One of a Kind (2nd Edition)

OFFICER CADET TRAINING

205

ELEVEN

pronouncements in the classroom by the lecturers. SAFTI was still being put together piece

by piece, man by man and vehicle by vehicle. Still, it was beguiling to know what could be.

Another subject that was a vestige of two centuries of British military administration was

‘Regimental and Pay Accounting’. The breakdown of the subjects give an idea of how

things have changed since then: double column cash book; nominal and real accounts;

stock, property and investment (officers’ mess stuff); transfer and balancing; definition and

preparation for audit; star classification and pay codes. The first few batches of officer

cadets were doomed to go through these arcane subjects, but the SAF was no British military

outpost far from Whitehall. MID quickly identified these millstones round the necks of

Unit Commanders and set about streamlining the procedures for unit administration. For a

start, every officer was required to have a bank account to which the centralised Pay Office

credited his or her salary, less any docked pay or other garnishing.

But, for several years, the

junior officers were required to draw a sidearm and a magazine of rounds, withdraw cash

from the bank and accompanied by a pay clerk, hold a pay parade for the rank and file.

But, there were subjects relevant to career officers, as the First Batch would be, who could be

expected to have a greater general knowledge of the organisation as a whole than National

Service officers who were yet to be even defined as a factor in the equation. These dealt

with the operation and organisation of various bases: Central Manpower Base (then a brand

new concept); General Equipment Base; Weapons, Ammunition and Optical Base; the all-

important Transport Base; and the equally critical Vehicle Repair Base. Career officers could

expect to have to deal personally and network with their counterparts in these establishments

immediately after being posted to units, to expedite relevant matters for their own subunits.

Staff Duties.

The British military, with years of regimental tradition under a central authority

in a parliamentary system of government had developed a great number of traditional

processes by the 20

Century. By the Victorian era, many of these traditions had become

de rigor. These included the form of ceremonial drills, the correct way to raise and lower

the flag at a military outpost and the format for formal dining-in. One of them was also

how military correspondence and papers were to be crafted. The bibles for these traditions

are the

Queen’s (or King’s) Regulations

and the

Staff Duties In The Field

, both of which were

still authoritative sources for the SAF in the 1960s. The latter prescribed the language and

layout by way of models, for a host of documentation from how to reply to an invitation to

dinner, and the correct form of abbreviations in military messages, to the military symbols

for marking maps and operational overlays. No doubt in a British regiment, the Adjutant

would be on the lookout for any carelessness and would award the subaltern, appropriate

remedial training. But, starchy as it seemed, it was a good education for young officers, while

standardisation facilitated rapid integration, wherever the officer was reassigned. The lessons

of staff duties, given to the first batch of cadets were relatively short and to the point:

firstly, how to write a formal letter within the organisation and secondly, military symbols.