Pusser
Army.ca Veteran
- Reaction score
- 32
- Points
- 530
Loachman said:Air Defence Command and Air Transport Command continued to exist post-unification. 10 Tactical Air Group (which included CH136 Kiowa, CH135 Twin Huey, CH113A Voyageur, CF116 for CAS, and CC115 for short-range transport) belonged to Mobile Command (Army) and Maritime Air Group belonged to Maritime Command. These were all smunched together to form Air Command in 1975 - the second-worst military decision after unification. One of the lies told in justification was that it would give all "airmen" a common identity. It ignored the fact that 10 TAG and MAG people identified with their original parent Services/Commands and NOT with airforcey people.
If anything does need to be wound back through time, that travesty is begging for it.
Back in the early 90s (if I recall) the Commander Air Command came down to address a MAG conference. Apparently he spent a good part of his speech slagging the Navy (to be fair, probably in a good-natured, service rivalry kind of way) and it went over like a lead balloon. He (a fighter jock) had apparently failed to realize that at that time a large number of MAG personnel, across all "air" occupations, and especially at the more senior levels, were ex-RCN Fleet Air Arm and pretty damn proud of it.