Reserve-Stalwart Guardian 05

[Jarnhamar]

I'm sure it would have popped up sooner or later so unlike on the range, I'll shoot first.  (Did someone else start this topic already?)

What did you guys who attended stalwart guardian think of the exercise?
Here's my 2 cents (From the point of view of a Corporal)
Pro's and Cons

Pro's

-AAG (or whatever it's called). VERY quick and painless. I couldn't believe it. We arrived on the mattawa, debussed, filled out two forms, checked in, grabbed rations, ate a quick lunch/snack, got on buses and headed out to our designated areas. It was I couldn't believe how fast and organized it was.
-Food and water. For the first few days we had a few hickups with food and water (didn't have enough)  It's an annoying thing but for the new privates I think it was a good training lesson. Very Early on in their career they learned that they won't always have meals a day and water won't always be readily available.  We had to share rations, some guys had to eat rations they didn't like. They had to watch their water consumption. Also it was straight hard rations which is good due to the fact that it's not screwing with your system.)
-New privates learned a lot of stuff that was left out of their summer training. (I hate the "they'll learn it back at their regiments' mentality)
Some of these guys had no clue when it came to very basic soldiering skills like marching/patrolling discipline, hand signals and how to pack. This gave us a chance to catch the new guys up to speed.
-MIR Commandos.  There was a UMS right in the battalion camp so not a lot of time was wasted sending people to the hospital for trivial things. It seemed like they were super serious about getting people back into the game as soon as possible when they were hurt which really cut down on people taking an easy out (IMHO)
-Fairly long marches with full FFO (including flak vests). Again, Early on it exposed the new soldiers to hardships.
-Proper time alloted for battle procedure and we had time to digest what was going on.
-Blue Rockets.  These were cleaned regularly, always awesome.

Cons
-Out of play bullshit.  We were told over and over that it was a tactical exercise. BOR, MIR and all the service elements had to dig shell scrapes. The minute the hide was attacked these elements, all of a sudden, were out of play. Thats shit.  If anyone is going to gain training value from being attacked in a hide it's not the infantry, it's the service support guys.  Becoming 'out of play' all of a sudden was pretty weak and, in my opinion, very hippocritical to the whole "tactical" concept.  An exercise should be administrative or tactical, halftical is a joke.
-"No timmies, we have spies". It actually came down that there were spies watching the tim hortons parking lot. Tim hortons was banned.  I myself don't drink coffee, but, is this some kind of major issue in the Canadian forces?  We need to ban our soldiers from Tim Horton's and set up MPs or spies to catch offenders?
-Promotion. I have mixed feelings about it. It seems like a LOT of money was spent on promoting this exercise. From posters to hand outs "where did you you attend?" to being ordered to watched the promotional video.  These exercises aren't really a new thing. I think the money may have been better spent else where.
-Ammo. Seemed like ammo was rationed until the end of the ex for fear of running out where upon the ammo was dumped on the companies. Thats nothing new though.
-ARC training in kingston. I'm not sure what went on there and maybe it's best discussed for another thread (maybe I'm not qualified to make this statement) but from what I've seen of the soldiers comming out of there, from what the newly trained soldiers said themselves, and from the instructors whom taught them, that ARC stuff was an abysmal failure. The soldiers who sent the summer there seemed to miss a lot of training and had huge training gaps. 
-Too much down time.  My company didn't send out any patrols during the night. I think there was enough time to fit in small patrols (reccee, ambush etc..) that would have gave junior master corporals and senior corporals a lot of training and confidence. We put in the attacks with no additional tasks.
-Clearing out.  Lots of confusion, especially advanced party. People being told they were staying in shacks then told they had to go back to the mattawa, some people being kicked out of their rooms, some people sleeping in their trucks.


More to follow

 

[Pikache]

Well, here's my kick at the can

Pros:
-Excellent enemy force. Good to have 1 RCR boys come out and play, giving a good challenge including usage of LAVs and snipers, roving patrols to make recce difficult and more. That trench position at the end of DZ Anzio was something special.
-Lots of time to prep for each mission, including sufficient rest time.
-Each mission was challenging enough to give everyone a test, even the OC as he had little intel from bn, so he had to rely on his recce patrols to get him the intel and if they failed... well, the mission became much more tougher.
-Good use of umpires to designate casualties for most part. Though it's hard to tell which arty sim is simulating friendly or enemy fire when it is tossed by the same guy.
-AAG and DAG was fast. Quick in, fill in two forms, toss your extra kit in a C container and wait out for AAG. Pick up your kit, go through DAG to get checked off the list and wait out at your designated area for bus with some timmy's and boxed meals.
-Lots of ammo.

