The Indonesian Army Officer Candidate School () located at Bandung, West Java trains, assesses, and evaluates potential

commissioned officers An officer is a person who holds a position of authority as a member of an armed force or uniformed service. Broadly speaking, "officer" means a commissioned officer, a non-commissioned officer, or a warrant officer. However, absent context ...

in the

Indonesian Army The Indonesian Army ( id, Tentara Nasional Indonesia Angkatan Darat (TNI-AD), ) is the land branch of the Indonesian National Armed Forces. It has an estimated strength of 300,000 active personnel. The history of the Indonesian Army has its ...

. Officer candidates are senior NCOs or warrant officers. Completing the Secapaad course is one of few routes of becoming a commissioned officer in the Army.

Overview of the Secapaad

The Secapaad course is a rigorous 20-week, 5-6 month course designed to train, assess, evaluate, and develop officers with rank of

Second lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

within the Army. It is the shortest route on becoming commissioned officers compared to other officer training programs, it is only open to senior enlisted personnel and warrant officers.

History

Historically, Secapaad course is designed to provide numbers of officer especially during the

war of independence This is a list of wars of independence (also called liberation wars). These wars may or may not have been successful in achieving a goal of independence. List See also * Lists of active separatist movements * List of civil wars * List of o ...

. Given the lack of training institutions until late 1945 (with the foundation of the

Indonesian Military Academy The Military Academy ( id, Akademi Militer or ) is a service academy of the Indonesian Army, part of the Indonesian National Armed Forces Academy (). Founded on the early stages of the Indonesian Revolutionary War and located in the city of Mag ...

). the first generation officers of the Army, either trained in the

Koninklijke Militaire Academie The Royal Military Academy ( nl, Koninklijke Militaire Academie or ''KMA'') is the service academy for the Dutch Army, the Dutch Air Force and the Royal Marechaussee. Located in Breda, Southern Netherlands, the KMA has trained future officers sin ...

in Breda before the Second World War or trained in the

Pembela Tanah Air ''Pembela Tanah Air'' (abbreviated PETA; ) or was an Indonesian volunteer army established on 3 October 1943 in Indonesia by the occupying Japanese. The Japanese intended PETA to assist their forces in opposing a possible invasion by the Allies ...

and the Japanese sponsored Heiko or in anti-Japanese guerilla units, began to train selected experienced NCOs to be commissioned as officers with the rank of second lieutenant via either battlefield commissions or meritorious commissions. When the first military academy closed in 1950, the modern day Secapaad began to unite branch-specific system of schools, since at one time there were separate schools each per basic branch, which also served as military academies until 1958 when the military academy was officially reopened in Magelang, Central Java. The Secapaad was established as a secondary center for the training of Army Officers besides the Magelang-based Military Academy. On the initiative of the then Chief of Staff of the Army General

Umar Wirahadikusumah Umar Wirahadikusumah (; 10 October 1924 – 21 March 2003) was an Indonesian politician and former army general, who served as the fourth Vice President of Indonesia, serving from 1983 until 1988. Previously, he was chair of the Audit Board of ...

, on Saturday 8 January 1972 the Army OCS was officially opened to the public with Colonel S. Banoearli as the first commandant, thus officially January 8, 1972 is designated as birthday of the Secapaad. Its Bandung campus also honors the former Military Technical Academy, which was fused into the military academy in 1962, a marker with the names of its top graduates, including that of

30 September Movement The Thirtieth of September Movement ( id, Gerakan 30 September, abbreviated as G30S, also known by the acronym Gestapu for ''Gerakan September Tiga Puluh'', Thirtieth of September Movement) was a self-proclaimed organization of Indonesian Na ...

martyr

Pierre Tendean Pierre Andries Tendean (21 February 1939 – 1 October 1965) was an Indonesian Army lieutenant. He was best known as a victim of the 30th September Movement (G30S) and posthumously awarded as revolution hero, later Indonesian national hero. Early ...

, is located in the campus grounds.

Mission

Secapaad's mission is the educational formation of qualified officers to serve in the performance of the basic responsibilities entrusted to the Army from among the ranks of experienced senior non-commissioned officers of the service.

References

{{authority control Indonesian Army Military academies 1972 establishments in Indonesia Military units and formations established in 1972