The RAAC: To whom do we owe allegiance?
While serving, our commitment and allegiance is to our Commanding Officer (or immediate superior). After we retire, however, everything changes. Memories create allegiances of sorts in our minds; represented by ideals of heritage and tradition.
How is the RAAC managed? There used to be an RAAC Corps Directorate; a group of staff who managed careers and technical issues. Such duplication could not survive the drive for efficiency, however. As a result, the RAAC, as with other Corps, is left with a two-hatted Head of Corps, a Corps RSM, unit honorary colonels, and a Representative Honorary Colonel for the Corps as a whole.
As the Rep Hon Col, Maj Gen Michael Krause, AM, is the lead for managing protocol matters affecting the RAAC. He is aware, for example, of the correspondence notifying the RAAC’s Colonel-in Chief, HRH King Charles III, of the latest circumstances affecting 1st Armoured Regiment.
Given that RSMs are traditionally the embodiment of experience and common sense, the Corps RSM has been asked (info Rep Hon Col and HOC) what the RAAC position is re the following issue:
When it became a complete tank regiment, 1 Armd Regt earned the right for its Guidon to be replaced with a Standard, as per the British Army custom for a ‘heavy dragoon’ unit. The Standard, with battle honours emblazoned and Unit Citation for Gallantry affixed, is now held by the Combat Experimentation Group (CXG), a non-combatant. The CXG (or 1 Armd Regt minus tanks) has no entitlement to carry the Standard and it should be laid up in accord with its consecrated status. Should 1 Armd Regt rejoin Army’s order of battle as a tank regiment at some point in the future, the Standard can then be returned to the unit.
Chances are that he’ll be ‘muzzled’ and prevented from responding; either that, or he’ll be presented with an official position which ‘overlooks’ 1 Armd Regt’s lack of entitlement to carry the Standard (the Chief of the Defence Force having already endorsed the unit continuing to do so on this basis).
Once upon a time, an RSM would rule on such matters strictly in accord with the provisions of the Dress/Ceremonial Manuals. Surely this is an occasion when the RAAC leadership should stand by what is the right thing to do; not bend the rules to meet the wishes of the Chief of Army.
Of course, any position would be better than none … which is where we are right now, i.e. ‘if we close our eyes, maybe it will all go away!’.
You can pledge your allegiance to a flag or swear your allegiance to a government or cause. But the real question is: ‘How is it possible to influence those who hold the casting vote, to do the right thing?’
The question after that is: ‘Is the right thing worth doing?’
Lieutenant Colonel Bruce Cameron, MC, RAAC (Ret’d)
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FILE PHOTO (July 2023): Members of the 1st Armoured Regiment during their Guidon and Standard relocation parade in Adelaide. Photo by Private Sophie Hartley.
