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Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Musical Chairs, Military Style

The Canadian Forces/Ministry of National Defence just announced the changes in command.  I am bummed because some of the folks I have met are retiring.  LTG Peter Devlin will be retiring from his post as head of the Land Staff (commander of the Canadian Army).  I met him a few years ago to interview him about his time as commander of NATO forces in Kabul in 2004.  It was a fascinating interview and most helpful in my research.  I bumped into him last week when I was at conference co-hosted by the Combat Training Centre.  It was nice to catch up, and he had some really interesting things to say in our conversation.  Let's just say that he would be on my side with the bet with


The downside of researching the military in any modern democracy is that the people you meet move up and out so quickly.  There are only one or two officers I worked with in the Pentagon that are still around in the military, but most are gone.  The same is increasingly true here--most of the colonels and generals interviewed for the project are out of the CF.  A few remain and in interesting spots.  So perhaps hanging out last week with the Captains and Majors might have been a good idea.

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