Divining the right role, capabilities, structure, and Regimental System for Canada's Army Reserves

[Colin Parkinson]

Those were merely examples, I have seen this work with my own eyes, I realize the role is not there at the moment but I think it's a good idea, based on what I saw at my unit when we were Op's Tasked.

 

[MilEME09]

MLVW is going away (where it is not already gone) and MSVS MilCOT is already contracted maintenance.  There is no role for PRes Maint to provide garrison support.

All I've seen mostly is oil changes, changing tires between rims, windshield replacement, very basic stuff, but at the same time this is all stuff PRes might do in the field, I don't see the replacement of a engine in a MILCOT any time soon.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

A engine swap is easy and I suspect even easier in one of those. One day I watched a driver and his buddy swap engines in his truck (same size as a 2 1/2 ton) with just a A frame, pulleys and comealong. Rebuilding an engine is a bit trickery and requires some specialized tools and more training, same with a tranny or axle differential. Our PresRes vehicle techs should be more than capable of swapping out major components like that.

 

[chrisf]

MLVW is going away (where it is not already gone) and MSVS MilCOT is already contracted maintenance.  There is no role for PRes Maint to provide garrison support.

LSVWs? Trailers? Portable generators? Or the many other bits and pieces maintained by your friendly neighbourhood mechanics?

Mechancal skills aren't something that can be learned and maintained a few weekends a year, investing a few bucks and making sure mechanics can tinker at all opportunities (parade nights, garrison weekends) are exceptionally important.

Can't tell you the number of times out mechanics scrambled to fix up a rad van so we could roll out the door.

If we were using contracted maintenance it would be months before the tuck was back, and we'd be walking out the door.

 

[daftandbarmy]

LSVWs? Trailers? Portable generators? Or the many other bits and pieces maintained by your friendly neighbourhood mechanics?

Mechancal skills aren't something that can be learned and maintained a few weekends a year, investing a few bucks and making sure mechanics can tinker at all opportunities (parade nights, garrison weekends) are exceptionally important.

Can't tell you the number of times out mechanics scrambled to fix up a rad van so we could roll out the door.

If we were using contracted maintenance it would be months before the tuck was back, and we'd be walking out the door.

We are the largest reserve unit on Vancouver Island, the second largest in 39 CBG, and I have an Adm Coy that is, get this, 18 personnel strong including 'overhead' like me.

Of that we have five people who are 'transport tasked'. Only two are MSE Ops, and both are Class A.

If we weren't co-located with CFB Esquimalt and their TEME section, we'd be pretty much doomed.

 

[MedCorps]

We are the largest reserve unit on Vancouver Island, the second largest in 39 CBG, and I have an Adm Coy that is, get this, 18 personnel strong including 'overhead' like me.

Of that we have five people who are 'transport tasked'. Only two are MSE Ops, and both are Class A.

If we weren't co-located with CFB Esquimalt and their TEME section, we'd be pretty much doomed.

I guess the question I would ask is...

If your unit was given 4 x Pte / Cpl Veh Tech and 1 x MCpl Veh Tech that are trained in basic SMP / MilCOT vehicle repair (plus double the regular entitlement of Class A days) as well as 1 x MRT (Light Vehicle) (and/or wecker) and a general tooling and space for a garage in your unit lines would you be able to employ them effectively?  Would they be a help or hinderance to your Coy / Unit? Would you rather they are employed at the TEME section or under your command? 

MC

 

[CountDC]

Nope.  It is FER.  An FER is the close support engineer unit at the division level.  A CER is a brigade level unit.
I know the new nomenclature is "ES" with establishments that reflect one Fd Tp and two (seemingly random and often unresourced) Sp Tps.  That is not what these squadrons are.  They are Fd Sqns with two Fd Tps and a backhoe/dump troop.

I will give the nod to your Cranbrook suggestion though.
These do work well together and are complementary within the general support engineer unit.  4 ESR is forging ahead on closer integration and colaberation be mixing Fd Tps and Const Tps at the sub-unit level.  In camp construction, the horizontal work and force protection works are typically combat engineer jobs.
Bridging and Rafting.  Western Canada's MR and MFB are permanently located in Chilliwack, so the role/task would be properly resourced.

Thanks - never heard anyone mention FER before.  Even when dealing with the Reg F ones I always hear CER.

Chilliwack will need a lot of investment to bring it up to snuff in order to fill that role.  Sure no one would complain about that one.

