Army Rankings

What are the army rankings? The following are regular army rankings. I have mixed some Australian rankings with American rankings and vice versa.

Private/Cadet
Lance Corporal
Corporal
Sergeant
Staff Sergeant
Lieutenant/Leftenant
Captain
Major
Lieutenant Colonel
Colonel
Brigadier/Brigadier General (must be addressed as "General")
Major General
Lieutenant General (note Lt. Gen. higher than Maj. Gen. even though Maj. is higher than Lt.)
General
General of the Army/Field Marshal




My favourite war book is Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose.

Retiring from Cadets

This year, I have retired from cadets. I finished my "career" as a Corporal in 3 Platoon of Alpha Company. I have decided that I wanted to do something different and we have a large percentage of cadets continuing on this year. I have switched to a service known as "chess club", as part of administration for social services.

Scotch College Annual Tattoo 2008

The 2008 Scotch College Annual Tattoo was held on the 7th of November, 2008. The parade started at approximately 8:30pm and lasting about 1.5 hours. During this parade, the cadets, military band and, pipes and drums crew salute a General of the Australian Army. This year, the parade was done in the rain, showing that the cadet unit won't even let downpour stop them. It is a tradition to "freeball" during the parade.

The RSM leading this parade was Regimental Sergeant Major Ricky Hanson and the CUO of the Unit was Cadet Under Officer Nathan Su. The General saluted was General Peter Gration AC OBE (1987).

2008 SCACU Annual Camp

The 2008 Scotch College Army Cadet Unit Annual Camp went underway from the 12-17th of September (the Advance Party went to Puckapunyal on the 10th). It was an enjoyable camp where there were lots of interesting activities. I arrived on the evening of the 13th as I had state chess finals that morning-afternoon.

The days were split up like this (for Alpha company):
12th - Arrival and setting up camp
13th - Abseiling
14th - Boating
15th - Ranged shooting
16th - NavEx and Confidence course
17th - Packup, renaturalisation and departure

Labels corrected

The labels on this blog have been corrected. I have labeled every post on this blog with one of these labels:

personal
cadets
chess (includes international chess)
Australian chess
websites

Previously, I did not know how labels worked. But now I have read about them, and I have made a few corrections. The vast majority of labels on this blog are useless and only lead to one or two posts, but it would take too long to remove them all. The labels above are the ones to use in order to distinguish posts about different subjects.

Junior Leaders Course (Cadet Promotions Course)

I have just attended the Junior Leaders Course (or Cadet Promotions Course) during 07/12/07-11/12/07. The Junior Leaders Course is for first-year cadets who want to become junior leaders, attain rank and take on their second year of cadets. There was also the Senior Leaders Course and the CUO/WO Course. All the courses were held at Scotch College's "Boarding House".

The course was designed to provide cadets, skills knowledge and attitudes required to perform the role of a Junior Leader within the Australian Army Cadets. We learned about treating burns, actions on getting lost, setting up a hootchie, etc. We also had to give a "drill lesson", which was especially difficult because it was our first time.

At the end of the course, cadets are deemed either competent or incompetent. If deemed competent, cadets will receive the rank of "Corporal" next year and they also receive a certificate for completing the course. I received "competency".

2007 Scotch Cadet Tattoo

The Scotch 2007 Cadet Tattoo took place on Friday. We had spent several weeks rehearsing the Tattoo every Thursday with Major Bain. We gathered near the Q-Store at 7:00PM that night. We received our rifles and started marching onto the Main Oval at about 8:30PM. There was a large crowd ready to watch us and the principal, Dr Gordon Donaldson AM, was there too. This was a very special tattoo as it is Dr Donaldson's last year this year before he retires after being principal of Scotch for 25 years. This year's reviewing officer was Lieutenant General Ian Teague. His speech was very though-provoking and impressive. The Tattoo ended at around 10:15PM. We were told that there was a possibility of someone fainting for standing with a rifle that long, but thankfully I don't think anyone fainted. We were dismissed shortly afterwards and celebrated our last Cadets session of the year.

Jokes on Cadet Camp

As is expected, some funny stuff always appear on camps. Here is some of the funny stuff that happened...

Someone gets bitten by a snake and you turkey slap them.

"Turn up this absolute gangsta music." (on the bus to Puckapunyal)

Lachy Webster tried to make coffee in a kidney cup on the fire.

"Demeris is going to have a 5-minute chat and then you can go to bed and have some fun."

"If anyone gets in my way, I'll cut them down." (after talking about teamwork)

I slipped down while trying to kick my friend.

"I got some fat guy in my year level to make the sign." (talking about the big 3 sign for the platoon)

Scotch Annual Cadet Camp Finished

I have just returned from a Puckapunyal military base. Overall, it has been a pretty good experience and I especially liked the live firing.

I woke up with the urge to vomit and feeling dizzy on the final day. I had to take some Panadol tablets and fell asleep a couple more times. The teachers and the platoon were very helpful while I was sick.

On the trip back we watched Scooby-Doo, a 2002 live-action film. The film concerns Mystery Inc. (Shaggy, Fred, Scooby-Doo, Velma and Daphne) investigating an island, owned by the eccentric Emile Mondavarious, where teenagers are turning into mindless zombies. They end up unravelling a rather bewildering plan. The film includes Matthew Lillard, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze, Jr., Linda Cardellini, Rowan Atkinson and Neil Fanning.

Here is what we did on the days...

Day 1

Arrival in bush
Abseiling (25 metres)

Day 2

Navigational exercise
Shelter building (using wood)
Night navigational exercise
Lantern Stalk

Day 3

Arrival in barracks
Drill using rifles

Day 4

Live firing (using, as I recall, the 5.56mm F88 Austeyr rifle)
Personal training (just a whole lot of exercise, and I found it particularly difficult)
Drill with rifles
Lantern stalk

Day 5

Drill with rifles
Concert night (with the whole unit)
Skit night (with Alpha company)

Day 6
Drill with rifles
Parade

Scotch Annual Cadet Camp

I will be off in the Scotch ACU Annual Camp from the 14th-19th of September. This will be two nights in the bush and three nights at a military base. The first activity my company is doing will be abseiling.