Sir, – Not having been privy to the context in which ‘the current Second Sea Lord’ opined that he sees ‘no future in staff skills’ (NR 109/3), one must ask how he defines ‘skills’? If he means just formats and procedures, then despite having been the last Commandant of the old Joint Service Defence College at Greenwich, I agree with him. But I also support what Veritas wrote in response, albeit from a more Joint Services perspective. As a student at Camberley, I criticised the overly BAOR-focussed and formalised Army Staff Training; that was reflected later in subsequent international criticis…
