For twenty-eight years the Army Journal — and the Army Training Memorandum even before it — has provided an effective forum for the sharing of experience and the exchange of ideas. The contribution it has made to our professional thinking can be measured by its unbroken record of editions published, and also by the fact that, during a period of the Army’s history notable for major changes, it has always been abreast of the latest developments.
The active support of its contributors has always been an essential feature of the Journal’s success. They have offered their views, often supported by thought provoking argument, on a wide variety of topical subjects. Through the selective presentation of articles, not always from members of the Army, the Journal has been instrumental in fostering a greater knowledge and wider understanding of the profession of arms.
Now, however, it is not enough for us to limit ourselves to matters of interest primarily within our own Service. The Army is but one arm of a Defence Force that has, as one of its aims, the achievement of closer working relationships between the Navy, the Army and the Air Force, The aim does not imply that we will lose our identity as soldiers, but it does require us to acquire a better understanding of our two sister Services. It is in this respect that I look on this — the final edition of the Journal — as but a stepping stone to a wider field of professional military expression in the Defence Force Journal.
I congratulate the editors, staff and contributors for making the Army Journal an achievement of which they, and the Army as a whole, can be justifiably proud. Their combined efforts have set a fine example for its successor.
Lieutenant General A. L. MacDonald, CB, OBE
Chief of the General Staff
