Major General Craig Orme AM, CSC
Major General Craig Orme is an Armoured Corps officer with a background in tanks and cavalry. He has considerable operational, command, staff, strategic policy and overseas experience including tours in Malaysia, Iran, Germany, United Kingdom, Kuwait and the USA.
Key commands have included the 1st Armoured Regiment 1996-1998; the 1st Brigade (Mechanised) 2006-2007; and his current role as Commander of the Australian Defence College. Senior staff appointments have included Director of Senior Officer Management 2001-02; Director General Personnel–Army 2004-05; and Head of People Capability (J1 ADF) 2008-2011.
Major General Orme has extensive experience in strategic policy, having overseen the Army contribution to the Senate Inquiry into Military Justice 2005; authored the Workforce Companion Review to the 2009 Defence White Paper; authored the 2011 ADF Personal Conduct Review; as well as having been the Defence member on the Government’s two year interagency Review of the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act published in 2011. He was also instrumental establishing the whole of Defence and Interagency program Support the Wounded, Ill and Injured. He has been a Deputy Commissioner of the Safety Rehabilitation and Compensation Commission and a Commissioner the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Commission. External civilian Board appointments have included the Royal Darwin Hospital and Lifeline Top End in 2006-07.
Operational experience has included the Rifle Company Butterworth, Malaysia as infantry rifle platoon commander in 1982 with 3 RAR; the United Nations Iran-Iraq Military Observer Group at the end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1989; duty as the senior Australian representative in the Coalition Joint Task Force in Kuwait in 1999; and duty as the senior Australian representative at US CENTCOM during initial operations against the Taliban in Afghanistan under General Tommy Franks in 2002. Training and education appointments have included Officer Commanding Long Tan Company at the Royal Military College 1991; Second in Command of the School of Armour in 1995; and Instructor and Course Author at the United States Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth in 1999-2001.
Other overseas service has included Exercise Long Look in the United Kingdom as a Guided Weapons Troop Leader with the 16/5 Queens Royal Lancers in 1984; a posting as a Tank Squadron Commander in the British Army with the 4th and 1st Royal Tank Regiments in both the British Army of the Rhine and in the United Kingdom 1992-1994; and as the Australian Exchange Instructor at the US Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas 1999-2001.
Major General Orme has a Masters of Defence Studies (UNSW), a Master of Arts in Strategic Studies (Deakin); and a Bachelor of Arts (Military Studies, UNSW). He is also a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He was married to Theresa in 1981 and they have two children, Alexandra (1990) and Harry (1992). He is Chair of the Defence Education and Training Committee; Chair of the Defence Sports Council; Chair of the Australian Defence Force Journal Editorial Board; President of the Australian Defence Force Golf Association; and Vice President of the Royal United Services Institute of Australia. He has a passion for innovation, change, and people.
