Shut out from the top job for more than a little while now, the Navy won the number two spot in the Canadian Forces with the announcement earlier today that Rear-Admiral Denis Rouleau (right) will become the vice-chief of defence staff (VCDS) when the incumbent, Walt Natynczyk, becomes the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) upon Rick Hillier's retirement next month.
Both Hillier and Natynczyk are army guys — tankers, to be precise — and the guy who held the CDS job before those two was Ray Henault, an air force guy. The guy before that? Maurice Baril, an army guy. It was the guy before Baril, Larry Murray, who was the last navy guy to hold the CF's top job.
I'm told that the idea of rotating the top job among the services — army, navy, air force — is now a bit quaint. After all, the CF is mostly made up of ground forces and so wouldn't that be where you'd expect to find all the leadership talent?
In any event: Rouleau will be promoted to Vice-Admiral to take the number two job — a decent consolation job for the navy which is going through some issues of its own right now.
The change of command ceremony putting Rouleau into his new job will take place on June 24.