Reconstitution

[Halifax Tar]

Understandable.
I’d suggest that once a year a Bde ideally would travel to another Bde’s training area.
That way the entire Bde conducts a movement, and many aspects get exercised.

Down here we have three options for combat training centers:
1) National Training Center, Fort Irwin, Calif.,
2) Joint Multinational Readiness Center at U.S. Army Garrison Hohenfels, Germany, and
3) Joint Readiness Training Center, Fort Polk, La

However for day to day training, having ranges (small arms to combined arms live fire) on the same post makes field unit life much more attractive.
Even more so when it is close to a nearby urban center.
Rural life enjoying folks can usually find properties on one side of a base, while those who want urban life can find it within 30min or less of the main gate.

One of the reasons I like Ft Bragg is while I dislike cities and would never live in Fayetteville, the back side has Southern Pines and some horse country so suburban to fully rural areas are inside 20min.

I think the support echelons need to be exercised more than once a year. But I don't think it always needs to be a massive CBG level event.

Move the SVC BN to the training are. Set up in the field as an FSG and practice defence of th position, FP of the supply train, Maint tasks like battlefield recovery and RRRs and actioning material and pers requests.

 

[Remius]

People generally relocate to urban centers for employment, NOT necessarily because they love being in an urban center.

One of the phenomenas of the pandemic are people WFH that opted to move out of the urban centers. Real estate is normally cheaper and they live their lifestyles the way they want.

 

[KevinB]

@Halifax Tar You can (and should) use your Bde Logistics and Support entities to support day routine in training areas as well.
With a base collocated with a trg area, you can always leave equipment in situ, with sentries and bus/B vehicle folks to and from.

2 RCHA would often do this on ex’s, and we did it in 1VP as well in Calgary, both those units didn’t suffer from that and it was actually enjoyable to sleep in one’s own bed more often than not.

 

[Navy_Pete]

Professionalization of CAF HR enters the discussion again. Taking a skilled AVN and telling them "You're now a career manager" and delivering all necessary training only after they are in the job for their first year is not how professionals work.

Why stop at HR? That's how we do all CAF jobs. LCMM apprenticeship program is 3 years long. Average military posting to an LCMM billet is 2 years. Procurement is about a two year onboarding. The project manager certification can take a few years. It works okay as long as you have a mix of experienced civlian personnel that have a lot of experience with the various processes and can walk you through it.

Fortunately we plan ahead for personnel management and trained up replacements for all the folks hitting retirement age, with overlap to allow knowledge transfer and... well crap.

 

[Kirkhill]

Understandable.
I’d suggest that once a year a Bde ideally would travel to another Bde’s training area.
That way the entire Bde conducts a movement, and many aspects get exercised.

Down here we have three options for combat training centers:
1) National Training Center, Fort Irwin, Calif.,
2) Joint Multinational Readiness Center at U.S. Army Garrison Hohenfels, Germany, and
3) Joint Readiness Training Center, Fort Polk, La

However for day to day training, having ranges (small arms to combined arms live fire) on the same post makes field unit life much more attractive.
Even more so when it is close to a nearby urban center.
Rural life enjoying folks can usually find properties on one side of a base, while those who want urban life can find it within 30min or less of the main gate.

One of the reasons I like Ft Bragg is while I dislike cities and would never live in Fayetteville, the back side has Southern Pines and some horse country so suburban to fully rural areas are inside 20min.

Supporting small combined arms teams dispersed across the country mirrors the battlefield observed in Ukraine. Also a combined arms team (sub unit size) requires less space than a Brigade Group.

An argument for permanent combined arms groupings at the sub-unit level.

 

[dapaterson]

Hey, a week is plenty of time to transfer knowledge.

 

[Kirkhill]

Hey, a week is plenty of time to transfer knowledge.

 

[Navy_Pete]

How many "hardship" postings are there really?

I get sea duty for the Navy. For the Air Force? I keep hearing about Cold Lake and Bagotville.

Army?

Sea pay is specifically for the ships only to offset things like duty watches and sailing, has nothing to do with location, and you only get it while posted to a ship (so is similar to land duty allowance I think which replaced field pay). PLD is for cost of living offsets. Updating PLD is what is really needed for high cost of living areas, not messing around with another (poorly implemented) allowance.

There are a few actual remote postings (I think Yellowknife, Nunavut etc), and Alert is counted as a deployment tour. The foreign ones fall under their own separate program (that I can't remember the name of) but that's when they do the hazard assessment and scale it from there.

 

[daftandbarmy]

Or when there was a RegF Bn of PPCLI in Winnipeg and Esquimalt…

You mean the QOR West?

