Journeys with my Gun

(29) Back to the Classroom

Terry, Froggy, Author and Richard
John and I successfully qualified at the investigators course and were rightly excited about the future in the field of investigations. Some members in time were chosen to attend the Victoria Police detectives course, I never made that but earlier attended and qualified at the Commonwealth Police promotion to Sergeant course in Canberra. All looked very promising - well for a few minutes anyway !

The course leader advised that we had passed the course but John and I would not be returning to investigations as we had both been posted immediately to the MP School as Instructors 👨‍🎓
I have lost a little track of time and location however, in two postings I spent around 8 years as an Instructor at the MP School, eventually in charge of the Field Wing with the rank of Warrant Officer Class One.
With approx 11 years overall as an Army Instructor, I could not imagine anyone else in any Army corps with those numbers as an instructor then or now.

Disgraceful
The unit was quite small and did not have a penny to do anything with, unbelievably, we had no direct contact with the units around Australia which would take our successful students. There was absolutely no travel so any idea of visiting the unit in Brisbane or elsewhere for example was simply not approved (and no interest) This situation existed throughout my time at the school. We had established curriculum but we knew that it bore little resemblance to the reality in units around the country.
We could not influence curriculum from afar, so we soldiered on best we could.
I soon discovered that a huge problem with students in the field was not so much the tasks at hand but rather their inability to look after themselves and their equipment including vehicles and weapons with very obvious consequences. This situation was of no interest to anyone of note so it continued and we had to manage it, not a problem in its self but rather time consuming and hard on resources.
Another problem was the notion that the trainees were of high motivation and maturity which was a long way off the truth. Whilst we attracted trained corporals from other corps, the majority were low in maturity and experience.
These kids read phantom comics, drank milk shakes and had no understanding of the complexities of their future role as Military Police.
Apart from trainees being ear bashed there was little opportunity to properly assess acquisition of standards due to a dreadful lack of resources. Too many moved on without any 'personality typing' to assure the mentality to do the job. As well those few unsuitable candidates that unfortunately turned up could not be sacked !
When I think back now we really had nothing that would even make us look like a school however, we laughed until we cried at the absurdity of the corps and the absence of effective management.

Anyway on with the job...
We were required to train and qualify the students in basic police duties, this revelation urges me to come clean about how I started my education, firstly I was interested ! instructing demanded it, I picked up along the way, studied not only the main subject but the wider picture, did 3 weeks 🧐 on a basic education course, qualified at a basic and advanced 'Personality Type' programs as well on Advanced 'Instructor' programs.
I had a real knack for teaching and it all fell together.
In a later life during a period of high interest in Leadership in the country I spent long hours in researching the subject (civilian version) and relying on my experience I soon adopted a role in teaching /training.
At one stage whilst delivering training, across the country, I believed that no one could be teaching leadership ( people management) as often as I in civilian life.

Actually I studied many things especially in later life.
I became well read earlier as the demands for promotion in the Army kept me at it.
As well later, my few years in the public Service as a Training Officer in Adelaide taught me how the other half lived 😱

Back to School - I taught report writing,  traffic accident investigation, Radio telephone procedure, traffic control, route signing, subjects for promotion to Corporal and a range of other general police field duties, in the classroom and in the field .
In my generation there were few in the corps at NCO ranks to Sergeant that were not students of mine at some stage.