Cons:
-Flakvests. I'm guessing everyone had to wear them to simulate being overseas as they wear these stuff all the time, but there wasn't an explanation about that from the higher ups, so a lot of troops may think they are being cocked for no good reason, so this means they won't come out next year.
-Lack of water: I dunno if this is a CQ thing or RQ thing, but I get annoyed when my troops have to scramble for water. (I was a sect 2IC)
-Chopper ride: IMO this was tossed in just for the cool factor. Yeah, it's nice and shiny for new troops to experience, but the flight was only like 5 mins, so in terms of in the mission perspective, it wasn't really necessary. (Esp. when the flight path took them right over the objective...)
-Being stuck with too many new troops in a section: I dunno if this is just my company, but it seems to me that CAC is turning more into a FTX for troops coming off their summer course more and more each year. Two years in a roll I was a sect 2IC in a 8 men sect and 5-6 are new, so I end up trying to keep too much of an eye on each troops which somewhat experienced soldier can teach to his partner. (Such as how to build a really rainproof hooch, make a range card, get their kit squared away better, etc)
I'm only saying this because in a lot of cases, non PLQ qualified cpls are being asked to fill in the sect 2IC role, and while some excel from the pressure, I bet quite a few fail because they can't do their job that they are not prepared for, and it doesn't help that they have to look after a lot of new troops on top of it.
-Admin days at the beginning and the end of the ex: too much down time that could have been better spent getting troops home.
-No beer at the end of ex: I dunno if this was area wide thing, but 2 nice cold beer would have been nice to end a miserable week. Just a minor gripe though.

Overall, I thought this one was better organized and better run than last year's ex and more challenging. 

 

[Spanky]

The excercise was very well run and well paced.  There was a lot of time for battle procedure and AARs.  The enemy force was awesome.  Having a PL(+) on the objectives with all the kit was a welcome change from a couple of blue fleet vehicles and 3/4 pers.
We had a major problem with kit.  Our recce sqn required 16 Iltis, and we were given 6.  The three sqns had to readujust vehicle allotment every 2 days.  Comms were a joke!  My troop had 5 callsigns instead of 7, and each vehicle had a 521 set with 1 battery for a 2 day tasking.  The battery had to be turned in after 24 hours so that we could get it back in time for the start of the next task, leaving us with out comms for 24 hours.  We did have our FRS's though.
Doing convoy escort duty with a real convoy was a treat.

We too had a problem with such a high percentage of newbies.  If more senior and experienced personal showed up for the ex, then the percentage of newbies would be lower, having less of an effect.  At least the new guys were there.

 

[Pikache]

^The problem with experienced troops not showing up is that first 2 SGs were pretty bad IMO. So, the higher ups are fighting an uphill battle to get the troops to show up. I mean, when it seems that 50% of the unit has excuses to not show up, you know something's wrong with the ex. (Or the general perception of it)

Another cons
-Get distinctive enemy force uniforms. Whether it be ODs or old desert tans or garrison uniforms, get them something very different than CADPAT so that the troops get the idea of NOT shooting at guys wearing CADPAT. There were incidents of friendly fire because new guys had hard time distinguishing between opfor and friendly due to similarity in uniform. I mean, how hard is it to find 150 or so old uniforms for enemy force?
-Better traffic control. I mean, it's not cool when you're doing an attack on an objective and some civvy or other mil vehs speed down the road you're using right through the objective. I know that the base was very busy and things need to be done, but there has to be a better way of directing traffic.

