Vol. 15, No. 4, Autumn 2015 CONTENTS 3 EDITOR’S CORNER INTERNATIONAL COMMITMENTS 4 Canada’s Commitment to NATO: Are We Pulling Our Weight? by John Alexander PERSONNEL ISSUES 12 Future Soldiers: “The Few ...” ~ Military Personnel Trends in the Developed World by Tom St. Denis 22 Fallen on the Field of Honour?: Attitudes of the Canadian Public towards Suicides in the Canadian Military ~ 1914–2014 by Matthew Barrett and Allan English LESSONS FROM THE PAST Cover 30 Training at the Edge: The Canadian Air Force’s Transition to the CF-18, Welcome Home ~ Celebrating the and Lessons Learned for Canada’s Next Generation Fighter Anniversary of VE Day 1945 by Richard Shimooka by Silvia Pecota 40 Nusquam Novus Sub Sol Solis: Analyzing the Similarities between A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower and Roman Imperial Maritime Strategy by Jeff Dargavel VIEWS AND OPINIONS 48 An Unfortunately Popular Aversion to Truthful Feedback within the CAF by Anthony Robb 55 Elements of clarification on the Canadian Armed Forces’ proposed FORCE Incentive Program: A response to Major Draho’s “An Alternate View of Incentivized Fitness in the Canadian Armed Forces,” (CMJ Vol. 15, No. 3, Summer 2015) Canada’s Commitment by Michael Spivock to NATO: Are We Pulling Our Weight? COMMENTARY 59 Prescriptions for Defence by Martin Shadwick 66 BOOK REVIEWS Future Soldiers: “The Few …” ~ Military Personnel Trends in the Developed World Canadian Military Journal/Revue militaire canadienne is the official professional journal of the Canadian Armed Forces and the Department of National Defence. It is published quarterly under authority of the Minister of National Defence. Opinions expressed or implied in this publication are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Department of National Defence, the Canadian Armed Forces, Canadian Military Journal, or any agency of the Government of Canada. Crown copyright is retained. Articles may be reproduced with permission of the Editor, on condition that appropriate credit is given to Canadian Military Journal. Each issue of the Journal is published simultaneously in print and electronic versions; it is available on the Internet at www.journal.forces.gc.ca. ISSN 1492-465X Vol. 15, No. 4, Autumn 2015 • Canadian Military Journal 1 How to Contact Us CANADIAN Canadian Military Journal MILITARY PO Box 17000, Station Forces Kingston, Ontario JOURNAL CANADA, K7K 7B4 www.journal.forces.gc.ca Fax: (613) 541-6866 E-mail: [email protected] Editor-in-Chief Translation David L. Bashow Translation Bureau, Public Works and (613) 541-5010 ext. 6148 Government Services Canada [email protected] Publication Manager Commentary Claire Chartrand Martin Shadwick (613) 541-5010 ext. 6837 [email protected] Editorial Advisor Michael Boire Fallen on the Field of Oversight Committee Honour? Attitudes of the Canadian Public towards Chairman Suicides in the Canadian Military ~ 1914–2014 Major-General J.G.E. Tremblay, Commander, Canadian Defence Academy (CDA) Members Mr. David L. Bashow, Editor-in-Chief, Brigadier-General S.G. Friday, Commandant Canadian Military Journal (CMJ) Royal Military College of Canada (RMCC) Colonel Marty Cournoyer, representing Major Andrew Godefroy, representing Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) Chief of Staff Land Strategy Dr. H.J. Kowal, Principal, Lieutenant-Colonel Kimberley Maynard, Royal Military College of Canada (RMCC) Director Canadian Forces Military Law Centre (CFMLC), Canadian Defence Academy (CDA) Commander Hugues Canuel, representing Chief of the Maritime Staff (CMS) Ms. Hanya Soliman, representing Chief of the Defence Intelligence (CDI) Training at the Edge: The Canadian Air Force’s Transition to the CF-18, Editorial Board and Lessons Learned for Canada’s Next Dr. Douglas Bland Philippe Lagassé Generation Fighter Major (ret’d) Michael Boire Lieutenant-Colonel (ret’d) David Last Major Sylvain Chalifour Dr. Chris Madsen Lieutenant-Colonel (ret’d) Douglas Delaney Dr. Sean Maloney Dr. Rocky J. Dwyer Professor Brian McKercher Lieutenant-Colonel (ret’d) Michael Goodspeed Dr. Paul Mitchell Major-General (ret’d) Daniel Gosselin Dr. Nezih Mrad Major John Grodzinski Dr. Scot Robertson Dr. David Hall Professor Stéphane Roussel Professor Michael Hennessy Professor Elinor Sloan Colonel Bernd Horn Chief Warrant Officer C.J. Thibault Professor Hamish Ion Colonel (ret’d) Randall Wakelam Nusquam Novus Sub Sol Solis: Analyzing the Similarities between NOTE TO READERS A Cooperative Strategy st As a bilingual journal, readers should take note that where citations are translated from their original language, the for 21 Century Seapower abbreviation [TOQ] at the end of the note, which stands for “translation of original quote”, indicates to the readers and Roman Imperial that the original citation can be found in the published version of the Journal in the other official language. Maritime Strategy 2 Canadian Military Journal • Vol. 15, No. 4, Autumn 2015 EDITOR’S CORNER ell, autumn is almost here in the Great White in the early-1980s is warranted, “… in order to understand some [not yet] North, and with it, our autumn of the potential