What Did the Australian Staff College Teach Me?

            On return from the Australian Staff College, I was posted as BM in an armoured brigade at Babina. The local military leadership summarily categorized me as unsuitable for the job on two basic counts – first which was the obvious was my being a non-armoured corps officer and the second, my having done the Australian Staff Course. The logic was like this – Camberlay does teach you a lot but Australia? C’mon, have a heart. What can it teach us? They do nothing except playing cricket, chasing kangaroos and sun bathing or surfing on the beaches. From this logic, the Army should not be sending officers there – and that too the third in the order of merit goes there and not some one just picked randomly.

            So what did I learn in Australian Staff College? Firstly, the exposure to a new environment and new thought process is itself a big teacher. By the way, what does one learn in the HC course? There the DS do no teaching at all. But still it is very prestigious and graded (till quite some time back) higher than the HDMC where there is plenty of formal teaching. We seem to have fixated ideas on every issue and view everything through the colour of our own glasses.

            Secondly, it allowed everyone to learn and grow as per hi/her own ambitions/priorities and pace. Having been a SI in the DSSC and overseen a full course, I am of the opinion that our staff college puts a student through a rigid assembly line type of process where the product has no choice but to go through the process without realizing or feeling as to what he is going through. The product is graded six times by the line supervisors and stamped fit for staff at various levels based on their own perceptions. The Australian Staff Course (which incidentally, was a Command and Staff Course and NOT the Staff Course alone as is ours) allowed me to grow as an officer as well as an individual. It was pitched at much higher level than ours because of their own requirements where their BMs and DQs get trained at Camberlay but they need staff officers to function at their Army Office in Canberra. There was lot of emphasis on paper writing of which there were eight and each required considerable research. If I can express myself clearly today, it is due to the grooming that I got in the Australian Staff College. There was a DS from AEC who was a language expert. It appeared quite strange to me initially but later, when I realized the importance of language skills for a staff officer, I understood the rationale behind it.

            Thirdly, The DS there gave full opportunity to the student officers to discuss and give their opinions without fear – in fact they encouraged us to dissent with the official line and prove them wrong. This happens to be a major weakness in our training establishments where the students are taught to think in a formatted manner.

            Fourthly, I learnt that one has to strike a balance in life where work is not everything - family is equally important. It was the Commandant himself who considered it important enough for the students that he decided to talk on the issue formally.  Do our DS advise the students at middle and senior levels as such?

            Fifthly, I was made to introduce guest speakers like any other Australian officer on my turn – it was immaterial whether the speaker was Australian, British, American or from any other country. Student officers are encouraged to carry out their own research about the speaker, prepare and deliver his/her introduction with equality of opportunity. In our Staff College, it is always the privilege of the Commandant only to introduce a guest speaker.

            Sixth, one was encouraged to ask difficult questions from senior political and military leadership. When the Defence Minister was to visit and speak to us, the Commandant himself asked the student officers to ask him all the difficult questions and not to let him go back scot free. It is another matter that being he shrewd politician that he was, he easily succeeded in deflecting the questions but maintaining a welcoming smile on his face all the time.

            Seventh, having toured the entire country and viewed it from different perspectives, I understood the intricacies of force structuring for a trading continent nation of that size. The strategic environment is totally different from that of ours and hence the emphasis on maritime surveillance and aerial interception with the last priority to ground forces.

            Friends, there are many more but I could think of only these after so many years. To succumb to the temptation for condemning the unfamiliar is very easy, but to dwell deeper into it requires research, knowledge and understanding. I wish these aspects are also form part of the ‘design of battle’ at our training establishments.