On Guard 90 and the 'Super Master Corporal's' Training Course

[SprCForr]

Rained all week, and the RCR Bde Comd (you know who) had all tarps taken off all vehs. Or was that a different year?

Yup, different year. IIRC '94-'95 was that pppperiod. The CO directed that the tarps be left on for the road move from Chwk to Suffield for winter warfare. The Bde Comd caught the trail packet at a fuel point east of Calgary. He was livid when he was done questioning me. Of course, my attitude may have been influenced somewhat by the fact that the tarp on HIS Iltis was still on...

 

[FormerHorseGuard]

I ws witha  unit that had 2 guys come off that  course, one is now MWO I hear MP and the other is Col.
Both were very good soldiers and had a lot to learn about leadership but they worked hard to get thru the course. I think one that became a Col. was the top soldier on his course.
 
As for the ex, I was on it but was in the pay office. So have very little to say  about it

 

[Brad Sallows]

I was in the res fd amb in the Wx version.  We did move into prepared positions that we didn't have to fill.  It wasn't the only mess we left after endex when everyone prepared to hastily depart.  It was no better than any other milcon and worse than some.

One of the "militia rumors" I heard after the fact is that an opportunity had been created to fail - to demonstrate convincingly that no, the militia can not really conduct collective training as a "battle group" and certainly not as a "brigade" so that in future we could get back to fundamentals.  Regardless whether that intent existed, it was a useful point to make and I hope it had some effect on restoring sanity.  Maybe that and the point about learning to function in inclement weather without becoming an environmental casualty were the two most useful lessons.

>Rained all week, and the RCR Bde Comd (you know who) had all tarps taken off all vehs. Or was that a different year?

Yes, that was OG90.  Apparently it makes you more tactically proficient if you run around in an open-top jeep while you are conducting administrative activities supporting work-up training.  And, as it happened, being able to merely function in crappy weather turned out to be a shortcoming for a lot of people.  Partly it was the kit - unless you had purchased a US-style raincoat, for example, you probably got and stayed wet.

I remember the rapid NCO development program, and receiving a briefing thereon.  One of the premises was that units would be very selective in choosing candidates, and not simply fill slots because they had them.

 

[Kat Stevens]

JJJJJJJ C was NOT the brigade commander for that ex.  I came home from Germany in '92, and he took over 1 CBG the following spring.  He was responsible for OP COBRA in '94, and the decree was any time the temps were over 0, tarps off, and everyone slept in a hole in the ground.

 

[vonGarvin]

RNTP was ridiculous.  The time for a young recruit to make it to MCpl in the militia back in the 1990s wasn't that long to begin with (took me about 2 years), so I don't know the rush.
As for "On Guard 90", I was a MCpl in 2 RCR at the time.  We were out in the field with the rest of 5e GBMC.  From my point of view, and from my hazy memory, it was a fantastic ex.  Brigade defensive position for...3 (?) days, followed by a withdrawal, and then the counter attack.  We did a combat team attack and then on the consolidation, we were given hasty orders to mount up in some Iroquois helicopters and then we hit the bad guys in the depth as the rest of the Brigade advanced on them.  From my low level view looking up, it was fantastic training.

 

[daftandbarmy]

RNTP was ridiculous.  The time for a young recruit to make it to MCpl in the militia back in the 1990s wasn't that long to begin with (took me about 2 years), so I don't know the rush.

I believe we had messed up the career progression to the point that there were zero 'Sergeants in waiting', so there was a massive short term effort put in to qualify more MCpls.

It worked.

I had a rifle company with about 12 MCpls: about 1 for every two or three Ptes. It was like trying to run some kind of bizarre Taiwan parliamentary session  ;D

 

[medicineman]

Brian Vernon was Commander 1 CMBG for that ex - and yes he didn't like us driving around with Iltis tarps up if temp was >/= 0 Deg C...Herr Cox took that a couple steps further.

MM

 

[Osotogari]

I did my BMT/GMT in the summer of 1990, and can say that the super-MCpl course that was mentioned did not start until January of 1992, and it was called JNDP.  I know this because I did my reserve QL3 infantry in the summer of 1991, and JNDP was sold as an opportunity to take a regular force basic, battle school and ISCC back-to-back-to-back.  Being young and stupid, I put in for it, but in retrospect was saved by (ironically) the incompetence that characterized much of what stood for admin on the part of the reserve force back then.  There was a battle school run at more or less the same time, I believe the serial was called Amiens.   

