a. why do troops get out of the infantry?
I'll go on the stand point of why troops leave after their BE, which is where I sit and observe the most of. First would be a sense of falsehood of what their job was said to be by recruiters and that. Recruiters and even the DND website show an infantry soldier as someone always on the go-go, getting qualified with driver courses, machineguns, and so on. They come to Bat and find that it takes a long time to get all those qualifications and you spend more time doing nothing rather than those things told to them.
Next, we'll go into being taunted with the grand prize of 'a tour' constantly and never having it pull through. In morning parade the CO will tell us that Timbuktu is now on the CF's radar as a possible deployment and now our unit is next up to bat. So everyone is talking about it, some go and find out copious amounts of information about the country as in what exactly is going on in the area and why we may go there for a tour. We all get hyped up and the next day it's now still being confirmed. Nothing will be heard about it for a month, and then in another parade (after we have all given up on the chance of going, the CO will say again that Timbuktu has come up again and we should be prepared to get more on it. The cycle continues on and on until you realise that you probably won't get a tour in your first BE. This is also compounded with the massive rumor mill of the infantry with 'Oh, I heard on the news that PM Martin said he's deploying troops to Sudan soon' and that.
Creativity is another aspect in regards to ex's. We are told that the platoon attack is the bread and butter of the infantry battallion, or the defensive is the meat of our trade. So you go out and do countless drills over and over again - digging your holes, assaulting a single (imaginary) trench with an enemy that stands up in the open to shoot at you, or pulling the sled around because your patrol base has been found for the 9th time that night by an enemy force you know hasn't left their tent tonight because it's too cold. It is very redundant over and over, and I know that combining those (useless) ex's budgets and spending that money on a single larger training event would be much more welcome. My unit went to Ft. Lewis, WA last year to do OBUA training and it was two weeks of pure fun no matter how many times we had to assault the same 5 story hotel over and over. It was new and it made it fun.
PT is another issue and I discussed this in my pre-PLQ training with some guys. you wake up in the morning and go for a run. Next day, a run, day after a slow run. Then maybe sports, followed with a Friday long run. If PT was varied more between weights, circut training, runs, sports, and teamwork building PT it wouldn't make each day the same and take away drudgery. Also, if there were more activities that were physically oriented but hidden under the context of other things (like more CoyVSCoy competitions in relays or something) that would take away thoughts of PT and focus everyone on pulling through for their group. This, in my opinion, becomes exponentially beneficial the larger of a group you use in regards to how much PT you can pile on without mental wear to the troop. Section, PL, Coy, even Battallion level are all possible but it takes motivation from leadership to pull off - then again, that's what they're there for.
This will follow into BS taskings which I know have caused many future OTs or relases with those I work with. Cleaning over and over and over again is, in my opinion, pointless. Let's clean the NODLRs again, though we don't even have batteries for them anymore and we haven't even used them in 8 years. Afternoon after afternoon is spent cleaning stuff that doesn't need to be cleaned anymore. I know weapons have the 7-day cleaning cycle and all, but after cleaning it for the umteenth time though you haven't used your C7 in a year and it's still oiled turns people off. And, if you are a keener and clean it and hand it in, you'll just get someone else's weapon (leadership usually) that is dirty as hell. So, to prevent that, people spend 2hrs cleaning their firing pin retaining pin to appear to be busy, which leads to a lazy afternoon. 2 weeks of those can kill morale. Or there is also cleaning the cage items (winter gear) in summer. I don't know the grand scheme of things upstairs, but at the private level it's pointless make-work projects.
I suppose there are the injury or specialization aspects of it but those are really outweighed by how pointless it seems to come to work somedays.
b. what would help keep them in?
Keep people busy. Don't give out make-work projects, but actual activities that are useful. I don't see why courses don't run yearround in the unit as though they suck sometimes, they are useful. If you think that the CF can't afford such a task because of budget, then start getting everyone all the theory of everything done. Then, during PCF cycle time, you can take everyone out and instead of being on a Comms course for 8 weeks, you can do the practical portions and field parts of everything you learned. When we did our workup training to OBUA, there was the official workup training stuff we did and then the extra stuff your section commander would throw at you like various stacking styles and tha. I'm sure none of them are Urban qualified as per CF paper standards, but they were teaching us what they have learned from experience (and is more often better than PAM instructions). They actively passed on their knowledge w/o having the OC order it, and even the stories were worth it sometimes. There's also unofficial training on weapons so that way, when you do go on ex and the guys officially trained on say, the .50Cals are gone, you still have people who can skillfully assemble and use the weapons.
So, keeping people busy is one, the next is remove the carrot that always dangles infront of us. There is a difference between informing the troops of world events and taunting them with false promises. The little "Oh, and there's a 40% chance we're going to Timbuktu to help with civil authorities" at parade and actual information. If big world events break out that we need to know about, then have a CO's hour (or OC's hour) where everyone is taken to the ParaSim room (sorry to those who don't have one) and sat down. He could have a little presentation stating 'These are the facts of Timbuktu: militants have overthrown the ogverment and are killing 2000 civilians a day' and 'Timbuktu is here on the map. It's had similar events in the past when the militant group was formerly in power and overthrown as well ten years ago'. He needs to give us facts about what IS going on there rather than what MAY go on there in the future. This could also expand everyone's knowledge of the world which is beneficial so we have a broader understanding of a situation. One thing that has been done is the deployment schedule coming out which shows that 'Group A' is being deployed here in 2006 and if anything hairy happens while they are out, 'Group B' will be ready to head out.
Relevant training ex's and tasking to todays military needs like OBUA, crowd control, how to recognise possible threats in complex terrain during peacetime conditions (ie. what to look for and how to react to people with bombs on their back). How to deal with non-combat situations like humanitarian projects and likes of the sort. Quite often we work alongside Americans and can utilize their power and technology in a time fo need such as enemy positions (just an opinion) are usually airstriked, arty'd, or blasted well beyond before you pull a full platoon/Coy attack with a left flank approach. This also comes into play with even working with the other elements. It may be a hassle to bring a troop of engineers with us, and a abttery of arty on an ex (I'm pretty sure they are also sitting around a lot, so there should be no hassle) and incorperating them with Att's and Det's. Throw a sapper with your point recce on the bridge or things of the sort. We're fortunate that the 408th is just down the road from us and they play with us frequently, but even then it's seldom a tactical Att, as they may give 4 guys a ride for the fun on one afternoon or run aerial recce for the Strats (of which I can guarantee they need more practice with). They could give us Aerial Spotter training, more helo insertion into places rather than the Pickle Busride to Purple bridge.
Just a few of my rubles
-Spooks
