Cadet/officer duties

CK1Champ

Can anyone help me...I am wondering what the general day to day duties of a cadet and officer??

lapsed

CK1Champ wrote: »

Can anyone help me...I am wondering what the general day to day duties of a cadet and officer??

Cadets don't have duties. They have 15 or 16 months of really tough training. The day to day duties of a newly commissioned young officer -2/Lt or Lt- will be a mixture of admin and going on courses to be qualified in various aspects of soldiering.
Why ?

Sugar Free

For the upcoming interviews in the cadetship competition. That question is asked sometimes.

lapsed

MediumWell wrote: »

For the upcoming interviews in the cadetship competition. That question is asked sometimes.

Fair enough if that's the case. Military.ie has lots of stuff which should give a clue. What I said is essentially true though.... cadets have only one "duty " and that's the Presidential guard at the Easter Commemorations... see Military.ie's Flickr for an idea of that. It's also true to say that a young officer will spend a lot of time on courses which will bring him up to speed in his chosen discipline... infantry... cav....transport... signals and so on. Best at an interview to know this and not give gung ho answers. He/she will also be involved in exercises up to the level at which they're qualified. They will also take platoons out on battle runs etc.

Yitzhak Rabin

Here's an email I wrote to a friend who asked the same question a while ago.

"The role of a young officer is extremely varied. Its very hard to pin down exactly what we do, as it can be so many thing.

So, during a tactical deployment like overseas, a YO will be a platoon commander. So they are responsible for the welfare of all their men. They are the decision maker of the platoon and they take charge and responsibility for every single soldier under them. If an individual soldier messes up, say, gets drunk, or breaks camp, then the officer is held accountable to a degree. While on patrols, it is the officers responsibility to give orders prior to, and to make decisions along the way. They are also in charge of the navigation of the patrols. They work very closely with their platoon sergeant. Basically the Pl Sgt is like the manager, he's in charge of all the admin and discipline of the platoon, while the Lt is the leader who makes all the decisions and has final call on everything.

Thats overseas. At home is slightly more complicated, because as I said it is extremely varied.

I'll give you an example. My week last week: I had a youthreach group in. So on Monday I was giving them lectures on the roles of the defence forces and rank structure and ways to join. Tues they went out to learn survival skills, while I went to the glen of Imaal to have a meeting about a mortar shoot I'm organising next month. Wednesday I did a heli recce of the border on our AO(area of operations). Thursday I had a minister and a senator in to meet me to talk about the programme I was running for the youthreach. Friday I ran a fitness test.

On top of those things a YO will normally be in charge of a mess account. So I am in charge of the finances of the private's mess so I write the cheques they need and do the bookkeeping. You'll also be on various courses like weapons courses, recce courses, sniper courses, other specialist courses like public order, CBRN, FIBUA etc.

Then there will be non routine things like guard of honors, you could be on cash in some units, shannon duty, portloaise duty etc. You'll also do quite a bit of orderly officer.

But as an officer it will also be your responsibility to organise training. That means that you will have to do alot of paperwork and phonecalls to book land, ammunition, and get specialist equipment and units for exercises.

Thats what officers do. I won't go into what cadets do, as its probably changed since I did my cadetship. Just look at military.ie and they should have the info there."

Local-womanizer

Yekahs,good post,very informative!

Out of interest,what are your duties in Shannon? Is it just security?

Yitzhak Rabin

Local-womanizer wrote: »

Yekahs,good post,very informative!

Out of interest,what are your duties in Shannon? Is it just security?

Actually, I'm not sure if the DF still does Shannon duty. I transferred brigade, so I haven't done it myself in a good while.

But basically, the US army stops off in Shannon on the way back from Iraq and Afghanistan. Some people are upset at this, and protest when a plane is in. A while back a few of them broke into the hangar and smashed up a plane, so the army was brought in to secure the place.

So, the Irish army actually guards the american army :pac:

Local-womanizer

yekahs wrote: »

Actually, I'm not sure if the DF still does Shannon duty. I transferred brigade, so I haven't done it myself in a good while.

But basically, the US army stops off in Shannon on the way back from Iraq and Afghanistan. Some people are upset at this, and protest when a plane is in. A while back a few of them broke into the hangar and smashed up a plane, so the army was brought in to secure the place.

So, the Irish army actually guards the american army :pac:

Ah,sure I forgot about the hippies!

Poccington

With all due respect Sir, you left out the "Make an absolute balls of everything as soon as they get their hands on a map" in the "What Officers do" post.




:P

Yitzhak Rabin

Poccington wrote: »

With all due respect Sir, you left out the "Make an absolute balls of everything as soon as they get their hands on a map" in the "What Officers do" post.




:P

I just took it as a given that everyone already knows that! :P

tac foley

The most dangerous creature on the face of the planet is not a rabid tiger with its tail on fire, but a second lieutenant with a map.

tac

BigDuffman

tac foley wrote: »

The most dangerous creature on the face of the planet is not a rabid tiger with its tail on fire, but a second lieutenant with a map.

tac

Even more terrifying is a huddle of officers hovering around the map after dismissing the NCOs who are supposed to be minding them.

"I say, this map has an artic version on the flip side."

lapsed

BigDuffman wrote: »

Even more terrifying is a huddle of officers hovering around the map after dismissing the NCOs who are supposed to be minding them.

"I say, this map has an artic version on the flip side."

If NCOs were chocolate they'd eat themselves !!:)

tac foley

lapsed wrote: »

If NCOs were chocolate they'd eat themselves !!:)

Comments various on ACRs for a young officer -

'This officer is like a lighthouse in the desert. Brilliant, but useless.'

'I would hesitate to breed from this officer.'

'The men under his command follow him out of curiosity as to what he might do next.'

'This young officer has a great future behind him.'

'He considers himself to be a real wit. Sadly, he is only half-right.'

'He is a very modest young man, but then, he has a lot to be modest about.'

tac