 

[KevinB]

Supporting small combined arms teams dispersed across the country mirrors the battlefield observed in Ukraine. Also a combined arms team (sub unit size) requires less space than a Brigade Group.

An argument for permanent combined arms groupings at the sub-unit level.

@Infanteer can address the issue with permanent sub groupings better than I.

I was once for it, but I have seen the effect that occurs on the Infantry skills of Heavy CAB’s down here, and the only way I see that working in Canada is a split of the Infantry trade to Light and Mech forces. You basically lose any separate skills as they solely focus on being a Mech Infanteer working with tanks.

Seeing dudes on Pre-Ranger from Armored units they have a serious disadvantage when it comes to dismounted work, and those units require often 2-3x more work than Light units getting ready for that course.

 

[Kirkhill]

@Infanteer can address the issue with permanent sub groupings better than I.

I was once for it, but I have seen the effect that occurs on the Infantry skills of Heavy CAB’s down here, and the only way I see that working in Canada is a split of the Infantry trade to Light and Mech forces. You basically lose any separate skills as they solely focus on being a Mech Infanteer working with tanks.

Seeing dudes on Pre-Ranger from Armored units they have a serious disadvantage when it comes to dismounted work, and those units require often 2-3x more work than Light units getting ready for that course.

The nature of the Canadian situation is that we have to accept that we will not be all singing all dancing. We can choose to excellent in a singular field or we can choose to be competent across a range of fields.

We have already cast our lot by permanently tying our infantry to the LAVs.

 

[lenaitch]

One of the phenomenas of the pandemic are people WFH that opted to move out of the urban centers. Real estate is normally cheaper and they live their lifestyles the way they want.

Of course, "cheaper" is a relative term. We're about 2 hours north of Toronto and prices shot up when the whole wfh thing started. Now that some employers are requiring workers to show up a few days a week, some are having long commutes. Then there are the folks who thought moving to their cottage was a good idea without realizing that cottage country in February is a whole lot different.

 

[Remius]

Of course, "cheaper" is a relative term. We're about 2 hours north of Toronto and prices shot up when the whole wfh thing started. Now that some employers are requiring workers to show up a few days a week, some are having long commutes. Then there are the folks who thought moving to their cottage was a good idea without realizing that cottage country in February is a whole lot different.

Same thing happened around here.

But some took advantage of lower prices before they jumped. Or sold and we’re still able to afford a house in the extended outer area of the NCR.

 

[Furniture]

Of course, "cheaper" is a relative term. We're about 2 hours north of Toronto and prices shot up when the whole wfh thing started. Now that some employers are requiring workers to show up a few days a week, some are having long commutes. Then there are the folks who thought moving to their cottage was a good idea without realizing that cottage country in February is a whole lot different.

I suspect a few of the people who moved to PEI for remote working discovered the same thing. The island is beautiful spring through fall, but winter is long, snowy, and there is nothing open outside of Charlottetown.

 

[Brad Sallows]

"I want a well-paying job close to amenities that I like". The proposed solution is cantonments near communities, with the rough-house training areas located a short distance away.

I suppose one solution is to give up politically mandated dispersion and concentrate into a couple of joint bases, something like Lewis-McChord. One north of Edmonton (which is a provincial government town, note), and ON/QC can fight over the other. Maybe shared somewhere not too far from Ottawa on either side of the river.

 

[IKnowNothing]

But some took advantage of lower prices before they jumped. Or sold and we’re still able to afford a house in the extended outer area of the NCR.

Has the Carleton square area taken a big hit neighbourhood wise over the last decade? I can't understand how cheap some of those units are.

 

[Remius]

Has the Carleton square area taken a big hit neighbourhood wise over the last decade? I can't understand how cheap some of those units are.

Do you mean Carleton Place?

 

[dapaterson]

Some condos are facing huge payments for necessary renovations / repairs; when that happens, the unit values plummet. If you have to pay a $50K special assessment to the reserve fund, you resale will drop by at least that much.

 

[IKnowNothing]

Do you mean Carleton Place?

Nope, Carleton Square- Fisher and Meadowlands.

Some condos are facing huge payments for necessary renovations / repairs; when that happens, the unit values plummet. If you have to pay a $50K special assessment to the reserve fund, you resale will drop by at least that much.

Thanks. Makes sense, those have got to be knocking on 50 years old now.

 

[Eaglelord17]

Build housing on bases. Then get rid of PLD, and all the special house hunting/selling benefits. How many apartment blocks would we really need to sort out a base?

Then if you choose to buy a house or live off base its on you, not the tax payer and you make your own bed at that point.

Wages can’t go up substantially, its already breaking the defense budget with the rates we are currently paying (and we are basically the #1 paid military in the world for individual wages). I also don’t think we could every pay enough to make this attractive just for the money.