What impact have recent events had on the RAAC Family?

Indeed, is it still a family?  If not, is there any possibility of reconciliation?  

The immediate past RAAC Representative Honorary Colonel and immediate past Head of Corps, both asked the Chief of Army to reconsider his plan to make 1st Armoured Regiment an experimentation unit.  They proposed an amalgamated unit as an alternative — 1st/2nd Armoured Cavalry Regiment.  

It is believed that the idea here was to put in place an arrangement whereby the combined entity could easily be turned back into the original units at some point in the future. The CA dismissed their proposal.

“They [1 Armd Regt] are following orders …”.  Yes (and this will always be the case)!  

But what is not appreciated (or so it appears), is that it is up to the RAAC’s leaders to take a stance on behalf of those who are following orders to ensure that the orders are both lawful and ethical.  This is what leadership is all about — standing up for those who are without a voice and don’t have a ‘vote’.      

How can it be that everyone simply says, ‘YES Sir!”.  

There is no doubt that the orders weren’t ethical.  How could they be?  How could a tank regiment with a 75-year history (including battle-honours, a Unit Citation for Gallantry, and the presentation of a Standard), suddenly be made into a non-combatant experimentation unit … all at the whim of the CA!   

How is it possible for a unit of the RAAC, in secret and without consultation, can be given a non-RAAC role; one which has nothing whatsoever to do with “locate, identify, capture and destroy the enemy, by day or night, in combination with other arms, using fire and manoeuvre”.   

Inexplicably, it seems that the Chief of the Defence Force supports the CA in expecting to have the best of both worlds.  Rather than having to deal with the enormous backlash that would result from dumping 1 Armd Regt completely, a deal was cobbled together in which the unit remains part of the RAAC and continues to wear its accoutrements. 

Chief of Army ‘promised’ that 1 Armoured Regiment’s traditions and heritage would be proudly upheld by the new unit.  Yet despite this, in the very first year under such assurances, the 2025 Cambrai Day Parade was cancelled because the experimentation unit had more important commitments to its new masters.

Surely there are some amongst us who believe in doing the right thing, not just following orders.  This could mean arguing a case against the Chief of Army’s views and standing firm in this regard.  

This is what one imagines that a CA would want, i.e. someone who holds firm in terms of their beliefs and argues the case for a contrary proposal, if necessary — as opposed to the ubiquitous ‘yes men’. 

Maybe, however, CAs are different today, to what they used to be.

But what’s all this meant for the RAAC family?  There is no doubt that the Armoured Corps has been dealt a critical blow.  Instead of two recon regiments and a tank regiment … the Corps is now reduced to a recon regiment, plus a dual role tank/recon regiment (the roles of which are incompatible for a single unit).  

Sadly, there is no apparent RAAC leader.  Maybe he/she is beavering away in the background.  The present time and place, however, requires a leader who is ‘loud and proud’.  No-one has stepped up to fill this void.

In the circumstances, there would seem to be little hope for the future of the RAAC … let alone, its wider family. 

Lieutenant Colonel Bruce Cameron, MC, RAAC (Ret’d)

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