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Old 19-09-18, 12:20 AM
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Dan M Dan M is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Pink View Post
Is there a Chocolate Brown version of the Pre-Unification General List Cap Badge for Canada....?...if so, what was its application...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill A View Post
Now, the mystery, what was it for. These badges WERE NOT the officers' general list badge.
The badge is not pre-unification, army or general list. It is the cap badge for soldiers undergoing combat arms training at the Combat Arms School (CAS) during the early 1970's.

After the unification of the Canadian military on February 1, 1968, the 11 commands of the three services were amalgamated and reduced to six unified commands. One, Training Command, became responsible for all rank basic and operational training up to the unit level. This included the sea trades, air trades (including pilots and navigators), combat arms trades and those trades common to all Commands (like clerks and cooks, etc).

With this new training system in place, combat arms training was centralized at the Combat Arms School (CAS) located at the newly named Combat Training Centre Gagetown. The CAS conducted operational training for officer and other rank artillery, armour and infantry candidates. This was an interim step between a candidate's basic training and joining an operational unit.

During basic training, officer candidates and OR recruits wore the Canadian Forces pineapple badge. When posted to a regiment, the regimental badge was worn. What was required was a cap badge for the interim step at the CAS. The badge in the opening post was the CAS badge. It would have been worn by personnel undergoing training. CAS staff wore their regimental badge.

I don't know why there are two different versions of the badge.

I have seen a photo of an infantry OR wearing one but have never seen it worn by an officer.

This training system, and the badge, didn't last long however. Within a few years operational training was taken away from Training Command and given to the appropriate operational Command. The CAS came under the control of Mobile Command. While officer training continued to be conducted at the newly renamed CFB Gagetown, infantry OR training was farmed out to the regiments. The CAS cap badge was replaced by infantry branch, artillery branch and armour branch cap badges.

That's all I know. When I attended the CAS as an officer candidate in 1977, the badge was nowhere to be seen.

Cheers,
Dan.
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