Training Value of Reserve Brigade Exercises!

[JBP]

Hello folks,

I just came back from 31 Bde training ex located in Hamilton this past weekend, I'm sure there are people who are on this site who were there. I'd like to get some input from others who were there or participated from any level and see what you gained from it. For me personally, that was one of the best weekend ex's I've been on, and it was BUSY! And I loved every moment of it, even the VCP's weren't too boring this time!

I'm Infantry and was 3 Section of 6 Platoon, however the heck they organized that! Lincoln and Welland regiment... In the final attack on John Foote armoury, I was one of the section members to provide the cordon for the "cordon and search turned assault and slaughter".....  : Besides the fact that the last mission went to hell slightly because it was suppose to be a cordon and search but turned out to be vicious FIBUA, I gleaned a lot of knowledge from this past ex!

1.) Pack freakin' lighter
2.) Tactics are even more important than I ever imagined... Naturally I knew they were important but even more so now then ever...
3.) Sometimes there is no way to prevent a given negative event from occuring and you have to roll with it
4.) SOP's will bloodywell save your life!
5.) Attention to detail attention to detail attention to detail for crying in the mud!!! It cannot be over-stated! This I mean in regards to searching people, buildings and vehicles for contraband, weapons, what have you, IED's etc etc...

My section did a whole bunch of stuff... We cleared a school, detained opfor guys peacefully and forcefully, we did a 3 hour presence patrol in the city, we did a VCP, also gate duty, that cordon and search I mentioned and a few other things.

All things considered it was a fantastic ex for Infantry types, little sleep, lots of action and good practice!

I also really enjoyed the presentation from 23 Med, I found that very interesting. As the WO who gave the presentation said, it wasn't meant to train us in anyway, but give us insight into how the CF is changing in regards to taken care of wounded soldiers as well... Makes you feel a lot better if you had to go into combat that you know there is a highly trained COMBAT medic that will do everything they can to help you... And that new blood-clotting stuff looks like a magic godsend!!!

So, I'd like to hear back from anyone else who was there on the ex and gained anything from it.

PS> I LOOOVVVEEEDDDD the catering! Never fed so well on a Brigade ex before!  ;D




(just edited a typo in the title. Carry on. - pc)

 

[Spanky]

Our portion of the 31 Bde ex was held in Rodney.  All three Svc Bn were there as was a composite recce sqn from the Windsors and 1H.  The focus was on convoy escorts.  We had a FOB established in the Rodney fairground and conducted our convoys from there.  We had an enemy force that presented a number of different situations that allowed us to practice our ROE's, actions on sniper and actions on ambush.  Firing blanks from the C6 on civvie roads was a real bonus.
Everyone learned a lot as the AAR process was utilized to practice portions over again in order to fix mistakes etc.  It was an excellent training event as troops at al levels and different trades learned something.  It was also a positive opportunity to interact with civvies.

 

[daftandbarmy]

Wow. Glad to hear it was such a great experience. Send some of that magic our way. (West)

 

[1feral1]

A weekend is not long enough at the Bde level, one gets better results all around, say if concentrations for 2 weeks were conducted. A wknd ex at this level, is a waste of resources, time and money. All for one real training day, Saturday.

This was gained from my Militia days, so I aint talking out my arse, ha!


Wes

 

[Steel Badger]

Wes

For what its worth, I agree.

I would much rather see a properly supported week or three week long ex that would allow us to properly refresh and then practice our skills.....

SB

 

[geo]

Wes,
The fact that it is a "bde" Ex might be a misnomer.
If each reserve Inf Bn fielded 1 or 2 Platoons to form a composite Infantry Bn then all of a sudden wè're dealing with a Bn Ex, not a Bde Ex......

A weekend is not much time to conduct a full blown ex that will exercise all job skills - resupply, and the like ..... two weeks is really the only way to go - but a weekend training ex exercising a narrow range of objectives can be an effective use of resources

 

[dapaterson]

Most exerciss are organised by the brigade, but conducted at much lower levels.  Units are mandated to train platoons in a company context;  the exercises are usually at or about that level.  Running them by the Bde permits some economies of scale, and, as previously mentionned, permits units unable t ofield robust organizations to combine, providing better realism for sub-unit commanders (vice having a major "OC" comanding two platoon commanders each with a reinforced section).

