Terms of service

[Roko]

Hey everyone, I‘ve got a question regarding the terms of service for reservists.. the recruiters have been rather sketchy on this..

From what I‘ve been told by just about everyone, there are few terms - we can leave pretty much any time we feal like it. What I want to know about is how does the gov‘t go about calling up the reserves for active duty? I‘ve heard that the war measures act needs to be enabled.. anything else?

 

[Jungle]

Well Roko,
I am not sure about the procedure for putting the reserves on active duty, but i read in the paper that most of them would not even show up anyway... because they are not in this to fight but to have fun... or pay their tuition... or because it‘s sooo cool to fire a machine gun !!! I understand there are dedicated people in the reserves, but in what proportion ??? I think there should be clear terms of service for reservists, with a contract signed when joining, and a warning that they may have to serve in any type of operation, including war... same procedure as when joining the regular force.

 

[Roko]

yeah, that‘s pretty true.. But apaprently when the emergency measures act (was war mearsures act) is enabled, You‘re legaly obligated to serve, if called up.

I would serve, but I wouldn‘t appreciate being ripped out of University in the middle of a semester.. costs too much both in money and time to do that. But, if I where called up but didn‘t have to serve until the acedemic semester/year was completed, I would not have that problem. It would be my job as a soldier to go.

Albeit, I am joining the reserves to pay tuition, for fun, and because firing a machine gun is cool, but those aren‘t the biggest reasons... I want to serve my country, and I‘ll take it seriously.

The reason I‘m not going reg is because I want to finish my degree first...(and that‘s not becasue I want to be an officer.. heck.. as an NCM In the reserves I just know I‘ll have to deal with this @sshole I know who is doing CIC) reserves will allow me to do some military stuff sooner, and get a taste for the army.

 

[Gunner]

Jungle, I am not sure where you found your source about the Reserves not showing up when they are called for. The two major disasters in the last four years (Winnipeg Flood and Quebec Ice Storm) saw large numbers of Reservists involved in each operation and the government didn‘t invoke an order in council to activate them...they were all volunteers because their fellow citizens needed them. Similarily in Bosnia, hundreds of Reservists serve on each rotation. Prior to that during UNPROFOR the majority of most companies serving overseas were Reserve due to a lack of Regular Force soldiers. These soldiers are all volunteers and they volunteer every time they show up for a Cl A parade day or accept a Class B or C call out.

If you have any knowledge of the number of Regular Force soldiers who use a variety of ways to "scam" out of deployments, field exercises, etc, it is a damn shame on this institution. Soldiers (and sailors , and aircrew) are paid alot of money for unlimited liability that does not always stay unlimited.

So before you open your mouth to speak, make sure you know what you are talking about before you make yourself look foolish.

Roko, the Reserves are a part time, citizen based army that has its good points and bad (same as the Regular Force). People join the Reserves for a variety of reasons: part time job, full time job, comraderie, soldier skills, or just plain fun. It‘s a good organization with some incredibly dedicated people that are not always compensated for what they place into the military system.

Cheers,

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Jungle,
With your rank and quals you should know better than to believe everything you read, see or hear, especially from our press. Your unfounded remarks aside, when the ****e hit the fan a few weeks ago, my Sqn had a 99% volunteer status for 24 and 48 hr standby and brought in their buggout gear besides. And by the way, in thirty some odd years at this, reg and reserve, I‘ve seen a lot of regs pull stunts to beat the DAG. Don‘t go calling the kettle black to soon, you guys shouldn‘t be throwing stones at glass houses.

 

[Disturbance]

I think it does take an act of parliament to mobolize what the reserves do. Before we do anything on the ground the politicians have to approve it in parliament. Now once whatever it is has been passed there are loopholes and whatnot ppl can use not to be mobolized ie. school.
Also a thing to note is that it is not like the states up here where you have job security...there is nothing written in parliament to protect your job if you are called to duty, which personally I think should change. I wonder how many more people would volunteer knowing that when they came back their job would still be there.
feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

Disturbance

 

[Roko]

yeah, I think that the lack of job security is really stupid.. Soldiers leave to fight, and are honoured when they come back by a pink slip.

I‘m still in school, so I don‘t have to worry about that job security yet, if worst where to come to worst..