Back on the opic...
It's time to close RMC... Change my mind
Perhaps it is time to totally rethink how and why we produce officers for the Canadian Forces.
Let’s start with the why.
One hopes it’s a bit obvious but leaders and commanders are needed and experience says they don’t just spring up, as if by magic, when needed. They need to be (and they can be) trained.
The way we train ship’s captains and Army regimental commanders and the commanders of squadrons is b y giving them progressively more challenging and responsible positions starting as junior leaders (and as line pilots). If all we need is combat efficiency and we didn’t have to train our own leaders then we could be like the French Foreign Legion and warrant officers would command our combat platoons and even companies. But we are not the Foreign Legion, we need to “grow” our own leaders from within.
Let’s start by saying that the system we have used for 145 years has, in recent years, produced toxic ‘leaders’ who have nearly destroyed the institution that are meant to serve and lead.
Let us build a totally new system.
Let us begin by saying that ALL general service officers will be recruited from young men and women of good character and sound mind and body who have not yet reached their 21st birthdays. (No exceptions, ever, for anyone, Charter rights be damned (and subjected to the Notwithstanding clause).) These young men and women will serve in the ranks for at least two years and may apply for officer training after two years but before they reach the age of 25.
Those selected will for officer training will have good records as sailors, soldiers and aviators, pretty clean conduct sheets and will have a letter of acceptance from a recognized Canadian university on one of several approved programmes (sorry, children, we don’t need anyone with a degree in journalism, education or gender studies, you’ll all have to pass math at the 200 level.)
The officer selection course will be about 8 months long. It will be visible to other member of the Canadian Forces and it will demonstrate that aspiring officers are tough and motivated ~ no one else will be willing to attempt, much less to pass, such a course.
After competing the long, gruelling “basic leadership/selection” course the candidates will be commissioned as Acting Sub-Lieutenant or 2nd Lieutenants and will go off to university for four years. While in university that will serve in local reserve Navy or Army (or RCAF when one is available) units in “apprentice” officer roles ~ maybe we will need to reinvent UNTD and COTC. During the three summer periods they will undergo special to service/branch courses at CF schools, including flying training.
On completion of both university and service/branch training the junior officers will serve 2 to 5 years in first line units as 2Lts (one year) and Lts (and RCN equivalents). Promotion to captain and major (and equivalent) will be ONLY by a combination of performance and examination.
Junior officers (2Lts to Captains (and equivalents)) will be aged 23 (in a few exceptional cases) to about 35. Majors will be 30 to 45. Commanders, Colonels and GOFOs will be 40+. It will be normal to be promoted to Commander/Lieutenant Colonel and take command of a major warship, a regiment or a RCAF squadron at age 35 to 40 after more than 12 years of commissioned service.
There will be a separate stream for CFR officers, some of whom will be, largely, indistinguishable from GSOs, but, in effect, ALL General Service Officers will be UTPNCM but attending a civvy university because there will
not be a Royal Military College or a College Militaire Royale.