Page 6 - The Cormorant Issue 14

Secretary of the Cormorant Club
♫ ♪ Will you still need me, will you still feed me when I’m 64 – dum dum! ♫ ♪
OK Paul McCartney was not writing about the Cormorant Club when he penned these lines, nevertheless, the Cormorant Club is indeed 64 years old and, as it approaches its old age pension, it is reasonable to ask what the Cormorant Club is for and what its future should be.
The stated aim of the Club is:
...an Association of those who have graduated from, or taught on, the JSSC, NDC, JSDC and the Advanced and Higher Command and Staff Courses of the JSCSC. Its purpose remains the promotion of military efficiency, achieved through the maintenance of contact between those officers who have passed through the Colleges, to the benefit of
the individual members, the club and UK Defence.
If these aims are still valid, are there better ways of achieving them? In many ways the club is healthy, nevertheless, the world is changing and Defence is changing with it; hence it is right to examine what we do and why. It is for this reason that I have
included in this issue a letter to the membership describing some options and asking for your views. I hope you will respond posi- tively. I look forward to hearing what you have to say.
Cdr John Kirkup RN
SO1 DS ACSC
JSCSC
Faringdon Road
Shrivenham
Wiltshire SN6 8TS
Email: CormorantClubSecretary.jscsc@Defenceacademy.mod.uk
Cormorant Club Committee: Service Members
President: Chairman: Secretary: Treasurer: Reunions: Magazine:
AVM Ray Lock
Capt Adrian Cassar Cdr John Kirkup
Wg Cdr Mark Coleman Cdr Charlie Shepherd Wg Cdr Andy Bacon
Civilian Members
Navy: Cdre Laurie Brokenshire
Army: Col Nigel Gilbert
Royal Air Force: Gp Capt Helen Randall Civilian: Mr Bill Clark
DSD: Dr David Jordan
A Word from the new Director General of the UK Defence Academy
Peter Watkins
DG Defence Academy
Later in this edition of The Cormorant is an article by my predecessor, Lieutenant Gen- eral Andrew Graham, on the importance of military education during a period of auster- ity. It is a typical thoughtful piece highlight- ing that – to operate successfully in an increasingly uncertain world – individuals and institutions need to be able to act swiftly and imaginatively to get ahead of the curve and not become the prisoner of events.
That requires education – those individuals and institutions need to have the relevant knowledge, skills and competences at their finger tips.
In my first message to Defence Academy staff, I said that the situation facing the Academy was characterised by three “a”s: austerity – we have to live within our means; agility – we need to be able to adapt to respond to changing requirements; aspira- tion – we should never cease to strive to be a world-class insti- tution. Two of those three “a”s – austerity and agility – figure in
Lieutenant General Graham’s piece; and I have found that all three watchwords have resonated with staff in all four compo- nents of the Academy.
As DG, my intent is to continue to underline the importance of military education if the Ministry of Defence and the Armed Forces are to meet the challenges ahead – an education embracing the strategic, the operational, the technical and the human dimen- sions. But getting that message across will not be straight- forward when the cold winds of financial stringency are blow- ing fiercely. So the Defence Academy will need itself to be an exemplar of the values proposed by the recent Defence Reform report – putting Defence first, being focussed on outputs, prizing affordability, valuing and sharing information and trust.
It will be a challenge. But the Defence Academy – and the JSCSC – have the opportunity to be at the heart of a process of transformation that will leave the MOD and the Armed Forces fit for the 21st Century.
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