The Commanding Officer in any unit is generally referred to as the 'old man' (behind his back, of course!) by all the other officers. Well this is about to change soon as the following news item will bear testimony :
"Officers to become Col after 15 yrs of service '
New Delhi: In a major decision impacting the age profile of Army, Navy and Air Force commanding officers, the government on Friday fixed 15 years of commissioned service for substantive promotion to the rank of colonel, instead of the existing 20 years. ‘‘The government today fixed 15 years of commissioned service as the minimum qualifying service for substantive promotion to the rank of colonel in the Army, captain in the Navy and group captain in the Air Force. The decision of the government has been received at the Service headquarters,’’ sources said here. Until now, lieutenant colonels in the Army, commanders in the Navy and wing commanders in the Air Force had to put in a cumulative qualifying service of 20 years after commissioning for promotion to substantive colonel and equivalent ranks. However, they became unit commanding officers even with just 16 years of service, as per the cadre management policies of the tri-services, but had to wait for another four years to be confirmed as substantive colonels and to receive the salary of a colonel. In effect, it would mean that there would be no more ‘‘acting’’ ranks of colonel, captain and group captain in the services. TNN
New Delhi: In a major decision impacting the age profile of Army, Navy and Air Force commanding officers, the government on Friday fixed 15 years of commissioned service for substantive promotion to the rank of colonel, instead of the existing 20 years. ‘‘The government today fixed 15 years of commissioned service as the minimum qualifying service for substantive promotion to the rank of colonel in the Army, captain in the Navy and group captain in the Air Force. The decision of the government has been received at the Service headquarters,’’ sources said here. Until now, lieutenant colonels in the Army, commanders in the Navy and wing commanders in the Air Force had to put in a cumulative qualifying service of 20 years after commissioning for promotion to substantive colonel and equivalent ranks. However, they became unit commanding officers even with just 16 years of service, as per the cadre management policies of the tri-services, but had to wait for another four years to be confirmed as substantive colonels and to receive the salary of a colonel. In effect, it would mean that there would be no more ‘‘acting’’ ranks of colonel, captain and group captain in the services. TNN
Source : Times of India, New Delhi Edition, dated 02 May 2009
PS : The Indian Armed Forces are going to have 'young' old men now !!
2 comments:
I think it was not the COs who minded being called the old men but their wives, because if CO was old man then by virtue of that she would be deemed as old woman. A wife of one of our COs, a plumpy lady had made it catagorically clear to all the officers not to call her husband an old man for the same very reason.
It will be a nice change to see officers with youngish profiles wearing those red tabs to counter the black tabs of police officers who flaunt them at much lesser service as compared to the officers from defence forces.
You are right Balli. It will be a welcome change for the officer community in the forces.
Post a Comment