weaknesses that surfaced, and to provide some edition of the Canadian Military Journal. consideration for Canada’s future transition towards a next gen- eration fighter.” This time out, Colonel John Alexander, a W very experienced tactical aviation and special In a similar fashion, in terms of lessons to be learned from operations pilot, takes the point with an assessment of Canada’s the past, Lieutenant-Commander Jeff Dargavel, a very experienced recent spending commitment to national defence made at the 2014 sailor, offers an interesting comparison between the United States NATO Summit held in Wales, and what the effect of this commit- Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard unified maritime strategy, ment will have upon Canada’s specific NATO commitment. While as published in their A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Alexander believes that while Canada is unlikely to achieve the Seapower, and Emperor Augustus Caesar’s strategic aim to provide promised targets, he also maintains that the failure to do so “… security for the Roman Empire without undermining the Empire’s does not reflect a reduction in Canada’s commitment to NATO, economic base or compromising its hegemonic political order. either politically or financially.” Dargavel asserts “… that Julio-Claudian emperors [31 B.C. – 68 A.D.] employed seapower to protect and maintain their empire Next, a highly experienced soldier who has seen service in in the same fashion that the U.S. uses seapower today to maintain three national armies and two wars tackles a very timely subject, its hegemony and position as the world’s superpower.” that of future military recruitment. Tom St. Denis opines that there are issues currently developing as trends that raise such an acute We then move on to our two opinion pieces, which, once again, military personnel problem for recruitment that they threaten to are very diverse in their subject matter. First, combat engineering undermine both national and global security. “Five stand out as officer Major Anthony Robb offers a very candid assessment of potentially the most deleterious: ageing and shrinking populations; the need for a critical healthy exchange of negative feedback in increasing obesity and lack of fitness among youth; disinclination the Canadian Forces Personnel Appraisal System (CFPAS). Robb for military service; rising defence costs; and the influence of suggests that while the relatively-recent After Action Review technology.” St. Denis also asserts that these developing trends (AAR) process with tenets of continual learning and collective are “… shared more-or-less equally by all advanced societies.” growth through a ‘no thin skins’ approach has permitted a more honest exchange of feedback at the macro-level, “… a refreshed Suicides have become a very significant issue in the Canadian approach is needed at the individual level.” Next, in response to military in recent years, and historians Matthew Barrett and Major Mike Draho’s comments with respect to the Canadian Armed Allan English remind us that there have been more deaths by Forces’ proposed FORCE Incentive Program in the last issue on suicides in the Canadian Armed Forces since 2002 than mission incentivised fitness, Dr. Mike Spivock, a Senior Officer—Human deaths in the twelve years Canada was engaged in the war in Performance Research within the CAF Directorate of Fitness, sug- Afghanistan. However, the authors maintain that this is not a new gests that Major Draho’s opinions “… appear to be based upon some concern, and that over the years, a number of cases “… have come inaccurate interpretations of the facts.” To that end, while grateful to public attention, especially those during or immediately after to Major Draho for raising the issue, Dr. Spivock provides some a major conflict in which Canada has been involved.” They use elaborative background on this complex and important initiative. two case studies, one centering on the immediate aftermath of the First World War, and a more contemporary one from the Afghanistan Then, our own resident commentator Martin Shadwick takes conflict to help assess how public attitudes towards mental stress a look at some historical prescriptions for Canada’s defence needs, injuries and suicides involving Canadian servicepersons changed and compares them to recent contributions to the process of deter- during the course of each conflict. Barrett and English then “… mining those needs. assess how destigmatization efforts might be improved by using historical evidence, and how this knowledge could be leveraged to Finally, we close with a quartet of book reviews that hopefully help facilitate a more productive and open dialogue about mental will be of interest to our readership. health and suicide in the military.” Until the next time. Although at the time of writing, no decision has been made as to what Canada’s next generation fighter aircraft will be, defence David L. Bashow analyst Richard Shimooka believes that an examination of the Editor-in-Chief Canadian Air Force’s historical transition to the CF-18 Hornet Canadian Military Journal Vol.