Lawndart: I think a few of your responses are a bit inaccurate or perhaps out of date. I'm not sure when you were last in direct contact with a Canadian Army Reserve unit or brigade, but things are somewhat better than what you are painting:
We seem to throw a bunch of university students and other kids together for a weekend every 3 or 4 months, and a concentration every summer, and expect that to turn them into potential warriors
Most units, especially NCOs and officers, are much more active than this: I was not confining my assessment to field training only, but to all the other courses and LHQ training that goes toward building the skills that we test on FTXs. I agree that our training does not produce an equivalent to a Regular soldier, but nobody is pretending that we do: that thinking went out the window several years ago when the current Army training doctrine was put into effect: we clearly recognize a "delta" between Res and Regs, and we (normally) require about 90 days of training to get a Res soldier ready to go overseas.
Maybe some Canadian units impressed some American units with their skill on an exercise somewhere, sometime
No: based on my own experience as well as the accounts that I hear from other members of our Bde units, as well as from individuals in other Res CBGs, I would say the high regard expressed by US Reserve types is quite common. For example, we currently have a team of officers from several of our units taking part in a series of CPXs with 34ID (USARNG): I was speaking with the Asst Div G3 the other day: he was very happy with their performance, and the leader of our team echoed. I'd say it's pretty common.
But really, compare that with the average US National Guard or Reserve unit nowadays. They are rotating through Iraq and Afghanistan as entire units on a regular basis.
This is very true, and I visited one of these units myself in Afghanistan. I interviewed a number of the officers and NCOs, and I certainly agree with you that the training and combat experience will make for a very much better ARNG. Unfortunately, during their predeployment training they faced quite a steep learning curve due to the relatively lower individual skill level basis that ARNG units pre-OEF seemed to have. The ARNG system does not put Active Army types in a unit, the way our system puts RegF in a Res unit: the ARNG NCOs I spoke with stated that they badly needed that direct interface with experienced Active Army trainers. Their NCO training in particular also seemed somwhat lighter than ours, although to a great extent experience has made up for that. The problem they are going to face (and which has worried the chief of the US Army Reserve) is that there will be serious attrition and reduced recruiting as the ops burden on the ARNG goes up-it may be difficult for the married guy with kids and a job to keep it up.
Sending over individual members on a strictly voluntary basis piecemeal doesn't really develop a strong sense of unit cohesion and professionalism
We moved beyond this a while ago. While some Res do still serve as indiv augmentees, we have been sending sub-units of Res overseas for a while now. OP BRONZE, our final committment to FRY, was almost all Reservists, including the Comd and RSM. Starting in 06, every TF we prepare for deployed ops will have a Res coy gp as part of it. It is true that most Res units cannot raise a formed sub-unit for deployment: this problem is age old and IMHO the only realistic fix for it is amalgamation so that we have as many (or more) Res soldiers per unit, but fewer incapable unit command structures that we cannot populate anyway, and that cannot generate a unit's worth of soldiers. We have actually started a process like this in our Bde with the tactical grouping of our three Arty units, as well as our three Svc Bns, with the three units being placed under the comd of one LCol with one RSM.
[quoteThrow in the fact that with a few exceptions most reservists in Canada, if they do go overseas, are now going on boring rotations through Bosnia or the Golan. That type of duty doesn't really develop a soldier's skills to any extent.
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I'd say that as FRY winds down, about as many Res are serving in Afghanistan, and more will do so in future, or wherever else we go. I disagree completely that the experience in FRY had no value to Res soldiers (I don't know about Golan-most Army Res don't go there any more...). The pre-deployment training alone, including the exposure to a RegF unit for three months, is of huge value. Then, the daily routine as a soldier, the teamwork, the exposure to other armies, the carriage of weapons, the realization that you are not in Wainwright anymore: all of these make a great contribution to developing Res soldiers. We now have Res unit COs and RSMs who have served on operations oveseas: at one time this was unheard of.
I do know, like pretty much everyone else that the Israelis are probably the best at that game, bar none
The Israelis are really outside my comparison because they use a Continental system in which Res service is a compulsory part of citizenship and there is no question about training time or job protection. Of course, if our Res had to be ready for combat in a few hours, or were regularly deployed on city streets with weapons, they would be much better than they are now.
It's true, the Pats had a large contingent of reservists in Bosnia in 93, and the Company in Medak acquitted itself quite well. However, that was with a strong core of Regs, and against Croation irregulars, not hardened professionals.
But how many of our Regular soldiers (or the Regular soldiers in the Aussie Army..) can actually say they have been in combat: actually receiving shots fired in anger, with intent to kill; and firing back with equal intent to kill like the soldiers at Medak did, as opposed to just being in a combat theatre or on a peace support op? Not most folks, and not even most guys in 3PP who deployed on OP APOLLO.
Further, it was mostly reservists implicated in a few less glorious events, such as the poisoning of 2PPCLI Warrant Officer Matt Stopford.
Really? That comment verges on slagging all Reservists who go on operations (and by extension, all Res).Mentioning one incident and alluding to other unidentified cases is exactly the same logic people used to slander the whole CAR because of the actions of a few uncontrolled criminals. I think you will find that stupid/criminal behaviour on operations has been well practiced by quite a few Regular soldiers without any help from Reservists, thanks.
Our Army Reserve faces great and serious limitations, but if you consider the quality of soldier it produces
under those limitations, and especially if you measure it against the dismal state things were in back in 1974 when I joined the Militia (when Res never went on any serious op, let alone hold any meaningful job on one), I think you have to give our Army Reserve credit for what it does, and for the progress that it has made.
Cheers.
, look around the Mess for the magazine about Kodiak Strike , what the Americians said about 2 FD RCA is no bull#### , I know people who were standing with them when they said it .
