Reserves Desperate For More Officers-Article

[enfield]

Regarding attracting ex-reg Force personnel, I know that unit recruiters trip over themselves to get these guys in, if they find them.
In my personal experience, in my own unit, ex-Regulars end up in key positions and have, in the past few years, been essential to running the regiment.
Do the Loyal Eddies have any kind of formal or informal program to attract ex-PPCLI? They seem to be famous for being full of ex-Regs.
Talking to serving Regs and Regs that have transferred into the Res, they don‘t really know much about the Reserves - mostly just negative rumours. As long as Regs see the Res as a mickey-mouse version of the real thing, they won‘t want to join.

Part of the problem that I‘ve seen with Officers is that you really dont need that many - with a couple platoons as part of one Coy in most units - but if a captain or Major decides to leave for whatever reason, your left hanging. I know my unit seems to have a glut of OCdts and 2Lt‘s, but above Lt there‘s very few.

 

[Bill Green]

To my recce colleaques,

Well it wouldn‘t be the first time I‘ve been accused of having no sense of humour. But what really gets to me is when I hear capable and professional soldiers talking about "babysitting" and "know nothings" to fill an officers mess. I wonder if you heap the same scorn on the recruits who are seeking to serve their country-I think not but alot of them read these pages and I for one don‘t want to discourage any of them.

From what I understand of the new training system for the leadership cadre is that there will be up to 7 modules for junior leaders (MCpl) 5or 6 of which will be delivered by distance or at the armoury and 1 at the closest MTC which will be the field component only. As far as Officers go they will take there BMQ with private recruits at the armoury. They will then go on separate command courses cc, ptl comd, tp leading all done in 2 to 3 week blocks over the summer.

I also liked trg Ocdts and MCpl‘s together on the same national course. It accomplished what I believe is an excellent working relationship between future Senior NCo‘s and the Tp Officer and gave an appreciation and valuation for the work of each. Sadly I have been told that we are losing this. In no small part because as a national course we cannot get enough positions to grow or even maintain our units. I have yet to see the new CTS on any of these new modules and can only hope that they are designed to be pretty much standalone packages otherwise you are correct in that it will take significant resources to develop and refine the instructor lesson plans.

I have asked this question on two other posts about the amount of trg time allocated to each unit in a Bde. With us it is 3.8 days per month per person. I am rather envious of a unit that trains as much as yours. How many days do you receive?

I believe that the best trg time you can give to young officers and new crew commanders is field time. There is an excellent opportunity to teach/demonstrate, practise and evaluate when you are in the field on ex for 24 hours a day. Unfortunately for several years we were simply being evaluated without the practise. Our MTSC staff in Wainwright have since changed there focus to now assisting in the practice component. We need more of this. And this is where the knowledge and culture are passed on.

You are rightly proud of achieving the Worthington Trophy (best armour unit). That was a nut we never were able to crack. But if you were to check out our success rate in achieving Battle Task Standards in both Offence and Defence since the Worthington was cancelled, I think the Dragoons could play in any leaque.

I‘ll pass your comments on to Ray and see if I can encourage him to get on this post.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Bill,
I‘ll concede we may have chosen some better examples, we did not mean to heap scorn and derision on anyone. All recruits, officer and OR, get the same proffessional treatment when they start the process and throughout there time here. Look at it more as venting at a system that is insane with their ideas. Quantity for quality will never withstand the long term goals. It‘s a stop gap, feel good measure meant to put figures on paper until someone comes up with the next bit of foolishness. It will probably serve better to make people leave, and bitterly, than fill the ranks. It still does not tackle the problem of increasing the Snr NCO corps to do the training! Liken it to bringing 40 kids (no disrespect intended) to the carnival, then tell them that only 5 can ride because thats all the cars and supervision can handle, the other 35 get to watch. If higher is intent on following this course, they must address the instructor and resource problem first or a lot of people on both ends will have a bad taste in their mouths for a long time. We need more people on both ends, I (we) just don‘t think this is a feasible way to do it. I would also be interested in knowing who came up with this plan and sold it to Lt Gen Jeffery and what other options, if any, were tabled at the time.

As for training time, the unit normally parades one night a week and one weekend a month. This is the routine timings. There is currently a Ql2, a CFJLC and a Driver Wheel course being run within the garrison and Brigade. The unit will be going to Ft Knox for 5 days in Feb. We have also started training with RCD Recce Sqn when they go on ex. The last time, for 10 days in Oct, we drove our iltis from Windsor to Pet (500 miles one way), and supplied mud recce ptls to the Recce SHQ and coyote troops. Duties included recce forward of the surv screen, liason duties, local security and TCP‘s. We also got a taste of how the new ISTAR warfare works. Very worthwhile training for both sides. As the budget shakes out we try to use the money by putting in extra weekends, at least until the 2i/c starts pulling out his hair!

The soldiers are gung ho and accept all training with enthusiasm and excellent turn outs. I fear they may feel put off if this time is given over to trg new officers, although if we can combine the trg as we do in Gagetown and cover the modules at the same time, this may placate them. We still need the instructor cadre, I may find it difficult to drive around as Alpha in one car and back seat a MCpl- 2/Lt at the same time in another! The budgets will also have to be increased to account for the extra time. Possibly the monies normally sent to Gagetown for these purposes could be allocatted. I think with what is sent to them for our trg, we could provide more time for more people.

Hope this answered most of your concerns, if not, just repost.

 

[McG]

There are other arguments behind the change to train a reserve officer from civi to TpComd in one summer (from the current 2 or 3 summers ). One major driving factor was that Ph II graduates were going back to thier units and being put into Pl/Tp Comd positions without the training.

In the RESO progame, the first summer of training (RESO I & Ph II) was "equivalent" to QL2 through ISCC. Graduates would return home and blunder thier way through a year as Pl Comd and then in the second summer be trainned to do the job. (I do not know of any trade which required the reserve officers to attend Ph IV, however some did have an extra course reserves had to take in place of it before being qualified in the position).

It is likely that under the new approach, an officer returning from the first summer of training will perform better in a Tp Comd position that first year. Instead of returning to train the next summer, that officer could serve as a Crse O at an area training center. This job would provide far greater experience in leadership of soldiers than any course. I have heard of courses where the Crse WO is double hatted as Crse O; Officers filling these positions (instead of a second summers training) would improve quality of training and reduce stress on the training centers.

. . . just playing devils advocate, but I think the approach should be judged on its results. It may surprise us.