Re: Cougar Salvo 05

[McInnes]

Good ex. Unless you were a troop only BMQ qualified and happened to be combat arms. They did dishes for 7 days straight I'm told. Makes me wonder what the svc btns were doing? And the army wonders why it has problems with retaining new troops...  :

split topic so as not to high-jack the CS 05 Pictures thread

 

[Tpr.Orange]

Good ex. Unless you were a troop only BMQ qualified and happened to be combat arms. They did dishes for 7 days straight I'm told. Makes me wonder what the svc btns were doing? And the army wonders why it has problems with retaining new troops...    :

Try driving, cooking, fixing your units weapons and vehicles... and processing all your paper work for everyone that went on the ex...

 

[Infanteer]

Dishes?  What the hell did they need dishes for?  Do they plan on shipping those dishes overseas?

Train as you'd Fight, no?

 

[aesop081]

Good ex. Unless you were a troop only BMQ qualified and happened to be combat arms. They did dishes for 7 days straight I'm told. Makes me wonder what the svc btns were doing? And the army wonders why it has problems with retaining new troops...    :

Quit your whining !!

 

[D-n-A]

Aquilus, theres a reason why they were at the FSG, their units didn't need them for the ex. Probably becuase they coulden't do much withouit SQ an/or BIQ. SO they did GD work for the week, kinda sucks for them yea.  Don't be bashing the SVC BNs like that though, thinking they did nothing. As CFN Orange said, they were kept busy doing Maintance, Convoys, DPs, Cooking, etc all in order to support the battle group.

 

[Matt_Fisher]

Wow,

Gone are the old days...when I did my first Cougar Salvo back in 1993, I'd just gotten sworn in that thursday night with the BCDs and by sunday I was throwing live C-13 grenades and firing M-72 in Yakima.  ;D  I still ended up pulling 2 days of Brigade General Duties and scrubbed alot of pots for the field kitchen, but I had an awesome time regardless.

Brigade working parties generally suck, however it's just a fact of life in the military.  There are ups and there are downs.  I do think that sticking somebody as a dishpig for 7 days when they're fresh in the Army isn't the best way to motivate them.  Some creative and logical thinking probably could have alleviated alot of the dishpig factor.  Perhaps a pre-SQ platoon could have been formed and the soldiers run through stuff like land-nav and patrolling basics?

 

[dutchie]

In my unit, the Seaforth's, all the BMQ guys were told in no uncertain terms that they would be doing GD on CS. If they chose to go, and didn't like it, I guess that's just added motivation to get their course done this summer, and they know for next time. GD is the shits, no doubt, but I've done my fair share as have most others with any kind of TI, so suck it up.

Anybody else have any more pics of the ex?

 

[ImanIdiot]

The BMQ/SQ's also did D&S for the Task Force HQ and Camp area. There must have been a miscommunication somewhere though, because our guys were told they could be involved in everything except the live fire section attacks.

 

[dutchie]

And what unit would that be? (empty profile).

Also, my understanding is that SQ guys were D & S but that BMQ guys were strictly GD.

 

[INFRES]

I went on that exercise witha few people from my unit from Ontario to be part of the enemy force. I have my bmq/sq but not biq as my course was cancelled last year, but i have been in for 2 years now. We found ourselves doing GD's fora good portion of the time and when we were told that we were goin out with the opfor we found ourselves doin GD's in the area the opfor was working in and some days we did 12 hour sentry shifts on a road that very, very few people traveled on. This sucked enough as it was but we noticed some privates i believe were untrained from alberta that had been in our GD platoon a few days before and comlaining about havin to do GD's and they were now rigged up in their opfor uniforms. That was a real kick in the nuts and we finished the week being told we could do some simunitions b4 we left the range and while the 2 39 brigade sentries went down to do it as me and my partner waited our turns we were left standing up at the gate until we were told it was time to leave. Sure am glad i made the trip cross country for that lol

 

[ImanIdiot]

And what unit would that be? (empty profile).

Also, my understanding is that SQ guys were D & S but that BMQ guys were strictly GD.

I'm with the Westies...and you could be right, maybe I am mistaken about their taskings. Either way, the guys didn't get what they expected. That's how it goes in the army, I suppose. I don't think the guys who did the D&S are too keen to do a tour now, though! One week of gate guard is enough, from what I hear.

It was a pretty good ex otherwise, I thought. No major gripes.  Even the weather cooperated for the most part. The simunition is an awesome training tool, I hadn't used it before.

 

[Fraser.g]

Dishes?   What the heck did they need dishes for?   Do they plan on shipping those dishes overseas?

Train as you'd Fight, no?

The troops ate off paper for the ex when they were not on Hard rations I believe he was referring to the pots from the field kitchen.

As for the GD, SUCK IT UP! If you are not qualified to go to the field but your unit and the brbrigadeecided to offer you 7 extra days pay, and you took it then you will do what they want you to do for that pay. This is the F'in Army not cadets. There are many tasks that suck and even more that are great. Take the good with the bad, talk to your friends in your unit that were out training and then get your courses so that you can do the same next year!

