Inception of academy fills leadership vacancies

THE inception of the Joint Forces Academy (JFA) has enabled the PNG Defence Force (PNGDF) to fill in vacancies in leadership after the recent downsizing exercise, commander Major Gen Gilbert Toropo says.
Toropo said the PNGDF had undergone a reduction in numbers which saw their military strength down to 2,000 soldiers by the late 2000s and this had predictably seen the need for qualified and professional servicemen needed to fill the leadership gap within the force and other government organisations.
He said the JFA at Igam Barracks in Lae, Morobe, enabled PNGDF to recruit, train and develop the leadership capability and professionalism to fill those gaps.
Toropo made the comments during engineering battalion’s 43rd anniversary at Igam on Sept 1.
He said the force’s numbers had increased to almost 4,000 with new officers replacing the old and aging servicemen.
“It is a concurrent process to recruit, train and develop new leaderships while retrenching old officers as well as building facilities and provisioning equipment to improve our capacity,” he said.
“It will take a while to meet the target of 10,000 soldiers in 2030 as required by the Government.”
Toropo praised Igam’s Sappers for their committed efforts in the frontline of civic action programmes including natural disasters over the last 43 years.
Currently, 300 soldiers are deployed at Madang-Baiyer and Mendi-Tambul helping in building roads.
Other servicemen were deployed to Finschhafen, Morobe, conducting feasibility study for the Lae-Finschhafen highway.
Toropo said the demand for PNGDF engineers was high at the moment to construct roads, bridges, classrooms and health facilities.
He also noted the strong bilateral partnership support from the Australian Defence Force (ADF) that assisted in skills and knowledge training including funding joint exercise activities in country and abroad.
Retired former army commander Brig Gen Ted Diro urged the soldiers to strive for excellence and think intelligently in the execution of their duties and responsibilities.
“Don’t judge the future, instead perform today and influence the future because leadership is in military,” he said.
Diro said the past leadership had faced big challenges when he became nation’s first commander in the mid-1970s but he had used those challenges and expectations to chart a way forward for the PNGDF.