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This is both inevitable and arguably correct. With the passage of time, the requirement inevitably changes, adjusting to current circumstances. It remains vital to provide a young man or woman with the best possible relevant grounding in the profession of arms, inculcating basic knowledge and skills required to produce all-purpose infantry platoon commanders responsible for the lives and welfare of a number of their peers, and providing a basis upon which to build careers as they proceed, via special-to-arm training, up the chain of command. Clearly, the "rites of passage" must be frequently up-dated.

The training of future officers is also a tempting subject that periodically attracts attention in the media, both for better and for worse. That, too, is perfectly proper. Armed Forces are extremely expensive entities, and the taxpayer and his watchdogs have  a  right  to  express  a  view, however extreme, impracticable and (some-times, alas) muddle-headed.

The latest effusion was 'The Rupert factory's smart Alecs" in The Times High-er Educational Supplement (18 Feb), although many of its arguments were fully refuted in the correspondence it inspired.

It can be claimed that a country receives the Army, as well as the government, it deserves - or can just about afford. At the present time, the Armed Forces of the Crown are popular with the public at large. Only a year ago, a Gallup Poll in The Daily Telegraph revealed that the public placed them ahead of even the Monarchy itself, and decidedly higher than the Church, the law, education, the media, and (predictably last on the list) politicians of every hue and creed. The on going agonies of Options for Change and its successors have evoked more popular sympathy than might have been expected for the regular and territori-al forces of the Queen.

Sympathy, however, "butters no parsnips" as we say in the North; and further cuts, economies and "rationalisa-tions" are seemingly inevitable as the so-called "peace dividend" is squeezed of its very last drop. It was surely ever thus. Every major war won - whether "world" or "cold" - is loudly proclaimed the last large-scale confrontation of his-tory.

There may be "little wars", "police actions", "operations-short-of-war" to come (and don't we already know it), but the era of all-embracing Armaged-don is over for ever - or so we are con-stantly assured by our political masters.

Really? Such bold claims have clear-ly proved wholly erroneous in the past. How wise, but seemingly totally unac-ceptable today, was the Roman adage:
"If you would have peace, prepare for war."

Dynamic change, then, is the lot of the Serviceman and his training institu-tions, as weapons and every type of equipment constantly change (today, especially electronics), generation after generation, and even within generations. So where, then, does officer training stand today?

After a third of a century on the acad-emic staff at RMAS I have seen and par-ticipated in my fair share of adjustments, re-thinks and changes of direction. As  a rough  rule-of-thumb, major upheavals come round about once every five years. It would be pointless to enu-merate them here. Suffice to say that, appointed in 1960, I was fortunate to come in on the crest of the current wave- of change (the two-year course, with four of the six terms largely devoted to academic work performed, from 1961, in five departments by almost 90 lectur-ers, carried out in three identical Col-leges). 

Today - six upheavals later - there is a one-year Commissioning Course, just two of the original academic depart-ments left (plus the new "Communica-tions"), barely one-third the academic staff, and two Colleges. The military side has also changed significantly.

To a relatively innocent lecturer like myself, it seemed that every time the MoD found one or more senior officers at something of a loose end it would decree "another look at officer training and edu-cation" as a whole and set up a new com-mittee.

Its members would visit Sandhurst for a day (including a sumptuous lunch following the routine briefings) and then go away to produce, in due course, a new report directed at the reform of officer training as a whole, but with the proviso that the process must logically "start at the bottom first", that is to say with Sandhurst.

"Leaner, cheaper and smaller" has been the invariable cry. To be fair, CAROT was something of a novelty in the 1980s: it insisted on moving right into Sandhurst for a disconcerting (to the locals) six months. But the outcome was the same: a year-and-a-half of immense upheaval - only to be overtaken, once the new course was beginning to settle down, by the demand from a new 'senior management" in Whitehall for (have you guessed?) "another close look": "one more heave and we'll have it right once and for all".

Ah! The times I have heard those senti-ments expressed! So, of course, allegedly, had Gaius Petronius Arbiter in c.65 AD. His words of worldly wisdom are worth repeating:

"We trained hard - but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form into teams, we would be reorganised. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganising - and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress."

What "new situation" does Sandhurst face today, and what may be the requirements of the 21st Century officer?

"The Threat" has certainly changed rather than receded, as I wrote recently in the national press. We continue to live in "interesting times", in the words of the ancient Chi-nese curse. Vigilance and pre-paredness will be as vital as ever before. Much at Sandhurst is now of excellent val-ue. The new one-year course (in which the training of British and overseas gradu-ates and non-graduates, men and women, is carefully com-bined in both the companies and the seminar rooms) is proving a notable success. Leadership training - the essential requirement - is first class. The ability to commu-nicate is ably instilled.

The older academic departments - War Studies and Defence and Internation-al Affairs - do a most profes-sional job in preparing the minds of successive generations of Officer Cadets and Young Officers for the multi-faceted challenges that lie ahead, above all encouraging them to think clearly and posi-tively for themselves. This is achieved despite the short time available (about 17 per cent of the programme).

The lecturers' occasional publications also receive regular national and international acclaim, adding still further to Sandhurst's repu-tation.

These will all remain vital tasks: even if one day all entrants should be graduates (today the proportion app-roaches 70 per cent), few will have studied these subjects before, and firm groundings are essential.

The requirements of Mars and Minerva must be afford-ed equal attention - ideally in the context of an 18-month course.

But whatever the challenge, Sandhurst and its charges will indubitably rise to the occa-sion, as always in the past.