PJ D-Dog said:
He has one of the best analytical minds that I know. He has run for the NDP at the provincial level twice in the last six years.
those two statements are contradictory. If one is analytical at all about politics, one realizes that the NDP are the most ridiculous excuse of a political party in existence, with no basis whatsoever in reality.
2. Five Rounds for Qual
I recently visited with my cousin who is a Major in the CF. He is in the mental health field as part of the air force. Prior to his deployment to Afghanistan in Jan 06, he was only allotted a five round magazine for annual rifle qual. I made it clear to Fez when I recounted this story that this excluded the combat arms as his original post stated. I asked my cousin many questions about this and he was disgusted at the fact that he was not given more time on the range for qualification. He enquired as to why there was such a shortage of ammo and he was told that it was due to budget restraints. It seems that service support don’t need to qualify at the same level as a combat arms unit.
I'm currently assisting the Ops NCO for our CS/CSS types deploying on 1-07 and 1-08. He's asking me how many rounds they need to qualify for the basic PWT. I told him. They're getting 200 rounds a man. Not exactly 5 per man, is it? Kinda throws a monkey wrench into that 5 rounds per man story.
3. The Ex-Marine Story
One of my good friends is currently going through work up training for the next rotation in December/Jan. He is a former Marine who later joined the CF and was in the RCR and went through jump school. He is now a reservist on a class C contract for the next roto. I met up with him on Labor Day weekend.
He is concerned that the level of training he is receiving is not up to par with the mission they will be performing. He recounted how the training was focused on fording drills and other elements that would be included in a classical European theatre. He was concerned at how they will be operating in desert mountain terrain and wondered why they practiced fording rivers etc… He was also concerned about the Cold War drills of a morning stand-to which continued to be advocated by the higher leadership in the work up training. Before anyone gets any bright ideas about slamming the reserves, the Regular Force is conducting the training.
so, because you friend is pissy about having to practice basic drills before moving on to mission-specific training, the CF is fucked up? Right. Got it. Noted, and changes to doctine will be emplaced immediately.
Another issue is that of leadership. He is very concerned that leadership displayed in the training is inferior. He is at the point where he has no confidence in both the junior and senior leadership of the unit his is with. Despite all of this, he is still going to deploy, as he wants to get a tour in before he gets out.
and he has doen what, to address these percieved faults?
I also read some reports on CF casualties on CBC
and that is relevent how? The CBC? Why not Sesame Street, too? REad on here how many times we have corrected the CBC.
and spoke with Marines who have served in Afghanistan with Canadians Soldiers.
and I can give any number of negative opinions of the USMC by Canadians, but why would I?
Some of the problems stem from the fact that the Canadian mission has shifted from security and reconstruction to counter insurgency
our mission has not shifted. We are still on the same mission, no matter what you choose to believe from the CBC.
The Canadian public is not overly aware of this shift. All they know is CF troops are in Afghanistan. That may help to explain the layperson’s views on this subject.
then they shold take steps to corret that, or just shut the fuck up and listen when troops talk. Like here.
4. How Many Magazines does it take….
A buddy of mine was working for a company, which produces CF military gear. He explained that in order to get a federal contract for equipment, he had to speak with the head of DND acquisitions in Ottawa. He was shocked to learn that this relic of a soldier was still of the opinion that CF soldiers should only be carrying four mags in the their pouches and one in the rifle. The DND official was questioning the need to have more mags as he feared an increase in budget costs. Obviously, he was trained in the good old days of the Cold War and just didn’t understand. After visiting soldiers in Afghanistan, he wondered whey they would want to carry more ammo.
and we are currently allowing troops to purchase and carry their own equipment in theatre. And TF 1-07 is spear-heading a test of various chest-rigs. 3 PPCLI is currently spear-heading an initiative whereby every soldier will carry 10 mags at all times.
5. Gunny Says…..
My company Gunny worked with Canadians in Afghanistan. He has told me that other than being hard working and easy to get along with, they were not trained to effectively deal with the mission at hand. Again, the doctrinal shift. Although their tactics were similar to those used by the Marines, Canadians lacked aggression and were more interested in supervising tasks rather than doing them. He said they liked to explain things more than actually doing them. His overall assessment was that CF Soldiers should have been given more training before deploying.
see above. I can give CF opinions about "robotic, and unable to think for themselves" or "lacking in personal inititative" but, those are jsut opinions. Similar to your Gunny's.
As for IEDs, I would like to see the manual the CF is using in order to compare it to what the Marine Corps is using.
where do you think the CF gets a lareg chunk of it's info on enemy tactics? Couple countries: both start with the letter "U". Odd thing...both those countries get info from Canada, too. Wierd how that works.
6. The NDP-the party you love to hate…..
The NDP is not a monolithic organization. Party members are entitled to have their own views. I know that Fez is not trying to flaunt his opinions in this forum but rather offer up some views to be discussed. Frankly, I am annoyed at the childish responses to his statements and questions. How often do you have card carrying NDP party members actually try and engage into a conversation in this forum in an attempt to learn more and validate information? You should be happy that someone in politics actually cares as opposed to just ranting and raving amongst yourselves.
he didn't try to engage in a conversation. He came on here blowing his hot air, and refused to listen when corrected with factual information. So he got dog-piled for being a dumbass.