Aide-De-Camp and equerries

Various countries have their own individual traditions regarding the duties of the ADC or equerry to their Commander In Chief. Some countries inherited the practice from their colonial masters (eg, Nigeria inherited it from the British), but they all also have certain things in common.

The ADC is basically a military assistant to a senior officer and the Head of State of a country usually has an ADC because he or she is also the Commander In Chief. The duties of the ADC include assisting the Commander In Chief in both ceremonial (military parades, funerals, etc) and practical duties (eg, advising the Commander In Chief in the event that the country suddenly comes under attack).

Note that an ADC is not a batman or a bodyguard.

Presidents Obasanjo and Clinton with their ADCs. President Clinton's ADC in this picture was a US Marine Colonel, while President Obasanjo's ADC was the late Colonel Solomon Giwa-Amu.




The US President has 5 full time ADCs (one each from the army, navy, air force, marines and coast guard) and 24 part time ADCs. At least one of the full time ADCs is with the President at all times (thus the nickname "elbow man". Since the 1950s the full time ADC has carried the President's Emergency Nuclear Satchel (aka nuclear football) which contains the codes with which the President authorises a nuclear attack. The part time ADCs act as ushers and hosts during activities like state banquets, etc.


US President Jimmy Carter at Dodan Barracks. Beside President Carter is the parade commander. Behind them is the Commander of the (Nigerian) Brigade of Guards, Colonel Mamman Vatsa and beside Vatsa (in white) is President Carter's ADC.



The ADC also acts as the Presidents Personal Assistant when the Personal Assistant is unavailable. The President's ADC is usually of the rank of Lieutenant Colonel or its equivalent.


President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was crippled by polio, but he didn't want the US public to know about it, so he often leaned on his ADC when he had to stand in public (he also used the Secret Service to prevent photographers from taking pictures of him when he was in his wheelchair or had to be assisted in public).

President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his Naval ADC, Captain Daniel J. Callaghan, taking the salute of a composite Battalion of the 14th Infantry at Gatun Locks, Panama Canal Zone, as they were disembarking from USS Tuscaloosa (CA-37) on 18 February 1940. (Daniel Callaghan attained the rank of Rear Admiral before he was killed during the 2nd World War when an enemy shell hit his flagship.



President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his army ADC, Major General Edwin Martin "Pa" Watson. Notice that the President is supporting himself with his cane on his left hand and he has his right hand in his ADC's arm (remember Yar'Adua?). (Roosevelt was usually assisted by his son or his ADC when he had to stand in public).




Edwin Watson served as junior ADC to President Woodrow Wilson and senior ADC to President Roosevelt (he therefore served two wartime presidents).

General Watson and President Roosevelt were very close. The President sometimes spent his holiday in General Watson's house. Remember that I said that the ADC would take over the duties of the President's special assistant or other aides whenever they are unavailable? Well, when Roosevelt's Chief of Staff fell ill he made General Watson his Appointments Secretary. This meant that Watson decided who saw the President and who didn't.

General Watson followed the President everywhere during World War 2. He was at most of the meetings between President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchil and Premier Stalin. He was also (on behalf of the President) in constant touch with most of the famous commanders of World War 2, such as General Dwight Eisnehower, General Douglas MacArthur and Admiral Nimitz.

General Watson attended the Yalta Conference with the President despite the fact that he was in poor health. He suffered a brain hemorrhage during the return journey and died at sea. He was buried at the National Cemetery at Arlington.

The position of Aide-De-Camp to the Queen is a ceremonial position that is usually held by very senior officers. For example, both Prince Philip and Prince Charles are ADCs to the Queen.

What we would call an ADC would be called an equerry in the British system. The equerry to the Queen is usually a colonel or its equivalent rank in the navy and air force (that's where we inherited the practice that the Nigerian President's ADC is usually a colonel).

Johnson Thomas Umanakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi, who later became the first military Head of State of Nigeria, served as the equerry to the Queen when she visited Nigeria in 1956.

Ironsi is seated behind the Queen.
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Nigeria had of course gained its independence by the time that the Queen visited again in 2003, so she came with a British Army equerry.

Queen Elizabeth, President Obasanjo, the Commander of the Brigade of Guards and (behind) the Queen's equerry.

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his marine ADC.

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US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Robert "Buzz" Patterson was Bill Clinton's Air Force ADC from 1996-1998.

In an extremely unusual move, Colonel Patterson wrote a book (after he had retired from the Air Force and Bill Clinton had left the White House) in which he viciously criticised President Clinton (I think it was in this book that he revealed that President Clinton once lost "The Biscuit" [a small notebook that contains the codes for launching a nuclear strike). The book is called, "Dereliction of Duty: Eyewitness Account of How Bill Clinton Compromised America's National Security".

www.nairaland.com/attachments/2473985_51uustkvwfl_ux250_jpeg_jpeg9ec97f2a5912b49b2e8d97a187cc8619

Ecoterrorism:
Baba is old and sick so the ADC is there to give him a mouth to mouth in case the man da Na ala

Lol!

Lieutenant Commander Andrew Canale (Royal Navy) was the Queen's equerry from 2012 - 2015. In the pictures below he helps the Queen to hold a cake that was presented to her by an Asian Women's Group during a visit to Chadwell Heath Community Centre on July 16, 2015 in Chadwell Heath.







Wing Commander Samuel Fletcher (Royal Air Force) is the Queen's current equerry. In the picture below he welcomes Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his family to Buckingham Palace as they arrive to meet the Queen.

President Ronald Reagan and his ADC, Colonel John Kline (US Marines). Colonel Kline is carrying the nuclear football. The nuclear football is a sturdy Halliburton briefcase that contains options for launching a nuclear strike, a code book and a communication system by which the President can transmit his orders to the National Command Centre. The main purpose of the nuclear football is to authenticate that it is actually the President that is giving the order to launch nuclear weapons and to ensure that he can give that order from where ever he is in the world.

The President also carries a small card (called the "biscuit" ) in his pocket. The card contains codes and instructions for using the code book in the nuclear football. Bill Clinton infamously misplaced the biscuit when he was president. The biscuit was also misplaced when President Reagan was shot, but it was later found amongst the President's bloody clothes in a plastic bag at the hospital.

Someone on a Histroy Channel documentary once joked that the President spends more time with the nuclear football than he does with his wife (the First Lady).

Colonel John Kline later became a member of the US House Of Representatives.

President Barrack Obama's former ADC from 2012-2014, US Marine Corp Lieutenant Colonel Lee Meyer (extreme right on the stage) assists the President as he presents medals of honour to military veterans.

Colonel Meyer said that he was told, when he was appointed as the President's ADC, that it's a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week job. “I really realised that I was married when I told my wife that I couldn’t do something she wanted me to do because my president needed me ... and she said that wasn’t a good enough excuse,” said Meyer, who has been married for about a year

The Head of State of Nigeria had 3 ADCs in the early 1960s (one each from the army, navy and air force).


Lieutenant Orhio Esio Obada (retired with the rank of Major General) was President Nnamdi Azikiwe's army ADC, while Michael Adelanwa (retired with the rank of Vice Admiral and became Chief of Naval Staff) was the president's naval ADC.

Lieutenant Sani Bello (retired with the rank of Colonel and became Governor of Kano State) was Major General Ironsi's army ADC, while Lieutenant (retired with the rank of Captain and became a senator) Andrew Nwankwo was Ironsi's air force ADC.