Letters to the Editor

Money’s not the only incentive

Rub out cam cream

Give diggers their due

HOW TO GET A LETTER PUBLISHED

Money’s not the only incentive

I’M writing in support of Sgt James Crvelin (“Give ARA members more incentive”, Army, June 29).
I totally agree with his comments on a complete restructure of current pay conditions to make them more comparable to civilian pay rates.

I work in an extremely high tempo unit, as do many other people within the ADF. I think that the retention issue should go much further than providing monetary incentives to members.
Working in a comparatively small corps, we have very few respite postings and deployment opportunities outside of our immediate unit that provide an environment to recover from the stress associated with the job. If we do take a non-corps posting then we are required to take a cut in pay of $6000 to do this, which in itself creates a burden on the family.

We have an enormous training liability as we are forced to jump from deployment to deployment as well as provide support for ADF exercises. All of this taking time and money away from conducting our own basic training to maintain all of the skills required within my ECN.

There seems to be lack of opportunities within the ADF to be posted overseas without being a warrant officer or higher and the availability of incentive postings are limited in most corps. The divorce rate within the ADF is exceptionally high and the fatigue is also at an alarming level.

This creates a high turnover of personnel which in turn forces a greater training liability on units as well as making the remaining people pick up the slack, therefore perpetuating the issue. If the ADF is to have a serious look at retention, then it should look further than just a monetary incentive as this alone does not save relationships and prevent disgruntled soldiers.Cpl Steve Waterford
5 Avn Regt
RAAF Townsville

Lt-Col Susan Smith, SO1 Retention, responds:
YOUR letter indicates your support for a restructure of the pay scales so that they are competitive with market rates. You may not be aware that a recent civilian review team, commissioned by the Defence Minister, reported to the Minister that our pay system was in need of an overhaul.

However, because our salary system is embedded in government legislation, we can only change the situation by having the three Services go forward to the government with a fully worked out proposal on how we would like to change the current system and then asking the politicians to vote it into law. This does not mean it cannot be done, only that it will take some time to do.

In the meantime, the CA is aware that there are individuals like you working hard to support both Army and the ADF in units across the country.

The Chief understands that professional soldiers do not necessarily want their contribution recognised by financial incentives, and your comments on the sort of intangible rewards you seek are well made. But in a period of high operational tempo, spare time is a precious commodity and units have to work hard to balance the requirement for respite with the requirement to achieve operational objectives.

In the meantime, the Chief is keen to acknowledge that our people are working hard in any way he can, and short-term financial incentives, while not the entire answer, do offer soldiers and their families a little bit of tangible recognition for the work they are doing.

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Rub out cam cream

• I AM writing today from the sunny shores of Honiara, Solomon Islands. While enjoying a bit of down time, we were flicking through the 2005 edition of the Australian Army in Profile.
  Page 64 of the publication sparked what could be called a heated discussion regarding the use of cam cream in today’s modern Army. The debate covered all the possible pros and cons involved with our specially designed “military suncream”, with the cons definitely outweighing the pros.
  
  The group came up with two main points that we thought should be considered.
  We are primarily employed as an artillery battery. While on exercise we are continually being told that personal cam is to be applied and maintained. If anyone has had the absolute pleasure of visiting a gun battery while live firing, they too would question why gunners are required to apply personal cam.
  
  It is hard enough to try and hide a gun battery (six guns, six Macks, four land rovers and a couple of 6x6s). The last thing you want to worry about is wondering if you have enough cam cream on your ears when you have the deafening but beautiful sound of the true gods of war in action all around you.
  
  The second point that was discussed was Australia’s operational role around the world. Operations such as Catalyst, Spire/Chiron, Anode, Paladin, Mazurka, Relex and Azure have all indicated, by pictures and stories that have been published, that there is no requirement for cam cream due to the individual missions of each.
  
  Let’s be serious with ourselves. The chances of today’s wider Army requiring the fashionably covert services of cam cream are very slim.
  I understand that cam and concealment should be second nature to the basic soldier in all of us, however there is a time and a place for the use of cam cream and that time and place seems to be well in the past.
  Bdr Gavin Field
  8/12 Mdm Regt
  Honiara
  
  Lt-Col Paul McKay, SO1 Land Command Artillery, responds:
  
  THERE is one strong lesson that I feel we need to hold close as the Army strives to understand and adapt to our future operational requirements – we must be able to do all of the basics well.
  Technology, equipment and our procedures have all developed in leaps and bounds, and all influence the way we do our job today. But without a solid foundation of basic skills, we will never be able to fight at our best. Camouflage and concealment falls into this category.
  
  I support Bdr Field’s position that there is a time and a place for camouflage cream, but would disagree that its time is past. Patrolling, ambushing and observation are all tasks that may need us to cam up. From an RAA perspective, gun position recon parties, joint offensive support teams and gun position sentries may also need to call on this skill.
  
  Recent deployments have shown that Artillery needs, along with all corps, to be good at the basic combat soldier skills. The RAA provides more to the Army than our core roles of offensive support, surveillance and target acquisition and ground-based air defence. When called on, we need to be able to excel at those basic soldier skills to meet the operational need; be it patrolling in the Solomons or providing security in East Timor.
  
  Current operations show that we need to understand our task and apply procedures that are matched to the situation. A gun position may not benefit from good personal cam, but it falls upon commanders at all levels to assess the situation and decide on their team’s operational procedures. But don’t write off those simple skills. The last six years has shown that you will need to call on them one day.
  

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Give diggers their due

ONCE again I see that the Queen’s birthday honours and awards/medals were given to all senior ranks, the lowest being a sergeant.
Well done to the recipients but, come on, fair go – where are the ones for the JNCOs and diggers who do all the hard yards for the members who receive the awards?
Sure most recipients do deserve their award, but surely there are some deserving members of lesser rank who deserve some award/medal for getting their superiors awards.
Cpl Brad Erickson
1 Armd Regt
Robertson Barracks

WO Kevin Woods, RSM-A, responds:
THE Army Honours an Awards Committee, which consists of a brigadier, three colonels, myself and a secretary, meet twice a year to select those members from Army who are considered worthy to be nominated for either the Queen’s birthday or Australia Day honours list.

Members that meet the strict criteria are selected by the committee and presented to CA for his approval.

In case you are unaware of the process, here’s how it works – I will use the battalion as the example.

Members are normally nominated at the unit level, their nominations then work their way up through the chain of command, through Bde HQ to DJFHQ where a similar committee will select the most deserving nominations from the Division.

They are then forwarded on to Land HQ where another committee will select the most deserving nominations from Land Command units. They are then sent on to DGPers-A at AHQ.
Each nomination is taken on its merit regardless of rank, trade, corps or gender. The nominations that don’t make it past the various levels are either considered for a commendation or are passed back down the chain of command for resubmission at a later date if it is still considered worthy.

The question you ask is a fair one: if you and others out there in units believe someone at the junior level deserves recognition you need to ask your CO or RSM to nominate them. .

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HOW TO GET A LETTER PUBLISHED

Preference is given to letters of fewer than 300 words. Letters will be rejected if they are too long, abusive or can be answered by the author's unit.

They will be published only when they include the author's name, unit, location and contact number.

Send letters to: The Editor, Army newspaper, R8-LG-037, Russell Offices, Canberra, ACT 2600; or email: armynews@defencenews.gov.au