 

[meni0n]

That was probably the ISTAR testing taking place. I was 0 on that and we've tried to coordinate so that it doesn't interfere with SG. It didn't go too smoothly at times due to some miscommunications like being told 1 bridge was being closed but in reality 3 of them were closed hence us having about 4 callsigns being blocked in. But if most of SG guys didn't notice much traffic in the training area, the UAVs and the Aurora ( I don't think you guys could have notice em anyway although you might have found the downed UAV in the swamp ) then we did our job

 

[Jarnhamar]

-Get distinctive enemy force uniforms. Whether it be ODs or old desert tans or garrison uniforms, get them something very different than CADPAT so that the troops get the idea of NOT shooting at guys wearing CADPAT. There were incidents of friendly fire because new guys had hard time distinguishing between opfor and friendly due to similarity in uniform. I mean, how hard is it to find 150 or so old uniforms for enemy force?

I agree it's annoying when the bad guys look like the good guys but couldn't this be a bennificial thing too?
Teaches soldiers to be sure of their target?  In the middle east the bad guys wear civies and blend in with the locals.

Agreed the traffic there was insane. That goes back to the 'out of play' stuff.  You couldnt tell what vehicle was in play and what wasn't. Way way too many vehicles driving around. "half-tical"

Having so many new troops can be frustrating but thats just how it goes. These guys are put on buses right off their infantry course and shipped up. In some cases brand new privates were acting as section 2ICs.  It's frustrating but good for the new guys considering what they missed ont heir recruit courses.

Not having attended the last two stalwart guardians (or whatever) i couldn't believe how negitive everyone was towards this ex. Everyone who I talked to bitched about it and wanted to find a way not to attend. (many did just that) i think next year people will have a more positive attitude.

 

[Yeoman]

it's good to hear that *someone* liked the 18 hours of work we put into the position beside DZ anzio. we just didn't want you little buggers getting in their that easily.
from my perspective this is basically what I had noticed
-some soldiers were lolly gagging in the kill zones, throw the smoke and get into the trench system as fast as you can. too many people would hunker down after the wire once they breached the ditch, berm, and wire. one attack took 17 minutes to get into the trenches. far too long. we were able to get all of our guys from the trees and into the trenches in under two minutes. it's just has to been done right. then again it was also our position and we knew where to breech the wire
-as I noticed this a couple of times. if you're a c7 rifleman, and there's a c9 gunner dead, take his weapon. b-coy (4rcr and linc&well) picked up on that rather quickly once it was pointed out
-keep your heads down. leopard crawl through the trenches if you have to.
-at one attack no one had actually came into my trench to clear it, so I just waltzed out and shot six guys.

there was a half a million other things that happend as well that you guys had gotten in your aar's so I don't feel like beating a dead horse.
but for the most part once you guys got into the trench systems, you moved at a pretty good pace. you got your wounded out quick, and kept on pressing to clear spots and leaving men behind in the position in case of another attack. communications was also a good thing from what I noticed from all three attacks.

all and all I had a good time out there working against you lads. I was happy with what happend. the only real thing was keep the heads down over the berm and in the trenches, and get out of the kill zone and into the trenches.
it's just too bad that we just *happen* to take b-coys recce det as PW's, and we just *happen* to have your radio, and we just *happen* to decide to ambush and screw up your h-hour
I think my guys set off more trips flares then you guys did lol.
I hope that you all enjoyed attacking my position, because I had a great time defending it.
Greg

 

[Yeoman]

-Get distinctive enemy force uniforms. Whether it be ODs or old desert tans or garrison uniforms, get them something very different than CADPAT so that the troops get the idea of NOT shooting at guys wearing CADPAT. There were incidents of friendly fire because new guys had hard time distinguishing between opfor and friendly due to similarity in uniform. I mean, how hard is it to find 150 or so old uniforms for enemy force?

this has been brought up before and during the ex by some of the guys in 1RCR. unfortunately our stores does not have enough kind of other camo to issue out to every soldier. hopefully this can be rectified for next year.
I know I too personally was really pushing for this. I collect camo so I would have been able to outfit two sections no problem if that was allowed.
but again hopefully this will get sorted out for next year. I mean it just would make sense to have the opfor dressed in either civvies or wear their old OD's, or even some other type of camos. and have pics taken and handed out to the troops to clearly identifty who's who in the zoo.
Greg

 

[DG-41]

I came out of retirement just in time to attend the ex. Medical 0730 Friday Morning. Issue kit 1000. ID card issued 1400. On the bus to Petawawa at 2200. Yeeha!

