Reserve A-stan Tour in 2007; 36 bde

[GO!!!]

Haggis,

Don't get your knickers in a twist. We all know that GO! is firmly on the "other" side when it comes to Reservists. He dislikes them, for various and mostly unfounded reasons, and never passes a chance to take a cheap shot at them. Let it pass, his opinion on the Reserves is not worth debating.

You will notice that in the first sentance of my post that I stated "identical duties...breeding familiarity and respect" in regards to the militia augmentation of units.

It was'nt a cheap shot - so go **** yourself. 

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Like I said, not worth the debate.

On another note, get well soon, sorry to hear about your mishap.

 

[jmackenzie_15]

Okay, well i thought GO!'s post was fair and realistic. Which is what I asked for.

If I was a regF soldier, I would consider reserve types 'lesser' soldiers as anybody would... why wouldnt I, they train a fraction of the time... it only makes sense.Not trying to insult anyone, im a reservist myself, but seriously, considering yourself equal in terms of training, experience and capability is just wrong.Im not trying to point anyone out either, but I seem to get that attitude from soldiers around my own unit that feel as though they are just as well rounded.

I was just curious as to what extent we get singled out or anything... personally I would feel uncomfortable at first being augmented into a regF section full of guys who have probobly known and worked with each other for a significant amount of time before I came along... If I were on the other side I would expect nothing less than 100% day in and day out.

My only concern is that if any of them would be predisposed to just hating reservists, regardless of how they perform. I doubt an attitude like this is common or acceptable, but I have really no idea, as my experience in working with regular force soldiers is limited at best.

Its 2RCR I beleive we'd be working with... assuming I even get selected and survive the process barring freak injury or otherwise.I just like to know as much as possible about the situation before I tackle it and I don't think that is unreasonable.

Anyway, if there are any 2RCR around on the forums, Im going to try my damndest to get the opportunity to work with you.. from my POV its the chance of a lifetime that I really should give my best efforts. Any advice or war stories anyone can give me would be much appreciated and good for conversation  ;D

 

[Shades]

I dunno if your questions have been answered yet I just jumped to the end of the question to let you guys know what happened with us.  In May we started unit pre training for the tour.  At the end of May 41 Brigade  sent us to wainwright and let us sit there.  1PPCLI didn't know about that it wasn't their idea at least.  At the end of Aug we showed up at their lines and did a quick dag and went on the BTE with them.  That was 7 weeks and now on Nov 1st we are doing mission specific training.  So in no way should it be a 6 month workup.  And if your unit plays things right they won't let you rot away in wainwright.  They will get you courses in the time between until you do workup with the regs.

 

[a_beautiful_tragedy]

Remember folks, this is a great opportunity for reserves to prove to the Reg's, we're work hard & put in long days to get on tours such as yourselves.   Great opportunity to work together as opposed to one another.

...ahmen

 

[Haggis]

Haggis,

Don't get your knickers in a twist. We all know that GO! is firmly on the "other" side when it comes to Reservists. He dislikes them, for various and mostly unfounded reasons, and never passes a chance to take a cheap shot at them. Let it pass, his opinion on the Reserves is not worth debating.

It's hard to twist what you don't wear. ;D

My point was not that GO!!! had taken a cheap shot, but was that the Res F leadership of thie unit he mentions should not let that happen and that the Reg F C of C above it shouldn't etiher.

I too have pretty strong opinions WRT Reserves and Regs and have been know to rant about both.  Each has it's strengths (and weaknesses) and IMO both sides have a lot of growing up to do at times.

We're all in the same freakin' Army so we'd better learn to get along!

 

[Jarnhamar]

Remember folks, this is a great opportunity for reserves to prove to the Reg's, we're work hard & put in long days to get on tours such as yourselves

I believe the fact that a reserve team from 33brigade placing 2nd in the cambrian (sp?) patrol in 2004 does a good job of that

GO brought up a good point.  You can find a fault in anyone- like seeing 3 JTF assaulters being unable to put a wiper blade on a van.

I enjoy working with the regular force because of their experience skill and time in. Enjoy the reserves diversity.

Mix the professionalisim and experience  of career soldiers with the diversity of cops, firemen, paramedics, teachers, mechanics, tradesmen and students and you make one hell of a platoon.

 

[KevinB]

Haggis,

Don't get your knickers in a twist. We all know that GO! is firmly on the "other" side when it comes to Reservists. He dislikes them, for various and mostly unfounded reasons, and never passes a chance to take a cheap shot at them. Let it pass, his opinion on the Reserves is not worth debating.

  : 
I think his answer was pretty even handed -- an observation, not a condemnation.
I augmented E Bty Para as a reservist in 93 for their Cyprus roto (only a very few got Somalia)  - I got a tour in the city (Nicosia) as opposed to the reserve Company out in the sticks.  While I had to put up with a lot of crap intially I think I got a better tour than the rest of the reservists -- and saw that I wanted to join the reg's.
  Having seen the Dogfuck with the D Coy (reserve) augmentation to 1VP for Roto11 unfold - and saw indivual augmentees (from D&S) rotate into us while in Afghan -the soldiers rotating in to units will get a better shake, than on the fringe (nature of the beast).

