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. :) 
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Mr. Thomas Barclay
Software Developer & Systems Analyst
thomas.barclay@stargrunt.ca
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