 

[Spanky]

I would certainly agree that a 2 week excercise is much more effective than a weekend one.  That being said, the weekend ones certainly have their uses.  It provides an opportunity for composite sub-units to become familiar with each other in terms of SOPs, personalities, and capabilities.  This would enable the sub-unit to hit the ground running and maximize the benefits of the 2 week excercise.  Concentrating on one task on a weekend is also the way to go.  The convoy escorts we practiced this past weekend will run a lot smoother this August on the larger ex. 

 

[JBP]

Although I agree a weekend is NOT long enough, it's what we have to work with. So we make the most of it we can. I had down time for about 7 hours the whole weekend while the ex was still "on". And I loved it all.

But for what we had, it was a fantastic ex to say the least, better than usual for sure. And it didn't even rain! It wasn't that cold out except for at night which only went down to about 0 or -1 or some such. Nothing to worry about.

I wanted to see what kind of input anyone else recieved from the ex and then expand upon that. When I mentioned I learned a lot about tactics, that was in regards to the "Cordon and Search-turned-assault" on the John Foote armoury... Had we known they were going to have basically 'dug in' positions. We could have planned for it as an assault and not a cordon and search. We had a good idea there would be high resistance and a battle of course, but since they ushered us on into a cordon and search plan, we would have suffered rediculously high casualties in the first moments of it all. The entire Section I was with (first section in) would have been completely obliterated for the most part, and then there would have been no cordon team! Not to even go into more detail, you could see how that would have went... Had we planned it as an assault first, we would not have suffered as many casualties I do not think. Especially with an active firebase.

As a reservist, I have to learn as much as I can from these tiny spats of time in the army on weekends and the such. Since the only decent length of time for training we normally recieve is our 10 day FTX each year in the summer besides any courses you go on.

I've always liked those thus far also.

 

[Sgt_McWatt]

I also participated in 31 CBGs Ex Maple Gale. My unit was located in St. Marys. I find organization wise there was room for a lot of improvement. I think that it could have been run a lot better at another time. Trying to do too much in a weekend. As well as separating all of the differant elements on exercises. I think it would have been better to not be splitting up MP's, armour, infantry, service. Not necessarily the whole brigade in one place but maybe 3 towns spread out insted of however many were used.

 

[Loachman]

A weekend is not long enough at the Bde level, one gets better results all around, say if concentrations for 2 weeks were conducted. A wknd ex at this level, is a waste of resources, time and money. All for one real training day, Saturday.

These are not brigade-level exercises, but exercises run by brigades. LFCA has three reserve brigades, and each will be running two or three weekend exercises as work-ups for Ex Valiant Guardian, the August concentration.

And your holsters should be ready by Friday, Wes. I'll be going in to have a look at them.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

I also participated in 31 CBGs Ex Maple Gale. My unit was located in St. Marys. I find organization wise there was room for a lot of improvement. I think that it could have been run a lot better at another time. Trying to do too much in a weekend. As well as separating all of the differant elements on exercises. I think it would have been better to not be splitting up MP's, armour, infantry, service. Not necessarily the whole brigade in one place but maybe 3 towns spread out insted of however many were used.

Examples of disorganization, and what you'd do to fix it would be a start. How you would be prepared to handle the logistics of all arms and units combined in one area as a follow up, would be good. How 'bout it? Sometimes an untrained, junior outlook provides a fresh perspective to old, set in their ways experience and know how..

Don't bring a problem, unless you got a solution.

 

[dglad]

A weekend for a Bde-level exercise certainly is ambitious, but is doable, I suppose, given the close proximity of units in southern Ontario.  So it's hard to "port" that experience to other parts of the country (in the case of 38 CBG, for instance, bringing all of the units together in, say, Winnipeg, involves an aggregate of roughly 6000 km of travel i.e. Thunder Bay to Winnipeg, Kenora to Winnipeg, Saskatoon to Winnipeg, Regina to Winnipeg...etc.)  It becomes cost ineffective to undertake that much travel for 24 to 36 hours of training.  In the western experience, a weekend may be useful for bringing, say, the units of a particular branch together (like all of the inf units of the Bde), to do two things--promote some cohesion among the soldiers of that branch, and focus on specific training objectives that are part of progressive training leading up to a major training event.  In the case of 38 CBG, the last BTE, held in Winnipeg, was about 10 days, of which about 6 or 7 were training and the rest were travel/admin.

