I would question the viability of the specialised support role, as it would require a criticle mass in each of the specialty trades before a full unit of volonteers could be mobilized for an operation. If we had a system similar to the US, with legislated job protection, this could be a viable approach for a few units in major urban centers (ei with the population to sustain them).

Overall I would suggest that prepairing for general mobilisation should be the key role of the reserves. Meeting this standard would ensure the reserves are capable of reacting to whatever requirements are placed on them by the future activities of the army. It would also result in individual members being qualified to augment Regular force units, and thus diminnishes the relavence of individual augmentation as a role on to itself.

What are some of the opinions on this topic out there?

The regs are the first to deploy, and the first line of defense. They also have high casualites. Reserve units are there to a) replace reg units and b) the cadre to train new people. Obviously a reservist is less expericenced than a reg of the same rank, but it takes a lot less time to get a reservist up to speed than to train entirerly new people.

The secondary purpose of the reserves is to augment the reg force with personell. I know in my unit, the people who have been on tour and they ex-reg force people are a really valuable resource. They have a lot of experience and they know the tricks on how to do things. (especially important in an Engineer unit)

I'm not so big on support trades in the reserves. For instance, my friend is in the medic company and it's the worst of both worlds. He doesn't get the skills he needs to function in the field as a field medic, yet he isn't trained to the standard of a BMS type and he has no practical experience in treating patients. Compare this to the medics who are attached to my unit who have basic field skills and have some experience treating minor injuries. (of course, my friend might disagree with me)

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One role of the Army Reserve is becoming increasingly evident:
To maintain an Army presence with city garrisons in urban centres (lest the Army vanish from the public eye, and memory, as it retreats to increasingly isolated bases, i.e. Shilo ...).

Sure, the rocket scientist bean-counters will claim it's oh so much more efficient to squirrel the Army away in remote locations, however this overlooks something quite matter-of-fact: "out of sight, out of mind" - we shouldn't be too astonished when the defence budget gets short shrift in the future, since the child prodigy political geniuses in red suspenders will quickly manipulate the polls such that the voting public will turn their attention only to those things which affect them on a day-to-day basis (and, if the Army is banished to the boonies, ... you can see where I'm going with this, I hope).

Thus, I reiterate - a role of the Reserve Army is to remind "the rest of Canada" (i.e. those locations without a large Regular Army presence).

Don't be swayed by the suggestion that this could be achieved solely through aggressive marketing and public information campaigns - these activities are too easily silenced by the whim of somebody with a different agenda ...
In my humble opinion the taxpayers will all too quickly forget where their defence dollars are going, unless they see something green on "Main Street", Any-City, Canada.

Dileas Gu Brath,
M.A. Bossi, Esquire

P.S. (as an aside, I'd also like to point out that the "military-friendly" vote continues to be relatively diluted, even if the Regular Army consolidates into a smaller number of locations, since the majority of Regular soldiers vote in their "home" riding instead of where they live - thus, it should not come as a surprise if the military continues to be an ignored minority in the House of Commons since they have no elected "voice", whereas other special interest groups somehow manage to throw their muscle behind certain candidates ... sigh - I'd better cut off my rant now, before I get myself into trouble).

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The Army is constanly training and Shilo is a training base wheras where do you train mech infantry in downtown Winnipeg. Besides they still have the Air Force and they are perfectly suited to each other.

Shilo is not in the wilderness and for once a desicion was made stricly on military matters.
not on politics.

As to the role of the reserves, we must endevour to maintain our idently and purpose by recruiting, retaining and training to sub-unit level and meeting the required BTSs for our Corps. We must not fall into the trap in that we are only a manpower pool for Reg F for individual augmentation or Component Tranfers. (and we are slowly sliding taht way)

The reserve Company being stood up for ROTO 11 should go a long way to proving that formed sub-units are viable for us.

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btw: I did a weekend QL2 at the same time as my first year of university, and managed the work load.

If this is not the case, then what purpose does it serve to train reserves for mobilsation as there will be no equipment for them to deploy with.

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Regards,

Okay, the Regs have their kit assigned, but the local reserve unit has none. Both are infantry-the regs are mech, but the res are light. In order for the reserve inf unit to augment the regs, the majority have to be trained in mech prior to their deployment. But the govn't won't fund the resrvs for their own mech equipment. Ideally then, they should share the mech equipment with the regs, developing the skills to augment the regs in a timely fashion (and as a sec to plt size unit if possible).

The problem with this is that the regs may lose training time on their vehicles, as well as additional wear and tear on the kit. To solve this, I would advocate an investment in vehicle simulators. In this way, both the regs and reserves could practice formation and maneuver, as well as TI recognition, Comms, Nav and targeting skills, etc. When the regs weren't using the actual kit, the res could get field time, and put the simulation skills into practice, and vice-versa. Of course, the regs would get first dibs, and a good portion of the field time, but the res would also be much better prepared to augment the regs in ops overseas.

Of course, this begs the question as to what the res would use in a general mobilization, requiring them to be sent to fight. Well, it would be nice to have stocks of surplus equipment lying around to equipment a hastily mobilized militia. But unfortunately Canada does not have many surplus state of the art AFVs and such left over from the Cold War (like the US or Germany) to hand down to reserves. However, The DDGM plant in London, ON currently cranks out 1 LAV per day, and could do better on a war footing. It takes months to train a mech inf soldier to fight in high intensity combat with today's advanced technology. Simulation equipment would allow the both res and regs to maintain a higher quality of training when each other are using the equipment, or when it is down for maintenance. It works for the US (especially for the gas guzzling M1s and BFVs heavy mech units, both reg and NG). This is also why I think that the primary mech battalions in the regs should be located near major pop centres with larger res units (the Minto armouries are far away from Shilo).

Just a thought, yours?

Regards,