Army officer course doubles intake

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 3, Issue 5, 25 June 1985, Page 19

Army officer course doubles intake

The New Zealand Army is about to double the number of officer cadets it trains in New Zealand. Twenty-nine young men and women are currently undergoing the tough oneyear training course they started in January at the Officer Cadet School (OCS) of New Zealand in Waiouru. Next month on 4th July they will be joined by a further intake of 32 officer cadets.

This mid-year intake will be the first of what is to become a continuing pattern of two intakes each year at the OCS. A major officer training reorganisation by the Australian Defence Department will soon see the closing of two army officer training establishments which have been attended by up to 30 New Zealanders annually for many years. I.n December this year the Royal Military College,

Duntroon in Canberra and the Officer Cadet School at Portsea in Victoria will close their doors for the last time. New Zealand Army officer cadets have attended the college at Duntroon since it was opened in 191 1 and similarly Portsea since its opening in the mid- 1950s. From January 1986 all potential officers for each of the three Australian Armed Services will be trained at a newly-built facility in Canberra called the Armed Forces Defence Academy (AFDA). Up to eight New Zealand officer cadets will start training at AFDA annually for a four-year academic and military course. The Australian reorganisation has resulted in an

increased training requirement for army officer cadets in New Zealand. The bulk of the New Zealand Army's officer cadets will now be trained at the OCS in Waiouru. Between 1977 and 1984, 138 cadets successfully completed the course at the Officer Cadet T raining Company in Waiouru and were commissioned as second lieutenants. Twenty graduates were women. A further nine graduates were from the military forces of Fiji, Malaysia, Singapore and Tonga. In January 1985 the Officer Cadet Training Company was re-named the Officer Cadet School of New Zealand and Lieutenant Colonel Maurice Dodson MC was appointed to be its first commanding officer.