High-flyer NCMs in the Army

Chief of the Land Staff Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie is speeding up promotions:

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This exchange below is taken from Lt.-Gen. Leslie's most recent appearance at the Senate defence committee meeting from last week:

Lt.-Gen. Leslie: The main issue for the army is junior and senior NCOs, non commissioned officers, the core and backbone of any army, are leaving.

Senator Meighen: They are leaving.

Lt.-Gen. Leslie: However, we are placing additional demands on them. Because of demographics they are leaving, but thankfully many are choosing to stay when they could get moderately well-paying jobs. I was going to say great paying jobs, but I do not want to encourage other senior NCOs to leave. They are staying out of a sense of duty and trying to pass on their hard earned experience to the folks coming behind them.

The army right now is short 1,000 master corporals, which is the base level leadership. We have a solution for that. Between now and December, he (Army Sgt. Major) and I want to promote 1,000 master corporals to that rank, which means they have to go through a 12 week modularized training course, regular and reserve, to provide the additional instructors we need not only to get our folk ready to go overseas but to train more folk so we can get them off the basic training list, clear the deck to be able to handle the growth of 3,075 regulars. We are going to get that done. That is job one. We are going to promote 1,000 additional master corporals between now and December.

We are going to change the rules slightly. We are going to recognize combat and operational experience, experiences which otherwise we would force people to go on course for. You still have to go through a threshold knowledge and basic training requirement.

We will take, in certain cases, privates and make them master corporals because they will have demonstrated that leadership under unbelievable circumstances on international missions. It is almost like a wartime solution to an organization which has a lot of its folk in the fight.

However, that is the first tranche. Next year, we want to do the same with sergeants, and the year after that with warrant officers. In three years, by the time we peek at the 3,075 growth, if it all works out, and I am the eternal optimist, we should be able to do the regular force growth and sustain the current operations, but it is complex business.”..