The Editor,
Re: "Name change no royal pain," Opinion, Aug. 19.
Oh, how little you know!
Your comment, "which really just amounted to changing names and standardizing uniforms" is pure hogwash.
A bit of solid research might have revealed that Trudeau and his Liberal henchmen savaged Canada's armed forces -- certainly much more than a name change and uniform standardization took place.
For instance, prior to integration/unification, there were approximately 300 trades in the three services. After Trudeau's fiasco that number was reduced to approximately 100.
Contrary to what a civilian or dumb bureaucrats might think, there was little in the way of material savings. Trades from different services but with common names did not equate equal training or experience.
An example of this is that during a instructional technique training course at an air force base in Ontario, I was paired with an army signalman.
I suppose the boffins who were responsible for the pairing thought that, as I was a signalman and the army chap was a signalman, we were equal and being the same rank, we were the same.
After all, we both wore the same stupid bilious green uniform (your so-called standardized uniform).
However, the only thing that we had in common was the crossed semaphore flag branch badge we wore on our uniforms. The army signal told me he was good at driving trucks but knew nothing about manoeuvring ships at sea, whereas I knew little about driving trucks in rough terrain but was an expert at sea.
Nor was the army sergeant capable of being in charge of a ship communications centre with its myriad radio, visual and cryptographic duties than I was of climbing a telephone pole to run telephone wires.
We were signalmen in name only. Yet, some idiot in Ottawa decided we were the same and therefore the army and navy signal branches were to become one.
Fortunately, someone with a brain saw the problem and canned that idea, quickly. There were many other examples of how those who think they knew what was good for the forces screwed up.
One such example is in the trade of cooks. A navy cook is not an army cook, nor is an air force cook either of the previous cooks. There is a vast difference between working environments and to say, as some have done, that a cook is just a cook.
For instance, one of the ships that I sailed in had an air force cook drafted onboard. He knew nothing about the ship's galley and one day his inability to know navy cooking standards resulted in a fire that spread throughout the ship and laid her up for three months. No, unification was much, much more than a name change and uniform standardization.
All of the above does not touch on the number of experienced, well-trained, battle-hardened senior officers that left the army, navy and air force either through disgust or being fired for attempting to point out the ridiculousness of the Pearson/Trudeau/Hellyer stupidity to unify the forces. Inasmuch as Defence Minister Hellyer proclaimed that all the free world would follow Canada's unification lead, none did. Now, that is a telling point.
As to the reintroduction of Royal to the navy and air force, good on PM Harper and DM McKay. For those of us who served proudly under the name Royal, it has been a long time coming. I have no idea what the current navy, army or air force personnel think about the return to Royal, but hope they will see the benefit of serving in a navy or air force that has a name other than the bland maritime command or land command or whatever the boffins in Ottawa dream up.
There certainly was more to the foolishness that tore the guts out of Canada's three armed forces than just a simple name change and a standardization of uniforms.
Bob Orrick
Richmond
