RCAF and RCN to return?

[Michael Dorosh]

Originally Posted by maple_leaf_eh

The CANFORGEN message was supposed to be out today to rename Air Command to the Royal Canadian Air Force, the Maritime Command to the Royal Canadian Navy, and Land Forces Command to the Canadian Army. It undoes part of the visible reminder of Unification. A lot of rebranding work to do, and I expect it will take a decade for all the little vestiges to disappear.

However, it does not remove the 'purple' trades and unified structures that eliminated triple redundancies. I'll be waiting to see how the tri-service Signals branch armwrestles itself over the name Royal Canadian Signal Corps. There was no Air Force or Navy named equivalent. The Royal Canadian Army Service Corps has changed so much that the Logistics branch wouldn't recognize itself in the old corps (and that might not be such a bad thing either).

As someone currently wearing the Logistics cap badge in an infantry regiment, I have to say, the Logistics branch seems to make some sense to me as it stands right now. Unification was not a bad idea, it was just poorly implemented and obviously went too far.

I was never rabidly for or against the return of the Royal designation, but calling an air force an Air Force, a navy a Navy, and the army the Army only makes sense.

It is funny to think, though, that the Canadian Army has only been known as such for 28 years during its years of existence, stretching back to Confederation. The designation replaced the "Militia" title in 1940, before becoming Mobile Command in 1968 or so. So while there is no real historic connection other than the fact we used that title during a world war (Militia has a much stronger tradition in Canada), it is only common sense to call the army, the Army.

Commentators are speculating in many arenas that this won't cost a lot of money. There is certainly no reason it has to. Whether it will or not remains to be seen. The tri-service cap badge will no doubt go. The FMC badge worn on the breast pocket of the "Army" DEU can probably stay unchanged - LFC has been calling itself the Army for years now, unofficially. This really doesn't change a whole lot in practical terms that I can see.

The next big step - and General Lew Mackenzie talked about this on Rutherford today - is the rank insignia for officers, which everyone seems determined to add into the mix. That would be where your expenses start to add up.

Rutherford wondered about changing logos on vehicles, etc.; but for the Army - not a consideration that I can see.

Oh, and Worthington wondered if we would now see a Royal Canadian Artillery. I guess he doesn't realize the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery never went anywhere. I think on paper they might have, but as General Mackenzie said on air, the Army largely ignored as much of unification as it could, particularly the Royal regiments, who kept their distinctions and wore them proudly.

It's an interesting day, but life goes on in the trenches, one way or another. Large organizations will always find ways to reinvent the wheel. I have seen it in health care too - in just 10 years we have amalgamated from a regional health authority to a city health authority to a provincial health service with millions of dollars spent on logos and painting ambulances and new scrubs bought.

And the Forces will be no different; my militia district has reorged from a Military District to a southern Militia District to a provincial Militia District to a Reserve Brigade and I would be surprised not to see it change at least once more before I retire.