Comm Rsch & Int Questions

[kas]

Hello,

I've got a couple questions that I haven't been able to find answers to on this site, the official recruiting site, or from talking to the local comm reserves recruiter.

Are there comm research officers? If so, is there a DEO option or what path do you have to take to become one? If not, who do they work under? Both the Sig O and Int O descriptions on the official recruiting site seem to make reference to sigint.

I would eventually like to end up an officer in the reg force doing some type of work related to intelligence or comm research. In the meantime, I am reapplying to the reserves and there are no int op or comm rsch op positions locally, so I'm at a bit of a loss as to which trade to go with until I'm done university (again!). My vision category is V4, so that rules out all the combat arms trades. Can anyone suggest some viable alternatives, either NCM or DEO, that would provide relevant experience?

Thanks again,

Kas.

 

[291er]

There are no comm rsch officers.  Sig and CELE officers work with us, but not a vast majority of them.  Even fewer Int O's work with us though, except on deployed ops.  I would say your best bet would be Int O if you want to work with intelligence-related work.  Comm Rsch (000120) is the way to go otherwise, I'm not sure of the actual number of Sig and CELE Officers that get to work with us, but I would bet that it's not a particularly high percentage.  Maybe someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Journeyman]

Both CELE and Int officers may have contact with CommRsch during their careers, but neither is dedicated full-time to working with rubberheads er, CommRsch personnel. You may work with them at the tactical level, but there are only so many Electronic Warfare line serials to go around, so it's a crap shoot - - you may end up applying for Sigs, hoping for a posting to Kingston, only to get told you're going to be the Base Telecom O in Cold Lake. You may also be associated through Leitrim, but again, there are no guarantees.

As Ex-Fus said, you probably have a better chance staying with SIGINT as an Int O, rather than Sigs, but that's just because signals is one of the key, but limited, information sources for intelligence analysis. Both classifications live in the Information Operations world though, so both are likely to be 'growth industries' for the foreseeable future.

Now, as for which Reserve route will serve you best.....your profile doesn't say where you are, or what Reserve options are available wherever you're going to school, or what university program you are in, so there's not much advice can be given without 'transmitting blind.'

 

[EW]

Kas,

The previous posts about Comm Rsch and Int/CELE officers were bang on.  If you want to work in SIGINT as an officer you have two options;  either go direct entry (or the school route) into CELE and work your way towards the Canadian Forces Information Group (CFIOG) or the EW Squadron in Kingston, or you can join as Comm Rsch and if you show potential you can work towards your commission as a CELE / Int officer.  If you go the direct route, than it is indeed a crap shoot as to whether you will end up at CFIOG or the EW Sqn.  The odds are against you.  If you go the NCM route and do commission as CELE or INT (and both officer branches are open to commissioning from the ranks (CFR) from Comm Rsch) there is a good chance that you will end up back with SIGINT after the perquisite training, and maybe some employment outside of SIGINT to round you out as an officer.

As for the reserves, the Comm Rsch trade just stood up a reserve component in 2005, but 2006 will likely be a growth year.  Of course your location would depend if you can take advantage of that opportunity.  If you have any language skills (other than English/French) that may be attractive to the CF.

Regards,

19 years Comm Rsch, and don't regret a moment of it.

 

[kas]

Thanks very much for the info, it's exactly the sort of feedback I was looking for.

I realize I didn't give much background info for you guys to go by when suggesting reserve trades, so hopefully the following will help narrow things down some. I currently have a BSc in Computing Science, am working on a BA in International Relations, and am considering doing an MA in Strategic Studies next. I also speak German fluently and French not so fluently. As far as I'm aware, going by the trade list I got from the reserves office and the minimum medical standards pdf posted in the recruiting forum, the trades available locally to people with V4 vision include:

Vehicle Tech
Weapons Tech
Medical Assistant
RMS Clerk
Cook
Supply Tech
Sig Op
LCIS Tech
EME O
CELE

Oi... I didn't realize I was disqualified from so many trades. Maybe I should consider getting my eyes fixed after all. =/

Kas.

 

[kas]

Edit: It's amazing the questions that can be answered by using the Search function. I should know better by now. ;D Moving on!

Would the above comments about CELE officers also be relevant to Sig Os? They seem to perform much the same job just in different environments? I am also still somewhat confused why CELE is on my list and Sig O isn't, considering there's no Air reserve here, but that's probably more a question for the local recruiter than the forums.

Thanks again,

Kas.

 

[muffin]

why CELE is on my list and Sig O isn't, considering there's no Air reserve here

CELE is not an Air trade - it is a Land trade, and CELE=Sig O does it not?

Maggie

 

[Journeyman]

CELE is not an Air trade - it is a Land trade, and CELE=Sig O does it not?

Maggie

CELE (Communications and Electronics Engineering) and Sig O (Signals Officer) are the same. Sig O was the Army term, and I don't recal what the Air Force called their Jimmy's; there were a large number on the early warning radar lines (DEW, Pinetree, Cadin). When we became one happy, unified, disfunctional family, they merged. The compromise was adopting a common name, CELE, because so many of the Air Force people didn't "do" signals. So .....CELE=SigO, in both the Air and Land.

 

[kas]

Thanks for the clarification on terminology.

I've been researching the trades on my list a few posts back and it looks to me like the only directly relevant one would be CELE. Sig Op may or may not have any relevance, but it's at least a move in the right direction and might make a good second choice.

Thank you all again for your help,

Kas.

 

[291er]

I don't think you can combine NCM and Officer trades in your choices.  I thought you could apply as an Officer or an NCM, but not both.  Someone please correct me if I am wrong.

Also, Sig Ops don't normally work with anything intelligence related, as far as I know.  They certainly don't work with too many things related with Comm Rsch, except with regards to EW.  There may be the odd one, but I would assume that the majority does their own thing.  Maybe a Sig Op can correct me, I'm just looking at this from a fairly new 291er point of view.

 

[Arctic Acorn]

Kas,

You would more than qualify as a Res Int Op, provided you're near one of the Companies/Dets (Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Edmonton). It is also a V4 trade, and one that recruiting centres sometimes forget about ("Oh, those Int people never look for anyone...").

Coming in as a Res Int NCM off the street can pretty quickly lead to a commission in the Regs, if you decide that the Branch is a good career choice for you. The 'Mo is also a good backdoor to the branch (To the Branch, the Int Reserve is more or less a a pool of proven operators who are already cleared & trained. They poach from us, but also rely on us to make up for deployment position shortfalls).

At the very least, you could contact one of the Res units and inquire about coming in to see what goes on. I can't speak for the other units, but I know 3 Int in Halifax is very approachable that way. If you're in NS, just PM me and I can get you the Recruiters phone #

:dontpanic: