RCAF Coming back??!!!!!!! :)

[kevind]

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Politics/20 ... 55711.html

OTTAWA — The Canadian navy and air force — officially Maritime and Air Command — are reportedly going back to their ‘royal’ names Tuesday.

The two branches of the armed forces will officially revert to Royal Canadian Navy and Royal Canadian Air Force respectively, names that ceased to be used in 1968 when the three branches were amalgamated as the Canadian Forces.

The army will cease to be called Land Command, and will instead be the Canadian Army.

Last year, the Senate was studying what to do about the name of the navy, following a motion by former Liberal Senator Bill Rompkey to rename it the Canadian Navy.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay is making an announcement regarding “Canada’s military history” in Halifax Tuesday, where it’s expected the name changes will be announced.

“It’s exciting that the government has chosen to honour our air force history and heritage by re-introducing the historical titles,” said retired Lt.-Col. Dean Black with the Air Force Association.


Although a 30-year veteran with the air force, he never served under the ‘royal’ designation, having joined in 1977 and retired a few years ago.

“It’s not something that I grew up with,” he said. “But it is our history from 1924.”

[Sunseeker]

Sounds like a small thing, but the identity of the armed forces is a HUGE deal to those who do our bidding in harm's way. It is significant and a good move.

[Panama Jack]

For a moment there, I was going to say that we've had the RCAF all along.

http://www.airfarce.com/

[Prairie Chicken]

I like it. Hopefully it happens tomorrow. Merging the branches was one of the bigger blunders of those years.

[Beefitarian]

Now can we build our own airplanes?

[Big Pistons Forever]

I hope the little turd of a politician, Paul Helyer is rolling in his grave

[just curious]

43 years years in the past, and I can still remember how much my dad hated that guy.

[trey kule]

He was as much an enemy of Canada , as any other we have come up against.. And he inflicted a huge amount of damage for one man.

Let us not forget him ever.

[moocow]

Anyone care to explain how combined forces was a negative thing. I'm not being a dick here, just asking why.

[Beefitarian]

Anyone care to explain how combined forces was a negative thing. I'm not being a dick here, just asking why.

I wonder the same thing. I think I have a vague idea about some problems mixing the airplanes and boats, ie. the boat guy buying crummy planes. I am pretty sure they should run better as seperate entities but won't the politicians still mess things up?

[trey kule]

Moocow, I am not trying to be a jerk, but it was supposedly all about saving money.. We would all wear a single nice green uniform and berets. A button on our breast pocket to designate what part of the service we served .

Now "flights" got changed to Platoons...not a money issue there. Wing commnaders became Lt. Cols. Captain in the Navy became a col. petty officer became a warrent officer.. leading airman ...a private...confusion for absolutly no valid reason.
The navy and airforce ranks got effectively wiped out unless they happened to co-incide with the army ranks.. And in the army things like company sgt-major/regimental sgt-major got hit. It was all about change for political reasons.
In any event the effect was to almost totally destroy the morale of the armed forces. History is important to the forces. Tradition is important. People say Paul did not get that..I think he did. He was trying to separate us from Great Britian and the similar military traditions. Money was not the reason, but the rational for the change. Although, he did gut the military at the time.
He and that other guy who wore a Nazi helmet during the war , and later became our prime minister wanted change to further their agenda..fortunately during the period they were in power, we were not overly involved in any military actions so the gutting of the forces maybe did save us some money. But now we have a top heavy bloated military that is trying to catch up

In any event, I probably did not answer your question, and it would take book not, a simple post to properly answer it.

[Siddley Hawker]

Let us not forget him ever.

And the boss that allowed him to get away with it either.

[Cesard]

I'll attempt to answer, Moocow... I was in from 1980 to 1996 or so. Going to the green "unibag" uniform took away everyone's identity. So what, you ask? Well, if you were a proud, serving member at that time, the answer would have been self evident. Around about that time, the morale of the Forces took a huge nose dive, and stayed that way until Afghanistan. Yes. That long. When I was in the Forces, (air element), I felt like a civilian in uniform. The green uniform itself made us look like bus drivers. This isn't just my opinion... it was the opinion of all my colleagues at the time.

To make matters worse, government after consecutive government took turns castrating the Forces even further.. Every time they wanted to make a show to the Canadian public (who didn't know anything about the Forces, and generally couldn't care less), they would cut the Forces budget some more. It got so bad, when Cretien wanted to be a big wig on the world stage, he promised Canadian military help to basically anyone who asked... Conveniently forgetting that all the fat had been trimmed from the Forces, all of the muscle, and quite a bit of the bones. And that had been going on for decades.

The Royal Canadian Navy was proud.. very proud. When I was in basic training, our sergeant was navy.. he'd slap us silly we called him sergeant. He insisted on being called by his navy rank. This sort of thing was very prevalent at the time.. in the face of the attitude that we were all supposed to be the same, homogenous military, in the same, homogenous green garbage bag uniform.

