RADOPSIGOPACISSOP said:
I'm hardly a dinosaur or an empire builder, much to the opposite, I've been doing my best to carve out the future role for the IST sub-occ and foster this fledgling profession.
I absolutely agree with you on a lot of things. I think the roles for the core have essentially been gutted, or are perceived by some in the core occ to have been gutted. I've had a number of arguments with senior core tradespeople that their job encompasses a lot more than setting up satellite terminals, setting up mod, or doing reports and returns on a radio.
From my perspective all core should receive basic networking since everything is going to require it, from CNR E to MCR to all the TACCOMM side. As well I think the core should inherit the help desk roles. A lot of the radios and TCCS systems that we learned on are replaced with TACNET terminals, and the frontline configuration and support of that should be core roles.
I'm apprehensive on where they are going with the future training. In my perspective all the sub occs lost a lot of knowledge when they created the initial training packages. The LSTs coming out of CFSCE aren't up to the same standard as the older line techs, nor are the CSTs anywhere up to the same standard as the LCIS techs. Even on the core side, the knowledge of radio theory is nowhere approaching what I and likely you did when we went through QL3 or 5. That said, the senior leaders in those sub occs have good understanding of their trade and as long as they don't get pushed to minimizing the training time like they have in the past I think good improvements will be made.
My concern is that for the IST side, the most senior trades people that make the calls lack the fundamental knowledge of C2IS and IT fundamentals. They never were deep into IT and often don't have industry experience to fill those knowledge gaps. They get pulled in by buzz words and sales pitches. I only see a few at the higher levels that have a fundamental understanding of what it is we have today and where the technology is going. My hope is that we continue to push those with knowledge up into those decision making roles.
The first thing I said when I heard about ACISS is that we'll never really know if this works for 20 years. Its going to take that long to take our first DP1.0 pure ACISS to CWO, and see if they can function.
I hear you about the IST training, but I think we're going in the right direction. The intent I got from the townhall was that they want a lot more industry engagement/packages, which makes the training far more agile and up to date without having to go through the shitshow that is CTC Standards. The education vice training focus intrigued me, as I have used a similar approach on a daily basis. I have a 2 year College networking diploma, but I can apply those skills as a Core member because instead of memorizing quick fixes for common faults, I view our tacrad systems as a network, and the troubleshooting can follow by looking it at as an IST would, vice memorizing those IAs and Stoppages.
The only thing I can see with pushing more helpdesk roles down to Core, is that PYs will bleed that way as well, probably cutting into your minimums required to support the larger networks we tend to employ now. This could also be where ACISS could shine, where you have 4 Cpl/Pte Core, and 2 MCpl Core/IST with Sgt IST as a helpdesk section. Those MCpls are interchangeable as really they only need leadership skills, and perhaps one as a pure IST for technical expertise, and the Sgt as pure IST as the final advisor to the Tp Comd. You now have the trade working as intended, where sub occs and Core can be there together, solving issues.
We won't get rid of the older folks without IS/IT skills for another few years. That'll be when the giant FRP bubble hits, and we lose 50% of our CWO/MWOs in a short timespan. We're starting to get computer literate folks into the right spots, which will help situations.
For those trolling about berets and marches: The ask was pushed from the Army, and D RCCS stated that his recommendation was we wear it if all other branches (Sigs, Engineers, 2 others I can't remember), but if not if we're not all going to go to it, it should be killed. You're also implying they can't possibly have 2 tasks at once, which you know in Sigs is completely impossible for a Signaller to be focused on only a single task at a time.
op:
