Six Second Lieutenants of the Armed Forces of Malta (AFM) have been promoted to the rank of Lieutenant on completing their 18-month probationary period, according to the Malta Government Gazzette of Friday 20th January, 2012.

Keith Caruana, Rene’ Aquilina, Christian Grech, Matthew Agius, Julian Tonna and James Vella, who have all been serving in Malta with various Units of the AFM, have been promoted to Lieutenant with effect from 4th November, 2011.

These junior officers have throughout their probationary period furthered their training locally and overseas, besides having had opportunities to participate in several training exercises and manouvres to hone their leadership and man-management skills as part of the professional officer career development.

Five Officer-Cadets, Stephanie Debono, Andre` Buhagiar, Matthew Zammit, Mark Mercieca, and James Gauci have also been commissioned in the rank of Second Lieutenant. These former cadets are at present concluding their overseas training portion of their cadetship at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS) in the UK and at the Irish Defence Forces Military College’s Cadets School. 2/Lieut. Mark Mercieca attended the Britannia Royal Naval College (BRNC) in Darmouth.

Further training in the USA and Italy is now already on the cards for these young officers at the start of their career.

The AFM invests continuously in the training and development of its Officer corps. Such promotions and commissions can certainly count to inject new life towards developing the potential for combined operational capabilities.

These young officers’ natural disposition towards balanced judgement through courage, willpower, initiative, knowledge, integrity, self-confidence, enthusiasm and their ability to communicate effectively will help them gain the experience and satisfaction of leadership and command at a young age. With that authority comes a corresponding burden of responsibility, as young officers are expected to supervise the troops’ training so as to lead them on operations, to formally and informally discipline those who venture out-of-line, to administer their soldierly needs, besides genuinely concern themselves with the welfare of their troops.

Permalink: Promotions and Commissions for AFM Junior Officers