 

[241]

What I find a lot of the younger troops don't realize is that while they may not have Civi jobs or at least one that they care about or need and can take off for extended periods of time for a field exercise, the rest of us have careers and families to support so we can't take time off for a 10 day or 3 week exercise, even in the summer, so we are forced to make due with the weekend training exercises. Which many of the younger troops seem to think are a waste of time, all they need to remember is that we are reservists and have other commitments that may have to come before the army therefore a long field exercise would have a low turn out, especially of the upper parts of the CofC and therefore wouldn't be the effective either, but that's just my opinion..............

 

[geo]

So long as the objective is retricted to a fairly narrow range of activities, there is nothing wrong with company level exercise(s) run individualy or concurrently with other coy level exercises on a given weekend BUT, please don't try to pump thru the 4 phases of war .........

 

[cplcaldwell]

Examples of disorganization, and what you'd do to fix it would be a start. How you would be prepared to handle the logistics of all arms and units combined in one area as a follow up, would be good. How 'bout it?

Sooo, at least one thing generated from a Res Bde's weekend exercise should be a solid After Action Report?

And if the powers that be read those AAR's (as I am sure they do) then 'a' value derived is to figger out what to do right next time  based on what was done wrong last time..

Given an opportunity for the troops to get wet tired and cold in a collective manner and a constructive AAR is generated... hmmm we might be getting somewhere here....

Pte McWatt, Pte Joe, your observations seem valid, have you memoed your Sect Cmd? Mentioned it to your Alfa? Brought it up with a stalwart Cpl who is not afraid to take either of the aforementioned (or even a young Subbie) aside ....

Shite does flow up hill, it just needs to be nuanced...


PS... geo you got in under me, yes four phases of war is a bit much....

 

[dglad]

Very true.  A weekend exercise is suitable to do preliminary training, practice or confirm one or two BTS.

 

[JBP]

So long as the objective is retricted to a fairly narrow range of activities, there is nothing wrong with company level exercise(s) run individualy or concurrently with other coy level exercises on a given weekend BUT, please don't try to pump thru the 4 phases of war .........

Which they didn't at all on this ex. So no worries there! Like I stated above, we did Urban Patrolling, VCP's, Gate Duty, Cordon and Search's and a few other things here and there... Overall, apparently the section I was with, and 1 other section got the most action/rotation out of the whole ordeal... Example: We did a cordon and search on an old broken down school the AshofC use, and immediately afterwords (literally, just after the AAR) we were tasked to 'surprise' a suspected enemy vehicle that was hanging around the rear area of our base and harassing a FOB etc... We snuck up on them and chased them, cornered them with the LLV and deployed and it turned into shooting fish in a barrel after they threw IED's at us. We attained valuable enemy intel on that quick little side-mission and also 'captured' enemy assetts.

To me, and 'on-the-fly' chance mission and opportunity like that was excellent training.

Where we were at, I didn't see any problems with organization at all. Then again, as stated, there are several units located within a fairly close proximity which made the travel not bad at all (30-45mins for us!).

 

[1feral1]

These are not brigade-level exercises, but exercises run by brigades. LFCA has three reserve brigades, and each will be running two or three weekend exercises as work-ups for Ex Valiant Guardian, the August concentration.

And your holsters should be ready by Friday, Wes. I'll be going in to have a look at them.

Excellent, look forward to more info. Although we are coming up near midway through our tour, I am sure there will some guys interested still.

Thanks,

Wes

 

[daftandbarmy]

2 days or 2 months. As long as we've got young soldiers like Joe all charged up about infantry soldiering, I'm all for it. If we can avoid some real disappointments in training (and we have all seen them, both reg and reserve contexts) I'd like to be able to find out how and air drop that stuff to every brigade in Canada. Get the MSPs ready!

Tell us more Joe, what went well from your point of view? How can we recreate that success in other brigades from your point of view?