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UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES REGIMENT ASSOCIATION( Last updated : Monday, 24 September 2007 11:26 )
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Major General Paul A. Cullen AC CBE DSO ED ( 13 Feb , 1909 - 18 Sep , 2007 )
From the forward by General Peter Cosgrove AC, MC: Major-General Paul Cullen may be 95 years old, but he still displays the tenacity, frankness and dignity he showed as an eminent military commander in the Second World War. He was a gallant wartime leader who got the job done but he never spared himself to look after his men. The biography of Major-General Paul Cullen covers many decades of achievement, concern for community and a never-say-die attitude by one man. It is an engaging story, one that reflects the experiences that shaped Australia during the last century. Paperback: 224 pages Publisher: Rosenberg (March 2005) Language: English ISBN-10: 1877058289 ISBN-13: 978-1877058288 Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces
" General Paul Cullen was 96 last February and is one of only two or three surviving World War II combatant battalion commanders. He later commanded the 14th Infantry Brigade in the CMF and was deputy commander of the 1st Division during the ill-fated Pentropic experiment of the early 1960s. After promotion to major general he was commander of Communications Zone Forces and CMF member of the Military Board. As founder of the CMF Association (now the Defence Reserves Association), and thorn in the side for five decades to numerous politicians, bureaucrats and not least Chiefs of General Staff and then Army, ............................ After the war Cullen, ever an innovative thinker in any field of endeavour, formed the CMF’s first OCTU, with authority if not, at first, with official authorisation, by re-tasking his brigade headquarters defence platoon. ................ Cullen has championed the cause of the reservist soldier, and the associated concept of “twice a citizen”, for six decades. His retirement from active reserve status in 1966 gave him the time to form the CMF Association in 1970, as the first of the representative groups now needed to protect the interests of serving members of the ADF in a political climate often detached from informed debate on national security issues. However, Cullen’s ability to lobby politicians, and on occasion to provide advice at variance with the desires of many but not all Army Chiefs, was always well meant but not always conducive to eliminating the twoarmy tribal exceptionalism nurtured by too many on both sides of the regular versus reserve debate. Full integration of the Army’s full-time and part-time capabilities was always inevitable as the needs of force modernisation, changes in Australian society and evolving contemporary warfare, destroyed forever the 3rd AIF model on which the CMF and early Army Reserve force structure and culture was based. ....................
......................... FROM : Paul Cullen, Citizen and Soldier: The Life and Times of Major General Paul Cullen AC, CBE, DSO*, ED by Kevin Baker (reviewed by Neil James)
A Military Service for the late General Cullen will be held at Victoria Barracks, Paddington on Wednesday 26th September 2007 commencing at 10.30 a.m.
Dress: Service or lounge suit and medals should be worn.
The Service will be followed by a Private Cremation. An extract from a draft of the UNSWR Regimental History , to be published by UNSWRA :
For many years a non-commissioned officer or a Warrant Officer in the Citizen Military Forces (CMF), now known as the Army Reserve, could become a commissioned officer upon the recommendation of their Commanding Officer and provided they passed two practical examinations, generally conducted over one weekend. Tested were the ability to orally present satisfactory solutions to tactical problems at infantry platoon level, weapons handling tests and basic instructional ability.[r & K1]
Some Units would provide coaching for officer candidates although attendance at formally conducted courses outside of parent Units was not universally required.
Changes began with the appointment in 1954 of Brigadier P.A. Cullen, DSO & Bar, ED[i] as the Commander 14th Infantry Brigade which had its headquarters in Newcastle. During his term as the brigade commander, Cullen reformed the brigade headquarters defence platoon into an organisation to conduct training specially designed to address a shortage of officers and to enhance the training standard of soldiers who would be commissioned.[ii]
In October 1963, by which time Cullen was a Major General and Commander Communications Zone, he raised a Unit known as the Officer Training Cadre which was absorbed in 1964 into the Eastern Command Officer Training Corps as part of the Command and Staff Training Unit.[iii][r & K2]
Similar organisations were adopted in other States and became known as Officer Cadet Training Units (OCTUs). Together with university regiments, the OCTUs by 1974 became the principal source of officers for the CMF. Concurrent courses were adopted by most Units with syllabi based on the Officer Cadet School, Portsea for Regular Army members and the by then former Officer Training Unit, Scheyville for National Service members.[iv]
The courses conducted by the OCTUs extended over about 20 months. In addition to home assignments, an Officer Cadet attended 16 training weekends and four two-week camps. Although the syllabi were the same as for the OCTUs, courses in the university regiments were tailored fit in with university breaks.[r & K3]
[i] Major General P.A. Cullen, AC, CBE, DSO & Bar, ED who was CMF Member of the Military Board December 1964 – February 1966.
[ii] Kevin Baker, Paul Cullen – Citizen and Soldier, Rosenberg Publishing, 2005, pp 179 – 181
[iii] Order of Parade for the graduation of Numbers 63 & 64 Courses, Officer Cadet Training Unit 2nd Training Group, 15th March 1997. The parade also marked the closure of the Unit which was disbanded on 31st March 1997.
[iv] T.B. Millar, Report, Committee of Inquiry into the Citizen Military Forces, AGPS, Canberra, March 1974, p. 20.
[r & K1]Verify that there was no other exam. [r & K2]Also look at AAJ No. 176 (Jan 1964 at the RUSI Library.
Jewish
digger dies, aged 99
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