 

[daftandbarmy]

I guess the question I would ask is...

If your unit was given 4 x Pte / Cpl Veh Tech and 1 x MCpl Veh Tech that are trained in basic SMP / MilCOT vehicle repair (plus double the regular entitlement of Class A days) as well as 1 x MRT (Light Vehicle) (and/or wecker) and a general tooling and space for a garage in your unit lines would you be able to employ them effectively?  Would they be a help or hinderance to your Coy / Unit? Would you rather they are employed at the TEME section or under your command? 

MC

Well, that would be awesome but we are an infantry reserve unit and, if we were given those resources, we'd likely be better staffed than the Svc Bn.

 

[MedCorps]

Well, that would be awesome but we are an infantry reserve unit and, if we were given those resources, we'd likely be better staffed than the Svc Bn.

Staff does not equate to capability.  Understanding that this sub-sub-sub unit sized RCEME unit would maybe more robust than your local Res F Svc "Bn", would you be able to effectively employ them in order to achieve an effect (capability?). 

Assuming the effect you want to achieve is:

- Lower VOR rate of Inf Res Unit vehicles in garrison
- Higher vehicle availability rates when deploying to the field
- Ability to unit recover vehicles while on exercise
- Ability to conduct minor repairs in the field in order to keep the vehicle on exercise
- In-Unit ability to conduct driver maintenance and driver recovery training as required
- Maybe reduced cost of sending vehicles for third party contract for maintenance / minor repair

Would you be able to employ these 5 NCM's and 1-2 vehicles with double the Class A days to achieve that effect?  Or would these five RCEME guys hanging around the Res F Inf Unit be used as kit shop staff or get lost in the normal function of a Res F Inf unit?  Or would they be in unit lines but would not be able to achieve the aforementioned effect for other reasons? 

Not being adversarial, just picking your brain.

MC

 

[Colin Parkinson]

With our unit which was a 6 gun arty battery with 2 cp's, 2 op's ,sig truck, field kitchen and ambulance the vehicle tech was almost always busy.

 

[daftandbarmy]

Staff does not equate to capability.  Understanding that this sub-sub-sub unit sized RCEME unit would maybe more robust than your local Res F Svc "Bn", would you be able to effectively employ them in order to achieve an effect (capability?). 

Assuming the effect you want to achieve is:

- Lower VOR rate of Inf Res Unit vehicles in garrison
- Higher vehicle availability rates when deploying to the field
- Ability to unit recover vehicles while on exercise
- Ability to conduct minor repairs in the field in order to keep the vehicle on exercise
- In-Unit ability to conduct driver maintenance and driver recovery training as required
- Maybe reduced cost of sending vehicles for third party contract for maintenance / minor repair

Would you be able to employ these 5 NCM's and 1-2 vehicles with double the Class A days to achieve that effect?  Or would these five RCEME guys hanging around the Res F Inf Unit be used as kit shop staff or get lost in the normal function of a Res F Inf unit?  Or would they be in unit lines but would not be able to achieve the aforementioned effect for other reasons? 

Not being adversarial, just picking your brain.

MC

We could keep a small LAD pretty busy is my SWAG.

However, we recently had 2 x MSVS taken away from us because of lack of miles on the clock. I would say this was due less as a result of not being needed and more as a result of a lack of focus (at all levels, including the highest) of ensuring that we have a sound, well trained Echelon at the unit level.

 

[dapaterson]

Army Reserve units often lose sight of their mandate: to train platoons in a company context.  That's it.  Despite the grand aspirations of some, there is no mandate to train companies or even to roll out the battalion in battle.

"Selection and maintenance of the aim" therefore should be focused on trianing individual soldiers, then working on training at the section level, and then the platoon.  All else is noise and should be secondary - the associations, the bands, the auxiliaries, the plethora of reports and returns demanded by the plethora of HQs...

Perhaps, instead of obsessing that a group mandated to train platoons lacks the echelon for a battalion, efforts would be better placed into providing meaningful, challenging training to build soldier skills and fighting spirit.

Or we could devote the limited time and effort available to a part-time organization to debate the finer points of millinery and haberdashery.

 

[McG]

However, we recently had 2 x MSVS taken away from us because of lack of miles on the clock. I would say this was due less as a result of not being needed and more as a result of a lack of focus of ensuring that we have a sound, well trained Echelon at the unit level.

