RCR Grunt said:
It's all in who you know ... get to the unit at the right time, do the right things, meet the right people and you can really go places. I know young privates that were snipers in the sniper cell with less than a year in battalion. It is feasible that a young go getter posted to the third could get his recce and para course before the 2 year mark, and these are precisely the kind of people CSOR wants to steal recruit from the line units. Motivated, professional, disciplined soldiers.
Being "Motivated, professional, disciplined" and "knowing" thr right people doesn't seem to have stood for much from what I've seen. I had 3 guys that came in with me who went on the CSOR ISAP after a few months in battalion. All they had to do was put in a memo basically. All came back, 1 injured, 1 phobia test failure, and the other withdrew.
In my short time here, I've seen brand new guys get sent on the recce course simply for raising their hand when a NCO comes down and says "Who wants to go on a recce course".
And as for selection of those put on OMLT, POMLT, and 10%? Names pulled from a hat. Merit has NOTHING to do with much unfortunately from my perspective.
I may sound bitter, but I'm still confident hard work and dedication will pay off eventually.