John Baker (general)

General John Stuart Baker, (24 February 1936 – 9 July 2007) was an Australian army general. Entering the Australian Royal Military College, Duntroon in 1954, he rose to the most senior position in the Australian Defence Force before retiring 44 years later on 7 August 1998. Some of his many significant achievements and appointments included Chief of the (Australian) Defence Force from July 1995 to July 1998, inaugural Director of the Defence Intelligence Organisation from 1990 to 1992, and author of the highly influential 1988 "Baker Report".

Career
Baker joined the Australian Army in 1954, where he graduated from the Royal Military College, Duntroon in 1957, enlisting with the Royal Australian Engineers corps later graduating from the University of Melbourne with a degree in civil engineering.

His first regimental posting was a one-year appointment in Papua New Guinea, and not long after he spent a year in Hawaii as an exchange officer. In 1970–1971 he was attached to the 1st Australian Civil Affairs Unit during the Vietnam War, where he was Mentioned in Despatches. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 1971, Colonel in 1979, Brigadier in 1982, Major General in 1987 and General in 1995.

The Baker Report
In 1987, the then Chief of the Defence Force, General P. C. Gration, tasked the then Brigadier Baker to: "conduct a study of the existing ADF command arrangements in order to recommend further development to meet likely requirements into the 21st century for both low and high levels of operations."One of the principal aims of this study was to determine the optimal command arrangements for ADF air power. The final report, commonly referred to as the Baker Report, was published in March 1988. Despite extensive reference being made to the command and control challenges posed by air power, Baker did not provide definitive guidance on how the ADF should structure its command arrangements to optimise the development and employment of air power. However, Chapter 7 of the report strongly advocated the creation of NORCOM, a recommendation that was soon adopted by the ADF.

"The Baker Report" remains the seminal work on command and control in the ADF.

Honours and awards








Notes:
 * 1) The oak leaf for Mention in Despatches is not worn on the ribbon bar after the award of a superior medal, in this case the Distinguished Service Medal. (However, the oak leaf is worn on the ribbon of the medal when the full set of medals are worn. )
 * 2) All images of him show a significant delay between an award and his wearing a ribbon, and some were not worn at all. The medals displayed at his funeral do not show a medal for the Order of Australia, the Australian Defence Medal or the Darjah Utama Bakti Cemerlang. However, the badges for Companion of the Order of Australia (Military Division), and for the Darjah Utama Bakti Cemerlang, are shown. Note also that both the medal of the US Legion of Merit, and the badge of the Commander of the Legion of Merit are shown.

Portrait
During General Baker's tenure as Chief of Defence Force, the Royal Australian Engineers arranged for his portrait to be painted by leading Australian 20th century artist, Sir William Dargie. The portrait (1997) hangs at the RAE's School of Military Engineering in Sydney, but was also used at General Baker's funeral in Canberra at the Royal Military College, Duntroon in 2007.

General John Baker Complex - HQJOC
On 7 March 2009 the Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, officially opened the "General John Baker Complex", housing the Headquarters Joint Operations Command (HQJOC) from which joint command of the Australian Defence Force is exercised by the Chief of Joint Operations (CJOPS). The complex is some 25 km from the national capital, Canberra, on the Kings Highway about half-way between the towns of Queanbeyan and Bungendore. After Mr Rudd named the complex, Mrs Margaret Baker unveilled a bronze bust of General Baker. The bust was sculpted by Hal Holman.