GF

 

[McInnes]

Pardon me I ment to say BMQ/SQ. As for the SQ troops, they were told they'd be part of their units up until they arrived. I know several officers from my unit who fought to get the troops back so don't say it was the units that didn't want them. And they are fully qualified to go into the field. They are trained soldiers and qualified to do everything save for live fire, that was what has been said for as long as I can remember. As for the whining, it doesn't have a whole lot to do with me, I was just saying I find it hard that they wonder why they trouble keeping young troops in when they're lied to about all the 'cool' stuff they'll be doing, and then having their weapons taken away and working GD under the svc btns. I wasn't bashing the svc either. Simply train as you fight correct? So why would someone need to pull trained soldiers out of their units for GD? I'm told it had nothing to do with the svc now, apparently somone in the middle in brigade made the call? Regardless, there were a lot of bitter and upset soldier qual troops, some of which had taken vacation off of work so they could participate in this 'rare opportunity ex', and instead did GD for a week. I mean, it is the Army after all, but I can understand their dissapointment. Cheers.

 

[brin11]

Well, there were some QL5 qualified troops that did gate duty throughout Arcon last summer and that's ALL they did.  I don't have much sympathy for people with only SQ doing GD.  Unfortunately, this is not uncommon where troops are told one thing and end up doing another. 

 

[aesop081]

Pardon me I ment to say BMQ/SQ. As for the SQ troops, they were told they'd be part of their units up until they arrived. I know several officers from my unit who fought to get the troops back so don't say it was the units that didn't want them. And they are fully qualified to go into the field. They are trained soldiers and qualified to do everything save for live fire, that was what has been said for as long as I can remember. As for the whining, it doesn't have a whole lot to do with me, I was just saying I find it hard that they wonder why they trouble keeping young troops in when they're lied to about all the 'cool' stuff they'll be doing, and then having their weapons taken away and working GD under the svc btns. I wasn't bashing the svc either. Simply train as you fight correct? So why would someone need to pull trained soldiers out of their units for GD? I'm told it had nothing to do with the svc now, apparently somone in the middle in brigade made the call? Regardless, there were a lot of bitter and upset soldier qual troops, some of which had taken vacation off of work so they could participate in this 'rare opportunity ex', and instead did GD for a week. I mean, it is the Army after all, but I can understand their dissapointment. Cheers.

What you don't know due to a lack of experience ( your profile says you are a reserve private) is that getting pulled away to do GD is a reality of military life in the field.  The troops were told one thing and another happenned, thats not the army's fault.  Life in the army isn't all "cool" stuff if you haven't figured it out yet ! If i had a dollar for everytime i was told one thing and another happenned, i'd be filthy rich by now.....and would you imagine, i'm still in the military...how's that for retention.  I have no sympathy for these guys and i don't see a retention issue here.  You have to be able to take the good and the bad......If these guys were 031 and were only BMQ/SQ qualified...they are qualified to do jacks**t ! Washing pots and pans may not be everyone's idea of the army but its gotta get done... hey, on the bright side, they were qualified to do that !!  ;D

 

[Fishbone Jones]

You'd think this is the first time this ever happened. The reality is that Brigade will tell all the Units to send ALL there personell of a certain qualification and below to a central Bg point for use as they see fit. The Units have no option. It's a fact of life. You can also, today, not employ someone in a task that they have not been formally trained to do, sentry , patrols, live fire, etc. and then mostly only with max supervision first time out. They should be thankful they at least got the trip and the experience. It wasn't that long ago, if you weren't qualified, you just didn't go. If this kind of stuff has got them peeved, they better grow a thicker skin. There's lot's more where that came from and they'll get it in spades before they're done.

 

[Troopasaurus]

Alright, from somebody who was there washing dishes for 7 days I have to say it really wasn't all that bad. Would I have rather been out in the field with my regiment? Obviously, but as stated It is a task that needed to be done and I did gain some training (how to light an immersion heater without it blowing up). Every GD troop on the ex got to go up in the Helicopters so that was quite something. Just wanted to let you guys know not all the GD's were completely pissed and I would probably still have gone knowing that i was going to be doing dishes for the whole ex. The most disappointing part of the ex was getting off the bus and being told you don't know how to operate the C7 because a MCpl was under the belief that on a stoppage drill you "cock, tilt, look..."


Anyways, myself and the rest of the GD's made the best of the situation and turned the ex into an good experience.

 

[Tpr.Orange]

Good to hear it! 

and good on you for knowing and doing the right thing on an excersize. The more you work hard the better and EX will be.

 

[mondo]

just thought i'd add my 2 cents into the pot...

went with a section of troops from our unit in Lethbridge to support 39 BDG as OPFOR. What we expected to what we recieved were 2 totally different things. It probally was a pretty cool ex for the pers that were training, but for us it was 7 days of sit around and wait. Heck, I got to try out the simunitiions for the first time. Just seemed like it was such a waste to get us there for 1 day in the field, 6 days sleeping at base camp. Oh welll...

 

[mondo]

Alright, from somebody who was there washing dishes for 7 days I have to say it really wasn't all that bad. Would I have rather been out in the field with my regiment? Obviously, but as stated It is a task that needed to be done and I did gain some training (how to light an immersion heater without it blowing up). Every GD troop on the ex got to go up in the Helicopters so that was quite something. Just wanted to let you guys know not all the GD's were completely pissed and I would probably still have gone knowing that i was going to be doing dishes for the whole ex. The most disappointing part of the ex was getting off the bus and being told you don't know how to operate the C7 because a MCpl was under the belief that on a stoppage drill you "****, tilt, look..."


Anyways, myself and the rest of the GD's made the best of the situation and turned the ex into an good experience.


Hope u weren't with the troops that our WO jacked up in the middle of the night for running around in there mod tent with no clothes/shirts on throwing glow sticks at each other. Should have had MORE make work duties for you...