Greymatters said:
I dont believe we have the same problem. There are just as many recruits out there trying to get in as they ever have been. The problem is the system is slow, cumbersome, and time intensive. Too many hoops to jump through reqiring support from too many organizations who dont always work well together. A training system that can only handle x number of candidates per year and acts like its rocket science to expand their training capabilities. We've already got the plan for this process on paper, its been there ever since the 70's, and gets upgraded every once in a while, in case we went to war and needed to fast-track a few hundred thousand soldiers. Instead of using it, they turned to the reserves to save money and effort, a short term solution that was supposed to give the training departments time to suck back and fix the problems of figuring out how to train a large group of recruits very quickly. Instead the time got pissed away and now they are back to square one, still not enough soldiers, except this time a smaller reserve of eligible soldiers waiting in the wings to fill the gaps.
Look at this one guy here, saying he's been waiting for three years. WTF? If he meets minimum standards, get him trained. Tell him he's suitable or not and let him move on with his life instead of jerking his chain forever.
I'm in grave danger of being
waaaaay out of my lanes here, after all I've been retired for a lot longer than many members have been in the service and, in 35+ years of military service, I had next to nothing to do with recruiting or personnel policy, but:
1. I'm not sure there
too many hoops. If we want a tough, superbly disciplined, well trained
professional military then we have to start by recruiting the right sort of people. The problems (I think there are several) may include –
a. The hoops are not arranged properly – it’s not too hard to jump through a bunch of hoops if they are easily accessed and in the right order;
b. Some of the hoops are not in our hands; and
c. Money, money, money! Almost all problems can be solved if you throw enough money at them;
2. The training
system was, indeed, the poor relation from about 1965 through to 1990±. I did 1½ ‘school’ tours – at one time recruit training, and some other training, too, was done in
regiment depots which were rather like schools – and I remain frustrated, 30+ years later, at
some of the experiences, mainly at those experiences inflicted upon us by an ill-equipped, uninformed,
uniformed, empire building bureaucracy. (The civil service did nothing to, for or about military training - other than to shake heads sadly.)
3. Everyone, from Gen. Hillier on down, appears to
know that –
a. The system is broken, and
b. The way
s to ‘fix’ it are clear and simple, albeit a bit expensive.
There seems to be a disconnect being knowing and doing.
I have no doubt that the pressures of managing a war gets in the way of looking after the recruiting and training conundrum – and the war in Afghanistan exerts real, huge pressures on senior staff in Ottawa (Have you seen Gen. Hillier lately? He looks ten years older than he did 2½ years ago, when he took over as CDS.). A problem (just one of many) that
I think I see (from the comfort of retirement) is that there are way too many people
managing the war and, consequently, too few managing everything else. There
seems to me to be a compelling
careerist ‘need’ to be seen to be doing something, almost anything, involving the ‘war.’ Evidently recruiting and training the people we need to fight said war doesn’t count.
</rant>