Chinese president visits and views our troops?

[CallOfDuty]

  Hey there everyone...I was just watching the newsnet a bit ago, and I saw that the Chinese president is visiting our country.  On the clip, it seemed that he was inspecting our troops.  All in dress uniform.  Can anyone explain why that would be happening?  Does Paul Martin do that for all our dignitary visitors?
  Cheers all, have a great Friday!
Steve

 

[George Wallace]

Yes!

 

[CallOfDuty]

Cool...................what unit would that be?

 

[PViddy]

I think it is pretty much customary, when foreign dignitaries arrive, for them to inspect what usually represents a national honour guard of some sort.  That's just a guess, but i see it happening all the time in every other country.

cheers

PV

 

[George Wallace]

Cool...................what unit would that be?

There is No One Unit that does this....the 'wealth' is shared.  Usually there is a Unit at 2 CMBG that will have that task for a one month period and it rotates through the Units.  NDHQ and the Reserve Units in Ottawa also get the task at times.  You may even find 5 CMBG Units tasked with doing it.  So....basically....anyone can get the task, sometimes there are 'special' requests though....

 

[buzgo]

We often get tagged for parades and funerals here at NDHQ, especially in the 'off season' for the Ceremonial Guard. When things are really important and need to look good, they give the task to 2 CMBG, as George stated.

The Gov General's parade today has Army troops from Pet but most of the Air and Navy troops are from Ottawa.

 

[RangerRay]

This is normal.

In 1993, I was part of a guard of honour that was inspected by Presidents Clinton and Yeltsin when they came to Vancouver.

 

[kincanucks]

Cool...................what unit would that be?

The nearest one.

 

[HollywoodHitman]

Simply a cunning plan to determine the actual size of the military in Canada. Now he will begin his evil plan to invade. :dontpanic:

 

[NCRCrow]

http://www.cfsuo.forces.gc.ca/ndhq_cwo/photo_arch_e.asp

Check out all the parades and VIP's.

 

[Joe Blow]

The nearest one.

Hmph.. There are a lot of fat people in these visiting dignitary pics.  Maybe we should designate one unit for this type of thing regionally and make sure they're fit.  Or up the fitness levels across the board..

Looks nasty.  My $0.02...

 

[Jarnhamar]

Joe Blow that's actually a deception plan.

The theory behind this is to impress on our visitors "Wow, these canadian soldiers eat REALLY good. They must have great supply lines."

 

[paracowboy]

Hmph.. There are a lot of fat people in these visiting dignitary pics.   Maybe we should designate one unit for this type of thing regionally and make sure they're fit.   Or up the fitness levels across the board..

Looks nasty.   My $0.02...

how 'bout we just make everybody across the CF meet the physical standards expected of soldiers, sailor, and airmen? Naaaah, that'd be silly.

 

[Monsoon]

how 'bout we just make everybody across the CF meet the physical standards expected of soldiers, sailor, and airmen? Naaaah, that'd be silly.

What's the physical standard required of an NDHQ stores clerk?

 

[paracowboy]

the same standard required of all CF members, as you well know.

 

[Infanteer]

What's the physical standard required of an NDHQ stores clerk?

Well, if the principle is that every soldier should be capable of deploying into a warfighting scenario then I guess they should be fit to fight, like everybody else.

Soldier First.

 

[enfield]

I'm going to play devil's advocate here...

every soldier should be capable of deploying into a warfighting scenario

Ok. Define 'warfighting scenario' - I'm not sure we're quite prepared to deploy to something like that Eastern Front in 1943. Is that a failure? There's a spectrum here.
Is Iraq the new 'standard' we aim for? Or do we take the worst case warfighting scenario as the bar?

be fit to fight

Fair enough. In 1982 this meant marching 80 miles cross country in rough weather in three days. This was the standard of fitness that was required to be able to fight. In 2002-2005 it means climbing serious mountains, for extended periods of time, in Afghanistan.
Should everyone in the military who cannot meet this standard be asked to leave?

Soldier First.

Of course - but how far do we go with this? To what level of infantry tactics should the Air Force tech be qualified? How much of their time should be devoted to learning infantry small arms, section and platoon tactics, and maintaining the same level of fitness as the Airborne Companies? If I pass an Eryx (or even an M72) to the Chief of Maritime Command or to the top JAG officer, will he know how to use it? If he doesn't, is that wrong?


Ok, flame away - I just wanted to throw out a few ideas. And for the record, I'm all for tough, enforced physical fitness standards and basic soldier skills for all.

 

[Infanteer]

Ok. Define 'warfighting scenario' - I'm not sure we're quite prepared to deploy to something like that Eastern Front in 1943. Is that a failure? There's a spectrum here.
Is Iraq the new 'standard' we aim for? Or do we take the worst case warfighting scenario as the bar?

Full Spectrum Ops, Three Block War, you know all that hoo-hah.  Any soldier from any trade should be expected to deploy to an area where they can, in the span of a day, be distributing Mustovi's and food to kids, setting a perimeter defence for negotiations between rival factions, being shot at and mortared in their camp, having to fight out of an insurgent ambush on the MSR, or go into Fallujah to root out the bad guys.

There is no such thing as a rear area, right?

Fair enough. In 1982 this meant marching 80 miles cross country in rough weather in three days. This was the standard of fitness that was required to be able to fight. In 2002-2005 it means climbing serious mountains, for extended periods of time, in Afghanistan.
Should everyone in the military who cannot meet this standard be asked to leave?

Of course - but how far do we go with this? To what level of infantry tactics should the Air Force tech be qualified? How much of their time should be devoted to learning infantry small arms, section and platoon tactics, and maintaining the same level of fitness as the Airborne Companies? If I pass an Eryx (or even an M72) to the Chief of Maritime Command or to the top JAG officer, will he know how to use it? If he doesn't, is that wrong?

I'm not sure about the Navy and Air Force requirements (and this is a fundamental issue with a unified system with a purple blob), but as far as the Army goes, I think I clearly laid out what should be required of all people deployed in an Army operation:

I think I would define it has emplacing realistic combat standards across the Army.  Fitness, marksmanship, baseline tactical awareness, and a proper "soldier mentality" should be something that all soldiers need to routinely focus on and practice with.  The Combat Arms troops (especially the Infantry) merely jump to the next level and make it their raison d'etre (as the CS/CSS guys make support theirs), but it doesn't disqualify all Army pers from having a basic understanding of what I'd term "combat survival, something I think requires four things;

• Physical Preparedness: fitness, I will make it to and through the fight
• Mental Preparedness: "combat mindset", I will win the fight
• Skill at Arms: No Jessica Lynch, feel comfortable with the weapons we will win the fight with
• Tactical Awareness: Rudimentary drills and small-unit cooperation, I recognize the fight and will try to shape it

I'm sure we've all seen first hand many examples of people not ready to do any of this.  In my opinion, these four principles are part of the uniform.

There was a good article in the Marine Corps Gazette a while back on how the Marines did this at the basic training level.  I'll see if I can find it, but unfortunately MCG articles aren't available publically.

 

[NCRCrow]

Three block war! Three fudge block war maybe.

I observed lots of cadpat blob in the Army (OP ATHENA Roto 0) for a Navy guy (augmentee) to see this was pretty surprising.

The Navy will always be the Navy, what do u expect when they serve 5 first class meals on a daily basis.

Airforce.....need I say more

 

[paracowboy]

Three block war! Three fudge block war maybe.

I laughed my tattooed butt off when I read that. Then I thought about it for a second, and it stopped being funny.