It was a huge mistake to take away the military's identity... There were no cost savings in doing so, in my opinion.

[Brewguy]

This is a good start!
.... Perhaps, someday, the Air Force can resurrect their rank structure too.

[C-GGGQ]

I like how as a serving member I was told nothing of this......hooray for communication

[TheCheez]

I like how as a serving member I was told nothing of this......hooray for communication

It was published as a CANFORGEN and CANAIRGEN, and probably one for the Navy too, before media spread the word.

I heard about it on Facebook first, but not for lack of trying on the organizations part.

[Panama Jack]

Think about the positives here. The surplusing of the Armed Forces' green "unibag" uniform was a boon to Air Canada, which evidently adopted the ugly green look before adopting the contempary blue one.

[zed]

I hope the little turd of a politician, Paul Helyer is rolling in his grave

I think he's still kicking around and being as much a flake as ever.

But what do you expect of a wannabe pilot, who instead became an army private. I think he got a bit of chip on his shoulder early on in his life regarding the Canadian military establishment.

[rallyjeff]

I like it. Hopefully it happens tomorrow. Merging the branches was one of the bigger blunders of those years.

Is this supposed to be a structural change to the Forces? All the stories I've read on this make it sound like it's just a name change.

[Beefitarian]

I was just coming to ask that. I hope it's not just a title change in typical Canadian government, "Call them the Airforce. That ought to make them happy." fashion.

I'm not trying to sound pessimistic, maybe I am but.. I just don't believe our government is interested in what is really best for any branch let alone the armed forces as a whole.

[Cesard]

Back in the late 80s, the conservative government at the time gave us the DEUs (Distinctive Environmental Uniforms), which at least put the navy back in black, the air force back in blue, and the army in green and tan. It was a step in the right direction; unfortunately they didn't carry it quite far enough, in giving us back the names and identity they took from us originally.

This is just one more step in the right direction.

As bad as Afghanistan is, it at least made the military respected in Canada again... something our military hasn't seen since WWII. In the 70s when I was in the militia, and the 80s and onward when I was in the regs, I remember being laughed out loud at by civilians who saw us. And countless times I would surprise people when I told them what I did, because they didn't know Canada still had a military. I remember the NDP running on the platform of disbanding the military altogether, as an anachronism.

I found the attitude of some civilians worse who lived around the bases, too. They invariably looked down upon Forces members from the base as second class citizens, and we got very little respect from the general public around the bases, and even the businesses. They'd happily take our money, but they turned a blind eye to the fact that the base was a huge economic bonus in the area.

Anyway, you can tell that my experience has made me a bit bitter about my time in the Forces. Maybe other people have more positive experiences of that time. I'm just happy that they are talking about giving us back a bit more of our identity.. I'm just PO'd that it's probably too little, and waaaaay too late.

[TheCheez]

I was just coming to ask that. I hope it's not just a title change in typical Canadian government, "Call them the Airforce. That ought to make them happy." fashion.

I'm not trying to sound pessimistic, maybe I am but.. I just don't believe our government is interested in what is really best for any branch let alone the armed forces as a whole.

Quite frankly it is just a title change. What's in a name exactly, though? In 1967 they mashed all the services together and tried to call it the military, Canadian Forces or what have you. For awhile everyone wore green, and a number of other misguided ideas. Over the years the services have been drifting apart again, unique uniforms, commands etc and this is a long awaited step. Can you imagine if they took police, fire and ambulance, stripped their identities and just called them all emergency responders? How much outrage would erupt from that?

RCAF gives the air force a proper identity. Royal is still the correct distinction because by the books we follow the Queen and her rep in Canada, the Governor General. Although it doesn't play out that way so much in practice, obviously. The reinstatement of the RCAF title, as trivial as it sounds on the outside, has been a groundswell of genuine good morale on the inside.

Pretty cheap change, when all is said and done.

[Beefitarian]

well even though it's only a title change. I agree with Cesard here.

This is just one more step in the right direction.

I'm just happy that they are talking about giving us back a bit more of our identity.. I'm just PO'd that it's probably too little, and waaaaay too late.

Small steps but hopefully they keep taking more in the best direction. I agree that it might be too late. Public attitudes are better toward our military but still not what I would consider supportive by the majority. I would like to see that continue to improve also.

[Brewguy]

Now all we need is to put the RCAF back into the right shade of blue, and get rid of the gawdy gold coloured rank insignias. The only thing worse than looking like a bus driver is having officers that look like hotel doormen.

I know, I know, baby steps. But one can dream.

The name change is at least one giant leap forward.

[fleet16b]

Well now that we have corrected the 1968 mistake and have distinct Military Services again, we can now start thinking about getting rid of the bloody metric system hmmmmmm this could be the beginning of a good old fashion witch hunt for everything Liberal