* background is either RCHA or RCA (artillery). How that qualifies one for a PR job, I don't even want to contemplate. Tomb PS - John, Congrats on the Promo. Probably well deserved.:)