Not many of them stayed for the ISCC portion, as most of them put in for the pre-training for Op Harmony roto 1.  A few did, but if memory serves from being part of the summer help in Wainwright that year, not more than a half dozen. 
   

 

[vonGarvin]

I know nothing about jndp, but RNTP was out in at least 1989: I was a reservist Sergeant with a MCpl who was a product of RNTP. He was a nice enough guy, but lacked the experience one would expect of a junior NCO.

 

[Danjanou]

Well thanks' to whomever started this thread because there's a quarter century of  liquid slef medication therapy wasted, as I now remember RNTP, On God 90 and subsequent runs ins with a certain senior officer with a sock fetish. 8)

I arrived in LFCA in late 1988 and by Jan 1989 was a very new CSM of a rifle company in a TO reserve unit. It was like many a company in name only as we couldn't of course field a rifle platoon and my first priority was try and rebuild it, including repairing the damage of my predecessors. No point in recruiting hundreds of troops if we had no one to train them and I had inherited far less NCOs both Jr and Snr NCO then I would have liked, and some of the ones I had were soon encouraged to find new homes.

RNTP existed then and I took advantage of it as well as many spots on the concurrent running "conventional" ISCC  as I get my hands on between 1989 to the early 1990s. The course itself was okay,, long and demanding enough with the appropriate standards in my opinion and I had just come from a 5 month stint at t he school of cool in Gagetown and prior to that 2 years at MTC Aldershot Leadership Company so I may have had some expertise in Militia Leadership training.

As noted the point was picking kids literally out of recruit course rather than the normal seasoned been in 3-5 years types  to send on it the first place. I had no choice and make no excuses. We were actively recruiting and rebuilding and  by 1992 would have in excess of 150 warm bodies in the company for Milcon that year. Someone had to help me train and lead them.

Some were unmitigated disasters yup, some did okay learned, becoame slef confident  and improved steadily, and some were pretty damn good from the start. Can't remember if he was RNTP or ISCC but the recently retired 32 Brigade RSM was one of those 19-20 year olds I tossed into the fire and I think based on where he eneded up he turned out okay.  A check I did showed a few others stayed in and went up in rank. Others drifted off but did okay in their chosen careers.

It was in the initial choosing of the right type of candidate, intelligent but more than that, a certain attititude, also good supervisiona nd guidance, basically what you should be doing in the first place.  That I think resulted in the majority not being duds.  Many of them also went off on tours as Cpls before we tossed them the leaf,Namibia, Cyprus, Cambodia, or even a REFORGER in Germany and that probably helped a bit.

As we weren't at full strength yet for Oh God 90 we were amalgamated with another unit to form a composite company and their CSM went up to Pet. I stayed and puttered around the armouries catching up on assorted odd jobs and neglected paper work  for 2 weeks waiting for him for screw up  and be fired or quit and be ordered up to replace him. Waste of my vacation form my new day job.

1992 we did take an over strength Coy complete with some of my RNTP/ISSCs instant M/Cpls up to Pet and they did Okay IMHO. Among other things they held their temper while the OC and I were publically jacked in front of the whole company by the then Deputy Commander of the SSF on a difference in opinion on aspect  dress. Speaking as a former 21 year old M/Cpl myself I would not have shown such maturity and restaint and have decked the old shit.  ;D

 

[daftandbarmy]

1992 we did take an over strength Coy complete with some of my RNTP/ISSCs instant M/Cpls up to Pet and they did Okay IMHO. Among other things they held their temper while the OC and I were publically jacked in front of the whole company by the then Deputy Commander of the SSF on a difference in opinion on aspect  dress. Speaking as a former 21 year old M/Cpl myself I would not have shown such maturity and restaint and have decked the old crap.  ;D

See, you're more professional than you give yourself credit for!  ;D

During that ex, in Wain-wrong, I had the pleasure of watching a demonstration by one of the 3VP OCs, about how to run an area ambush.

It was a disaster. The closest example I can think of regarding his approach would be the immortal scene in 'Ronin' where Sean Bean gets a drawing board lesson on ambushing....

Afterwards he, very smugly, he asked me what I thought of it (knowing that I would fall on my knees to thank him for showing me the way of truth).

I said something like: 'I'm sure this works extremely well in Wainwright. South Armagh? Not so much..."

 

[medicineman]

Would have worked well in Nicosia too, especially with empty chambers/magazine housings  ;D.

MM