At the risk of derailing this thread and, thereby, discussing something that matters, I would like to share some anecdotal evidence ...
:trainwreck:
Many years decades in the past, when I was a junior officer, the adjutant was sent away on a course and I was appointed Acting Adjutant for several weeks. I was (barely) qualified in that I had passed promotion exams which had required me to demonstrate some familiarity, or more, with unit administration and discipline.
In the lead up to my new job the adjutant and I worked together for a week. On the first day I arrived in his office to find a second desk, for me, and four rather daunting piles of books and papers: QA(Army) (QR&O, today), Canadian Army Orders, in their bright red covers, (CFAOs or whatever you call them today), Adjutant General's Instructions (AGIs) (I'm not sure what they're called today but they were all the rules governing military personnel and a few regarding civilian personnel, too) and Quartermaster General's Instructions (QMGIs) (I'm not sure what they're called now, either, but they, like AGIs, were orders, not guidance that bound our CO on supply matters.) There were, of course, also Financial Orders but, thankfully, there was a paymaster in every unit who helped the CO (and Adjutant) with those.
"You must know these, ERC, said the Adjutant; know and understand, in detail, before I leave.
Can anyone imagine being told to "know," in detail, CFAOs (or whatever they are)?
There, of course, was the first difference between the well managed Canadian Army, in the 1960s, and what is, in my opinion a mismanaged, indeed over-managed CF fifty years later:
1. QR(Army) were about the same size as your QR&O except that Vol II (discipline) was thinner because we cared much more for military justice than we did for military law. I was, already, fairly familiar with QR(Army) as they were examined - all three volumes - on promotion exams;
2. CAOs came in bright red hard covered ring binders - only about 9" high - and they contained ALL the orders that the Chief of the General Staff needed to give to commanders of commands, areas, formations (brigades) and units. They were thick binders - about 4" thick, as I recall - but there were only two of them and neither was full, so I had, maybe, four or five inches of reading;
3. AGIs and QMGIs each came in one (fairly thick) file folder each - maybe 2 to 3" of reading overall.
That was it - all that a CO really needed to "know." Of course there were instructions and regulations and such for the QM and the Dentist and the RCEME Officer and, and, and ... but while they were, indeed, regulations, we were all taught, during officer training, that with a few notable exceptions (care and custody of drugs by the MO or cyphers by the SigO, for example) they were not binding on a CO ~ rather the intention was, as it should have been, to tell the QM and Catering Warrant Officer and MO etc how to best do their special jobs in normal circumstances - in abnormal circumstances, emergencies, those specialists, and all officers and soldiers, would look to the CO to give real orders that would be suitable for the situation.
Several years later I took command of my own Regiment:
1. QR&Os were still there - a bit thicker and in new covers but, still, essentially the same;
2. CAOs (all two volumes) had been replaced by a whole bookcase that was 2/3 full of CFAOs - no one, certainly not my smart, well trained, experienced adjutant knew what was in them all.
3. When I visited the QM, I discovered that he, too, had a full bookcase of orders and the adjutant had a filing cabinet full of "personnel" orders.
I no longer had a paymaster - but I did have two sets of conflicting orders on finances: one from my own command HQ and another from the Base Comd )(I was a "lodger" on another command's base).
As it happened I had occasion to protest something from command HQ and I measured all the orders - it came, as I recall, to 17 linear feet of orders! It was, I suggested to the great and the good, arrant nonsense to expect a unit to conform to such a monster. The commander, a doughty old soldier named J.J. Paradis, agreed and, formally, reminded all commanders, COs and, especially, staff officers that we were to be "guided" by the umpteen feet of bumph in our offices and that and we commanders commanded our formations and units in accordance with the (very few) well established principles that had been handed down to us and the (even fewer) direct orders he issued from time to time.
In my opinion the CF, led by the many able, intelligent, diligent staff officers in HQs at all levels, needs to have a book burning: those smart, industrious staff officers need to examine every damned rule and regulation and ask: "Why?" When, most often, there will be no good answer that staff officer needs to go up his chain of responsibility suggesting that this that and the other regulation is unnecessary and should be rescinded. I understand that is a HUGE effort but staff officers are there to help their own commanders and his or her subordinate commanders by relieving them of detail, not adding to it.
Edit: spelling
but I wish you weren't. 