You could have a full 40 pers Reg F Maint Pl available 24/7 and your echelon would not make a difference on the MSVS.  Military techs are not authorized to do anything on that vehicle.

Army Reserve units often lose sight of their mandate: to train platoons in a company context.  That's it.  Despite the grand aspirations of some, there is no mandate to train companies or even to roll out the battalion in battle.

"Selection and maintenance of the aim" therefore should be focused on trianing individual soldiers, then working on training at the section level, and then the platoon.  All else is noise and should be secondary - the associations, the bands, the auxiliaries, the plethora of reports and returns demanded by the plethora of HQs...

Perhaps, instead of obsessing that a group mandated to train platoons lacks the echelon for a battalion, efforts would be better placed into providing meaningful, challenging training to build soldier skills and fighting spirit.

Or we could devote the limited time and effort available to a part-time organization to debate the finer points of millinery and haberdashery.

:nod:

 

[daftandbarmy]

You could have a full 40 pers Reg F Maint Pl available 24/7 and your echelon would not make a difference on the MSVS.  Military techs are not authorized to do anything on that vehicle.
:nod:

And it's pretty easy to dumb things down too far, which we have also seen happen. There's nothing like seeing a rifle company debus from a leased civilian bus at the Assembly Area for a big attack to remind you of your Army Cadet days.

Nevertheless, I'm all excited now... I've just heard that we'll be able to mount a RADIO in one of our LSVWs for the first time, ever!

ohboyohboyohboyohboy

Now we can pretend we're a LAV!

 

[blackberet17]

Nevertheless, I'm all excited now... I've just heard that we'll be able to mount a RADIO in one of our LSVWs for the first time, ever!

ohboyohboyohboyohboy

Now we can pretend we're a LAV!

If the radio works...

 

[daftandbarmy]

If the radio works...

Or the LAV, apparently. It's been 'in the shop' for about 9 months.

 

[Blackadder1916]

. . . There's nothing like seeing a rifle company debus from a leased civilian bus at the Assembly Area for a big attack to remind you of your Army Cadet days. . . .

If you can fit a rifle company into "a" bus, it's not a rifle company - it's a platoon commanded by a major.

Well, if it's this bus, then maybe.

And what's wrong with using buses to get to the Assembly Area?  It's "traditional".

 

[George Wallace]

And what's wrong with using buses to get to the Assembly Area?  It's "traditional".

Perhaps this Government is not into "Tradition" as much as the outgoing one was.  >

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Not every unit is infantry centric. So not every unit fits into that simplistic synopsis. Some units are vehicle mounted. Those mounts require maintenance. Stovepipes and empires have arisen to the point where drivers are not allowed to change light bulbs on SMP vehicles and units are not allowed to self recover, amongst other ludicrous impositions.

The loss of essential vehicles and equipment to national courses, and the resultant maintenance and return times, ensure that home units seldom get, and hold, their equipment long enough to properly train, whether at the soldier level or higher.

A simple example is a unit sending all its extremely serviceable MGs to summer training, having them returned in December, in condemned condition and told no replacements will be forth coming in the near future. Typically, they get replaced just in time to be sent for summer training again. The same goes for vehicles and radios.

The silver lining being the cumbersome, antiquated IBTS system taking soooooooo much time, there is seldom anything else to do.

Oh, and mandatory lectures, which have become absolutely comical in their sheer number.

 

[blacktriangle]

Not every unit is infantry centric. So not every unit fits into that simplistic synopsis. Some units are vehicle mounted. Those mounts require maintenance. Stovepipes and empires have arisen to the point where drivers are not allowed to change light bulbs on SMP vehicles and units are not allowed to self recover, amongst other ludicrous impositions.

The loss of essential vehicles and equipment to national courses, and the resultant maintenance and return times, ensure that home units seldom get, and hold, their equipment long enough to properly train, whether at the soldier level or higher.

A simple example is a unit sending all its extremely serviceable MGs to summer training, having them returned in December, in condemned condition and told no replacements will be forth coming in the near future. Typically, they get replaced just in time to be sent for summer training again. The same goes for vehicles and radios.

The silver lining being the cumbersome, antiquated IBTS system taking soooooooo much time, there is seldom anything else to do.

Oh, and mandatory lectures, which have become absolutely comical in their sheer number.

I'm not going to beat the PRes Armd dead horse, but I agree that a lack of "simple" things like GPMGs and radios is pretty disgusting. There should be no excuses for that. And I'm sure that the mandatory lectures are a big hit with the troops...