Joining reserves as officer

[ghyslyn]

Hey everyone, I come from Winnipeg, I'm 18 years old and a first year university student. Last month I applied to join the reserves as an infantry officer with the Royal Winnipeg Rifles. I called the recruitment centre yesterday and they said I'll get an appointment call most likely next week.

If anyone has any advice or any information at all I'm all ears to every detail of everything, from what i know these are the guesses ive made of what will happen.

I'll get the appointment, do the tests, be offered training from may till august 2008, which will be in st jean sur richelieu québec and gagetown new brunswick, where I will be taking BMQ and SQ and then BOTP.

I already have a good sense of what BMQ and SQ are as a friend of mine is already a reservist and ive talked about it alot with him, but he doesnt know much about what happens for officers.

One other concern I have is my sister's wedding is august 23rd, not sure if that might end up being a problem or not.

Thanks to everyone who helps me out

edit:
I'm also wondering what's the difference between officer training and the RMC? Because I'm actually looking to possibly change universities, my experience at my current university feels unfulfilling.

 

[Nfld Sapper]

First: Welcome to the site

Second: Use the search function

Third: SQ is for Non-Commissioned Members not Officers

Fourth: Since you are joining a Reserve Unit it would highly unlikely that you will be going to St. Jean for training. You would do your BMQ/BMOQ locally and then be sent to Gagetown to complete some Officer Courses.

 

[Command-Sense-Act 105]

Exactly what our good friend NFLD Sapper said, plus Good Luck and enjoy the ride!

 

[exspy]

This post brought a question to my mind about Reserve officer training.

When I joined in 1977 there was a program for Reserve officers called RESO for Reserve Entry Scheme Officer.  In short, the said Reserve officer would be trained over three consecutive summers alongside Regular Component officer candidates taking the same Regular Force courses and being held to the same standards, with the exception of Phase IV training.  Starting as an Officer Cadet the RESO candidate would receive a promotion after successfully completing each summer's training ending up after 3 years as a Captain.

The first summer training period was of 13 weeks duration divided into a truncated 3 week Phase I followed by the full Phase II curriculum.  The second summer was also 13 weeks.  It was divided into a 3 week Phase II refresher again followed by a full Phase III.  The last summer was a return to MITCP training and employment that would last for the same 13 weeks after which the Reserve officer would be promoted to Captain.

This scheme was applicable to all of the officer classification trades open to Reservists.  For those who were not Armour or Artillery the Phase I and Phase II training was conducted with the Infantry candidates.  On our Infantry Phase II course we had Communications, Engineer and Logistics candidates.

While RESO had some faults it did provide excellent training opportunities for the Reserve candidates involved.  It opened their eyes up to the 'real' army (the good and the bad) and gave them training and access to weapons that they would have never seen over an entire career in the Reserves.  The question I have is, is this plan or something similar still an option?  Can a Reserve officer today undertake the same courses alongside the Regular officer and be trained to the same standard?  (There was talk at the time (and I stress it was only talk) of providing a similar plan for Reserve Other Ranks who would have the option of taking Regular Component TQ3 training and so on.)

One downside for the Reserve Force was the number of officers who would component transfer to the Regulars after their training was completed!  I hope the plan, or its successor, is still around.

Dan.

 

[ghyslyn]

Great reply Dan!

as a response to your question about how it is now, this is what I've understood from recruiting website and recruiter, so some of the information i mention may be incorrect. comparing to how you said it was in 1977. The Basic officer training is split into 2 parts, IAP(Initial Assessment Phase), which lasts 9 weeks and is designed to verify whether or not the "candidate" is suitable for a leadership position or not, as well as helping them tone those skills. The second part is BOTP(Basic Officer Training Period) which lasts 6 weeks which is self explanatory, teaches you everything needed to be a qualified officer.

The IAP phase apparently really ressembles BMQ and if im not mistaken some officers even take BMQ with other reservists for this part of the training, and both parts together total nearly 4 months of training that's either what im hoping nonsstop from may till august, or in 2 seperate parts in 2 years. After completion of the training you would be a 2nd Lt. and join a unit or something. Also after 5 years(and not 3 years as you mentioned) you would have attained the rank of captain.

What I wonder with this thread is how accurate my info is, and how exactly is the training?

edit: another thing i was worried about is i heard if your transfer from reserves to regfor you lose your commission and have to train all over again.

2nd edit: another thing that worries me is some people tell me to rush it, others tell me to relax and wait, some are concerned, some tell me to relax again.... its kinda stressful to get so many contradicting replies, id love to just meet someone who's experienced it all hands on to fill me in on everything because im getting tired of all these different opinions

 

[ghyslyn]

Well here we go, this is exactly why i started this thread in the first place.

ignore my last post, it was half wrong, apparently most of those details are for regfor.