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Boy from Boolaroo soon to fill top defence job
Admiral to quell 'tribalism'
By FRANK CRANSTON
It has been said of Alan Beaumont
that people who have been
commanded by him to do something
– or stop doing it – have
come away with the impression
that they had been asked, not told.
"It's a knack which you don't
find in many – especially in the
military," my informant said.
"There's never any doubt as to
who is running the show or what he
requires done but it has an element
of persuasion in it which seems to
make people even more keen to
perform."
From April that "knack" will be
of particular interest as the softly
spoken Admiral Alan Beaumont
signs on as head of this nation's
armed services – Chief of the Defence
Force.
In grim times an occasional good
luck story doesn't go astray and,
though luck hasn't played much
part in it, the CDF-designate's career
path is as good an Aussie Battler
yarn as is around right now.
Alan Beaumont was born on
Christmas Eve, 1934, at Newcastle.
He attended Boolaroo Primary
School before entering Newcastle
Technical High.
Entering the Royal Australian
Naval College, Jervis Bay, in 1948
he graduated in 1951 with the grand
aggregate prize for academic
achievement.
After graduation the future CDF
underwent training with the Royal
Navy as well as the RAN before
being promoted to lieutenant in
1956.
Completing a torpedo antisubmarine
course with the RN in
1959-60, he undertook exchange
postings later with the RN and the
United States Navy.
Sea service took him aboard the
RAN vessels HMAS Australia,
HMAS Bataan, HMAS Shoalhaven,
HMAS Vengeance, HMAS Fremantle,
HMAS Quickmatch, and
British postings in HMS Maidstone,
HMS Armada and HMS
Lewiston. Shore postings included
HMAS Cerberus, HMS Vernon
and HMAS Watson.
He was promoted to Commander
while serving as executive officer
in HMAS Brisbane off Vietnam in
1969. He had command of the
minesweeper HMAS Ibis in 1962,
the destroyer escort HMAS Yarra
in 1972-73 and the destroyer
HMAS Vampire in 1978-79.
Staff postings have included Director
of Underwater Weapons,
Follow-on Destroyer Project Officer,
Director of Naval Plans, Director
General Naval Plans and Policy
and President of Officer Selection
Boards. He has also been Director
General, Defence Force Administrative
Policy, and Assistant Chief
of the Defence Force (Policy) at
Australian Defence Force Headquarters.
Appointed Chief of Staff to the
Flag Officer Commanding Support
Command in January 1987, he was
promoted to Rear Admiral on June
29 as Assistant Chief of Naval Staff
(Development) and then to Assistant
Chief of the Defence Force
(Personnel) in December 1988.
Promoted to Vice-Admiral in
September 1989, he took up his
present position as Vice-Chief of
the Defence Force in September,
1989. In April he reaches the top.
It's been an arduous journey up
the ladder from the RAN College
'Never any doubt as to who
is running the show'
and capped off with a unique distinction.
Admiral Beaumont is the
first head of the combined Australian
defence forces who did not get
there after a period as chief of his
particular service.
Announcing Admiral Beaumont's
promotion, the Minister for
Defence, Senator Robert Ray,
summed up much of the reason for
the appointment in noting the
CDF-designate's experience in
heading major reforms in the defence
structure - a process that
some believe will see the abolition
ultimately of the roles of the service
chiefs as control moves more tightly
to ADFHQ.
He also happens to be senior to
the present service chiefs, of whom
the CMS, Admiral MacDougall, has
been in his job just over a year, the
CGS, Lieutenant-General Grey, for
only a few weeks and the CAS-designate,
Air Marshal Gration, not
due to take up his position for another
few weeks.
"It will restore the level playing
field for the service chiefs during
the period we expect Admiral Beaumont
to be CDF [just over two
years if he retires at 60 as is traditional],"
a senior Defence official
said.
"It will give [the service chiefs]
time to settle in and sort out where
their services are headed in the
over-all defence context."
Admiral Beaumont's non-conventional
path to the top Defence
job can be seen as symbolic of the
attempt to weld the three forces
into a coherent entity free of the
Admiral Alan Beaumont, to take up appointment next April as Chief of the Defence Force. Help
Admiral Alan Beaumont, to take up appointment next April as Chief of the Defence Force.
"tribalism" that has sometimes
seen service prerogatives presented
in the past in isolation from the
total need.
Funds forecast to get tighter (at
least -0.5 per cent a year for the next
five years, according to the Budget)
and most of the equipment allocation
committed to just two projects
- new submarines and frigates -
the ADF can ill afford other than
the maximum cooperation between
the forces and the extraction of value
for every dollar spent.
Exposed as he has been to the
higher defence mechanism for several
years, Admiral Beaumont will
move into the job with a firmer
over-all picture of the state of the
ADF.
Not having come through the
traditional lines of advance, the admiral
also owes no particular favours
and can expect less suspicion
in those he will have to command.
"They know him, of course, but
it's always a bit different when rank
gets involved. He has the advantage
of being in the business longer
than they have. Another major factor
working for him is that whereas
a single service chief could be seen
as an outsider and to some extent
snowed a bit, Beaumont's already
been there and comes to it from the
inside."
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