Chapter 5 - Chief of the General Staff

Summary

Daly's first meeting of the Military Board as CGS and First Military Member took place on 27 May 1966, barely a week after he had assumed the office. As was customary the Minister, Malcolm Fraser, extended a welcome from the chair, noting that ‘recent years had seen big changes in the tasks facing the Army and the Army's preparedness to meet those tasks’. Fraser had been sworn in to this, his first ministry, on 26 January; Daly had been prepared for the top job for at least a decade. Both were acutely aware that much was still to be done; as Fraser observed, Daly would undoubtedly find his time as CGS ‘at once stimulating and challenging’.

Career management within the army receives considerable attention and resources, both for officers and enlisted personnel. It always has done. Within the Directorate of Officer Career Management (DOCM) today there is a section devoted to career management for senior officers; this, too, is a function with a long history, albeit perhaps a less bureaucratic one in earlier times. In Daly's day the management of promotions and selections came before the Military Board, while the day-to-day function was the responsibility of the Military Secretary's office. One thing that has not changed is that the most senior appointments in the service require the final approval of the minister.