I firmly beleive in individual augmentation and let the soldiers (reg and reserve) stand on their own two feet.

 

[Infanteer]

I firmly beleive in individual augmentation and let the soldiers (reg and reserve) stand on their own two feet.

Until they close up the delta and eliminate this 20 days BS, I agree.

 

[the 48th regulator]

I agree on the integration,

we did that in '94 through out the whole of 1RCR, and we gel and were able towork together.  It was a total bonus for us reservist.

dileas

tess

 

[NS Highlander]

I am also slated for this tour, I was told there would be a five or six month work up in Wainwright. I was wondering what specific training was involved as I have never done this before. Will it focus on OBUA or more basic field craft and section attacks, presumably both. I am just curious as to how the training is to progress. I was wondering if any reg force guys or reservists with experience could comment on this, I would appreciate it immensly.

 

[wack-in-iraq]

True - heck I'm surprised Timmy's does not have a few set up (they have Timmies in Iraq beleive it or not)

I'd love a PSD gig guarding the Timmy's managers - free coffee, low risk (who could brign themselves to kill the coffee guys - I mean really?)

im curious as to where you heard of this, ive been here 10 months and havent seen one.

 

[KevinB]

my bad - one of the other former Patricia's over there sent a pic of him with a timmies doing a run.  Later I found out he simply has Timmy's coffee he brews himself and puts in their cups for photo ops...

 

[Infanteer]

Interesting article on employing Reservists on Operations:

http://www.army.forces.gc.ca/caj/documents/vol_05/iss_4/CAJ_vol5.4_08_e.pdf

The article comes to some interesting conclusions (read the endnotes as well) which I tend to agree with; they support the view that GO!!!, Kevin, the Regulator and myself have expressed on this thread.

 

[Haggis]

Interesting article on employing Reservists on Operations:

http://www.army.forces.gc.ca/caj/documents/vol_05/iss_4/CAJ_vol5.4_08_e.pdf

The article comes to some interesting conclusions (read the endnotes as well) which I tend to agree with; they support the view that GO!!!, Kevin, the Regulator and myself have expressed on this thread.

This article was written in the winter of 2002.  It supports the view from 2 R22eR BG (Roto 10) at the time.  Nothing more.  Now I'm not saying that I don't agree with you.  In fact I feel that Afghanistan is not quite ready for formed Reserve sub-units (and vice versa) but a time will come when it is. 

Three more company sized rotos have deployed to Bosnia since this article went to press (while Roto 11 was in country), each learning from the previous, but none were able to overcome the onerous administration and training bill that lay before them.  Rather than condemning the collective employment of Reservists, the approach should be to fix the system that prepares them for deployment.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

Ok, at our company O Group I asked if this was all priviliged info and apparently it has made the newspapers so...our reserve regiment is currently looking at sending a company-sized task force in late 2007 to objective unknown; hopefully Afghanistan - if we are needed there; Haiti has been suggested as well as some other places.  But training etc. is being put in place to have a company drawn and badged from a single reserve regiment out on an operation, or at least that is how I understand it.  The commander of LFWA visited two different armouries tonight for a question and information session with the local regiments; he seemed to support the idea based on his answers to some of the queries.

I have no idea if it will go, but there are some pretty excited people.  Even if it doesn't happen with us, I feel it is bound to happen at some point if the CF keeps going in the direction of more responsibilities for reserve units, which is how the last couple of Q&A sessions with LFWA officers have gone.

 

[cbt arms sub tech]

Cpl Dorosh,

Can you give any more insight on the General's talk last night at Mewata, missed his presentation, wish his notes were posted.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

Cpl Dorosh,

Can you give any more insight on the General's talk last night at Mewata, missed his presentation, wish his notes were posted.

I was actually late and incorrectly dressed; word didn't get down to me he'd be there so I only caught the last few minutes of the question and answer period.  Went as it always does; the Highlanders hogged the general's time, complained we don't have enough machineguns, bitched about the shitty job the ASC does of supporting us and complained some more about how the planning for career courses is chaotic. The General, for his part, looked like a guy who pisses standing up; took names, promised answers, and confessed to stuff he didn't have control over.  No great shakes.  For full details you'll have to talk to someone who was there for the whole thing.   The questions we raised were all legitimate - the KOCR raised the same kinds of questions, especially about employability of armoured troops with regular force units as augmentees given the disparity in equipment now.  There were only KOs and Highlanders there, he went to talk to the Svc Bn, Engineers and presumably Sigs up at the NE Armouries after leaving us.

Only disturbing thing was he talked about taking us from our home at Mewata and into a brand new building to accommodate all the reserve units in Calgary.  Didn't like that at all; our footprint as it were has always been Mewata; for freedom of the city parades we march out our front door - don't get closer to the community than that!

 

[cbt arms sub tech]

Thanks for your help, appreciate your time & effort, hope all is well...So many questions to ask, sometimes wish LFWA had a forum such as this, where real answer were given.

 

[Kendrick]

Hey at least you guys know who, where, when, and with who a tour is going.  All they tell us around here is "Yeah k theres a huh... tour, starts in january... anyone up for that?"  That's all the info we get.  It's like a lottery or something.  You never know whatcha gonna get.

We give our names, and then we never hear about it again.  S'about how it goes.