Smoothest inclearences I've ever seen. Big ups to the folks that worked that system out.

No problems with food or water in 3 AAR.

But I'll amplify the problems with kit... not enough vehicles for three recce squadrons, and especially not enough radios. Every callsign should have had a vehicle mount, and every patrol should have had an additional 522 manpack. Instead, there were a couple of 522s, and most everybody else got a 521 with a SINGLE BATTERY. Accordingly, coms sucked golf balls through garden hose. That's unacceptable. Not only does it throw a huge wrench into the training value, it's a serious safety issue.

Incidently, I spent a night down by the gravel pit near the boy scout bridge acting as a radio relay for the OP and patrol base on that bridge. My position was dictated by coms, not the tactical situation, so we wound up tracks up to the world on the northern end of the gravel pit - which just happened to be one of the helo insertion LZs. That morning, I watched 6 choppers fly right over my head, land in the LZ, and drop off their passengers - who all, once re-org-ed, marched single file not 10 metres from the front of my callsign. Not one - not ONE - soldier even LOOKED in my direction, never mind run over to see just who the hell I was and what was I doing in his LZ.....

But overall, I had a great time, learned a ton (I had no idea that the LO was so busy) and I know that morale was high pretty much the whole ex. It validated my decision to come out of retirement.

DG

 

[Sh0rtbUs]

We had some serious Comms issues, often resorting to Motorollas as a primary means. Yes, the OPFOR Uniforms could have been better marked (ie. last years red tapes on helmets and arms).

Kit, our Alpha callsign in the troop was driving a MILCOT due to lack of required iltis. That alone started killing things for me, and the Dry Smoker at END EX finished it.

Was it just me, or did it seem that SG05, yet again wasnt sure what to do with us Recce guys? All our objectives were on the outskirts of the training area, and we never got into the central petawawa area.

 

[Spanky]

Shortbus, you must have been in D Sqn.  I agree that the screen seemed designed to get us out of the way, but the convoy escort was a viable recce task and having an actual convoy on a real task was a benefit.  The close recce on the bridges were also, depending on the coy commander, important to the success of the assaults.

 

[MdB]

Just for you guys to know, there's an official Stalwart Guardian website.

Enjoy!

 

[Poppa]

Not a bad ex...First time out on as an Officer...big change...learning not to like the CP.
One thing I'd change is the colours assigned the MPPl. REDI can't believe how many times my CO was stopped due to his red pennant issued from 3LBG.
Now I know this was an oversight..it can't be a conspiracy to make us even more of a target..or can it. 
Engineers did a great job on the bridge by the way

 

[choijosh]

HEY WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU WERE AWOL FOR STALWART GUARDIAN AND IT WAS UNINTENTIONAL. HOW MUCH DO WE GET CHARGED FOR?

 

[Michael OLeary]

choijosh,

You will have to deal with your unit on that matter.

(Please don't post in all caps, it is considered to be shouting in on-line communiation. Also, do not post a question multiple times, i will be removing your other post with the same question.)

 

[Gouki]

HEY WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU WERE AWOL FOR STALWART GUARDIAN AND IT WAS UNINTENTIONAL. HOW MUCH DO WE GET CHARGED FOR?

Define "unintentional"

 

[JBP]

it's good to hear that *someone* liked the 18 hours of work we put into the position beside DZ anzio. we just didn't want you little buggers getting in their that easily.
from my perspective this is basically what I had noticed
-some soldiers were lolly gagging in the kill zones, throw the smoke and get into the trench system as fast as you can. too many people would hunker down after the wire once they breached the ditch, berm, and wire. one attack took 17 minutes to get into the trenches. far too long. we were able to get all of our guys from the trees and into the trenches in under two minutes. it's just has to been done right. then again it was also our position and we knew where to breech the wire
-as I noticed this a couple of times. if you're a c7 rifleman, and there's a c9 gunner dead, take his weapon. b-coy (4rcr and linc&well) picked up on that rather quickly once it was pointed out
-keep your heads down. leopard crawl through the trenches if you have to.
-at one attack no one had actually came into my trench to clear it, so I just waltzed out and shot six guys.

