Actually, I had a very hard time coming up with concrete figures from NDHQ as well. So, I went to the source, and asked a few friends in NDHQ to do some digging for me. Actually, getting numbers for ranks is not that hard, if you're on the DND mail system. Do a sort by rank thingy. I'm not on the system, so I can't explain it, but there is a way to do it.
For the non-aware among us, since Hellyers days as MND, NDHQ is run as a dual system. All military staff are mirrored by civilian staff. For example, for every General with his staff, there is a civilian General equivalent (getting the same pay and perks) with his staff. One problem is that when we cut the military Generals down to under 80, we didn't cut the civilian equivalents, so now there are over 200 Generals and equivalents, plus their staffs. Now take that for the Colonels and their equivalents, and you can see how NDHQ has become so bloated. The 12,000 figure is the number of civilians and military personnel on the parade strength of NDHQ. BTW, the civilians get paid from the military budget, of course.
Think we should start another thread?
I seem to be hijacking this one.......