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OFFICER CADET TRAINING
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ELEVEN
II. A NEW TACK IN TRAINING
Looking back, it is now clear that the syllabus for officer cadet training was a planned fusion
between the Israeli priorities of field skills and the British officers’ regimental lifestyle as
understood and experienced by the SMF. But, there was a distinct change of rhythm between
the essentially physical nature of the recruit/section training phases and the more cerebral
officer cadet training. Though field and practical training still dominated the programme by
far, there was more classroom work, among which operational planning, air-photo reading,
signals, military law, unit administration and mess accounts stood out for one reason or
another. The company and platoon auditoriums became a more frequent venue than during
the previous phases, and as they were air conditioned, it was welcome any time for all and
indispensable for some to catch up on sleep. At the time, the medical profession had little,
if any, knowledge of sleep apnoea and there were two cadets in particular who must have
suffered from it. This was because as soon as they hit the bench in the auditoriums, they
would fall soundly asleep. One of them unfortunately failed the course but the other did
pretty well in the order of merit.
There was very little follow-up in most of the classroom lessons by way of study time,
‘homework’ assignments, or practical application for the lessons to stick in the mind. Subjects
like military law and Officers’ Mess accounts merely made the cadets aware of their existence
in the scheme of things in an officer’s life. Only through serious application and on-the-job
experiences are such fields likely to be grasped anyway.
Charlie Kumaran may have been posing here but officer cadet training brought more paperwork.