there was a half a million other things that happend as well that you guys had gotten in your aar's so I don't feel like beating a dead horse.
but for the most part once you guys got into the trench systems, you moved at a pretty good pace. you got your wounded out quick, and kept on pressing to clear spots and leaving men behind in the position in case of another attack. communications was also a good thing from what I noticed from all three attacks.

all and all I had a good time out there working against you lads. I was happy with what happend. the only real thing was keep the heads down over the berm and in the trenches, and get out of the kill zone and into the trenches.
it's just too bad that we just *happen* to take b-coys recce det as PW's, and we just *happen* to have your radio, and we just *happen* to decide to ambush and screw up your h-hour
I think my guys set off more trips flares then you guys did lol.
I hope that you all enjoyed attacking my position, because I had a great time defending it.
Greg

This was my first time at a Brigade level ex... I had just gotten off my summer courses (newly minted and fully-trained Pte, reserves) and I was abit worn out still, didn't have any time to rest. Nonetheless, I thought this EX was done well from a FNG's standpoint. Yeah, a lot of down time between attacks, but in my group (B-Coy), we did A LOT of rehersals, 1 day attacks, 1 day rehersals. Generally we spent about 5-6hrs on rehersals before an attack... We had a serious lack of senior NCO's like everyone else mind you.

The benefit of all the rehersals for a new guy like me is that it clearly defined my position and showed me how a Coy operates in a combat situation/patrol. Sure we had training on our BIQ, but it was all jam-packed and 1 day this, 1 day that. This ex clarified things for me anyway, and many others from my training in the summer I spoke with as well. It was a great way to end our training and the summer.

Onward now, to condeming 1 RCR who screwed us soo good!!!

Damn you 1 RCR!!! Yeoman you guys got us soo good, even though our attack went well with your tinkering overall, we felt the sting of a stupid mistake. Our reville time at 1 AM!!!!  :crybaby: Our own arty rounds attacking us! H-Hour split the Coy up! God, it was a mess at first, good thing a few senior NCO's caught on quickly (Mainly the WO's). That last attack was the single most realistic combat training I've had, right up alongside our FIBUA trng. Awesome defensive position, you guys seriously deserve a pat on the back for that position.

Not to point any fingers, but I believe the NCO's in comd of that Recce FUBAR'd it. They left 2 newly trained Pte's WITH the radio ALONE and close enough that your "roving" patrol caught them... That instance and all the changes you guys made REALLY opened our eyes up to how deadly and important comms can be, and how tricky war could be. That saying, "never underestimate your enemy", seems all the more real now.

Again, I thought the ex was very good, even though at the end I was tired, sore, and I caught some odd northern virus! Again, good job 1 RCR!!!

 

[Robtimus_Prime]

Hey Fusileer.  The reason water was in such short order at times is as follow.  I don't know how many times I said it but, WHEN THE GERRY IS EMPTY...BRING IT OUT OF THE HIDE SO TEH CQ CAN PICK IT UP AND REFILL IT.  Oh, and the water buffalo's were emptied when one coy refilled them so you had to wait for them to be refilled before you could refill gerry's. 

 

[Sf2]

Althought I didn't participate this year, I have the past few as a Griffon pilot -

1)  One of you said the Griffon ride was useless....5 mins or so.  The aim of the training is to famil you guys with operating near helos, loading, unloading etc, not for the ride itself.  You don't know how many times we ask guys "you've been in one of these before??"  "Oh yeah....sure...." he says, then doesn't know how to do up the seat belts, or stands up and starts running around before the helos have left the LZ's.....

2)  In my 10 yrs as a reg force guy, comms is always an issue, always will be.

 

[Pikache]

Hey Fusileer.  The reason water was in such short order at times is as follow.  I don't know how many times I said it but, WHEN THE GERRY IS EMPTY...BRING IT OUT OF THE HIDE SO TEH CQ CAN PICK IT UP AND REFILL IT.  Oh, and the water buffalo's were emptied when one coy refilled them so you had to wait for them to be refilled before you could refill gerry's. 

Just how many Jerries did the CQ carry at one time anyways? Maybe 20 for a company of 150+? I'm not pointing fingers at you directly, but it just seems that there weren't enough jerries around.
(And yes, my platoon brought back jerries whenever they were empty, which was mainly after meals and before going on mission and rehearsals. That's often enough, right?)