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Combat units merging with support units?

vangemeren

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I was just wondering,

I've heard of two different combat arms merging (ie. armoured with a infantry unit) and two (more) different units merging like all of the artillery batteries in 38 CBG coming under a single command structure; but I've looked around, (mainly on regiments.org) and haven't found a case where say, a service battalion merging with a infantry battalion. Does this/has this situation occurred before?

with little military knowledge,

Jack
 
I'm not sure if this is what you were looking for, but here is an article that appeared in yesterdays paper in Sault Ste. Marie. Ontario.  It's about reserve units merging though, not regular.
link: http://www.saultstar.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentID=519734&catname=Local+News
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Local reserve units join forces; 49th Field Regiment, 26 Service Battalion now under one command

Dan Bellerose  /  THE SAULT STAR
Local News - Tuesday, May 08, 2007 @ 00:00

Sault Ste. Marie's two military reserve units, 49th Field Regiment and 26 Service Battalion, are developing a closer working relationship.

26 Service Battalion now falls under the command of 49th Field Regiment as part of a five-year "administrative grouping" pilot project.

"The grouping fulfils a couple of needs," said Lt. Col. Eric Groulx, commanding officer of the 49th Field Regiment, headquartered at the Pine Street Armoury.

"Two units under the same command will make us more efficient and it addresses the desire of Armed Forces Command to bring reserve unit strength up to between 200 and 250 personnel."

The 49th, one of 14 Royal Canadian Artillery reserve units, has 130 personnel; 26 Service, the understrengthed maintenance arm of the North Bay-headquartered support unit, has 40 personnel.

A recruiting campaign hopefully will further increase combined unit strength by 40 reservists by the end of the month, says Groulx.
Already, 20 recruits have signed on.

Reserve units had three options to increase their ranks: growth through recruitment; tactical grouping of two similar units or administrative grouping of two dissimilar units.

"26 Service Battalion will continue to exist as an entity but will be under the full command of the 49th Field Regiment," said the commanding officer.

The supply and transport wings of 26 Service will fall under the command of the Algonquin Regiment, a primary reserve infantry unit of the Canadian Forces, based in North Bay.

"It is our intention to build up 26 Service Battalion to full combat service support company status; it won't be restricted to maintenance but open itself to elements of all the trades," said Groulx.

The unit is about 50 personnel below full strength.

Combat service support trades would include: maintenance, transportation, medical, clerical, food services and weapons and supply technicians.

49th Field Regiment has had as many as 300 reservists under its command in the 1970s and as few as 90 just four years ago, the fallout from a two-year recruiting freeze.

Reservists must commit one day a week, one weekend a month, in fall-winter-spring, with the opportunity of two months of full-time summer employment, beginning in July. The average recruit on summer deployment can earn about $5,500.

The 49th already holds rank-specific qualification courses and has at least three basic artillery training sessions for Ontario's six such units scheduled for July and August.

Reservists will learn how to operate a howitzer during the four-week sessions, with live-fire exercises at CFB Petawawa, near Ottawa.

Two similar sessions last summer, with personnel fed and housed at Sault College, attracted nearly 80 reservists from throughout Ontario.

Artillery crews trained on a half-dozen 105-millimeter howitzers, field firepower the 49th has deployed since 1962, six years after it was introduced to the Canadian military.

It won't be known until later in the year if the 49th will host a four-week basic military training course, essentially entry-level military training.

A similar course last summer attracted nearly 60 participants, who were housed at the armoury, including Military Police, infantry and artillery personnel.

The 49th has five reservists in Afghanistan, volunteers on a six-month rotation. Six local reservists, including five from the 49th and another from 26 Service Battalion, had also been on six-month deployment prior to the current tour of duty.
 
That was exactly the root of my question and I guess the answer, because I had heard the rumour that 26 Svc. battalion was merging with the Algonquin Regiment in North Bay. I wonder with this pairing up, how if anything will hapen to the Irish Regiment in Sudbury as it is the other militia unit in Northeastern Ontario.
 
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