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Something i want to address is the training of junior officers (OCdts/2Lts) at the unit level in preparation for their career courses.
I'm seeing this occur in my unit, and was wondering if this is common in the reserves, or just an isolated thing in the unit in question. I know in the Reg F, you don't come across 2Lts who are being mentored from the ground up, in front of troops - probably because common sense tells the Reg F that this type of thing would be disastrous for an officer's career, and for the unit - common sense that seems to be lacking in the reserves.
The type of training i'm talking about ranges from sitting in normal training night lectures, sitting next to Ptes and Cpls, to sending portions of the unit out so these officers can lead recce Ptls and Small pty tasks, using troops as followers, and NCOs as DS. I'm not talking about collective training where the the pl comds/coy comd's are the PTA.
I disagree with this practice for two reasons - for the sake of said officer's authority, and for the sake of the troops being used as training aids for novice Jr Officers' individal training/course preparation.
But the main reason i'll address is for the sake of those officers: In my view, this violates every principle of military hierarchy. There's no way that an officer, a person who is supposed to be leading, should be getting trained by NCOs in front of troops - ever - regardless how junior they are.
When a novice, unqualified, untrained 2Lt attempts to learn how to do a recce ptl, or a sect atk, he should be doing it off behind closed doors with other officers or sr NCOs, not in front of the the very troops he will eventually be leading substantively. The reasoning is simple - when the Pte's and Cpl's observe him in this learning phase, he's obviously going to lack competence. Troops should NEVER see their officers in this state, because no matter what, when that officer comes back from phase training and takes over the platoon, those troops are inevitably going to say "Oh, this fucking guy. He couldn't even shoot a bearing last time i saw him. He's a bag of hammers". This is not where an officer should be when adopting his first command. Right there he's starting with a credibility deficit - and through NO fault of his own, and will have to work twice as hard as he ought to in order to win his subordinate's respect (if he ever does). This is unfair, inappropriate and utterly wrong, and it should not be happening. The troops shouldn't know anything about their officers prior to them arriving in the formation, much less prior to their completion of their training. When we do this, we're stacking the cards against those officers, and setting them up for failure.
I'm not saying Jr Officers don't deserve pre-training prior to their phase training, I'm saying for the sake of their own authority and credibility, this should be done away from troops. I'm surprised that this concept is alien to anyone, or that i'm the only one pointing this out (NCO's & Officers look at me like i have two heads when i raise this issue).
I remember a few years back, they were even combining QL2(BMQ) with the basic officer's course. Pte Recruits were coursemates with OCdts. This stopped very quickly for obvious reasons - because how could you ever ask a bunch of privates to follow someone who was the guy they had to dress every morning, and who's kit they had to carry on long marches? It simply doesn't work. When you have an officer who barely scraped through a BMQ that Pte(R) excelled at, then the best anyone can hope for that officer is that he make 3i/c of the silverware cabinet in the officers mess one day. Well the exact same principle applies here. Troops should not be in a position to observe their officers when they're green, fucked up, and don't yet know what they're doing, because that impression will always be with those troops. There's a reason we keep that separation, and i feel that this principle is being fundamentally violated in the reserves with the Pre-Phase2/Pre-Phase3 training using troops. And it needs to stop immidiately.
Oh, and this is coming from an NCO, not an officer, in case you're wondering...
...but WTF do i know?
I'm seeing this occur in my unit, and was wondering if this is common in the reserves, or just an isolated thing in the unit in question. I know in the Reg F, you don't come across 2Lts who are being mentored from the ground up, in front of troops - probably because common sense tells the Reg F that this type of thing would be disastrous for an officer's career, and for the unit - common sense that seems to be lacking in the reserves.
The type of training i'm talking about ranges from sitting in normal training night lectures, sitting next to Ptes and Cpls, to sending portions of the unit out so these officers can lead recce Ptls and Small pty tasks, using troops as followers, and NCOs as DS. I'm not talking about collective training where the the pl comds/coy comd's are the PTA.
I disagree with this practice for two reasons - for the sake of said officer's authority, and for the sake of the troops being used as training aids for novice Jr Officers' individal training/course preparation.
But the main reason i'll address is for the sake of those officers: In my view, this violates every principle of military hierarchy. There's no way that an officer, a person who is supposed to be leading, should be getting trained by NCOs in front of troops - ever - regardless how junior they are.
When a novice, unqualified, untrained 2Lt attempts to learn how to do a recce ptl, or a sect atk, he should be doing it off behind closed doors with other officers or sr NCOs, not in front of the the very troops he will eventually be leading substantively. The reasoning is simple - when the Pte's and Cpl's observe him in this learning phase, he's obviously going to lack competence. Troops should NEVER see their officers in this state, because no matter what, when that officer comes back from phase training and takes over the platoon, those troops are inevitably going to say "Oh, this fucking guy. He couldn't even shoot a bearing last time i saw him. He's a bag of hammers". This is not where an officer should be when adopting his first command. Right there he's starting with a credibility deficit - and through NO fault of his own, and will have to work twice as hard as he ought to in order to win his subordinate's respect (if he ever does). This is unfair, inappropriate and utterly wrong, and it should not be happening. The troops shouldn't know anything about their officers prior to them arriving in the formation, much less prior to their completion of their training. When we do this, we're stacking the cards against those officers, and setting them up for failure.
I'm not saying Jr Officers don't deserve pre-training prior to their phase training, I'm saying for the sake of their own authority and credibility, this should be done away from troops. I'm surprised that this concept is alien to anyone, or that i'm the only one pointing this out (NCO's & Officers look at me like i have two heads when i raise this issue).
I remember a few years back, they were even combining QL2(BMQ) with the basic officer's course. Pte Recruits were coursemates with OCdts. This stopped very quickly for obvious reasons - because how could you ever ask a bunch of privates to follow someone who was the guy they had to dress every morning, and who's kit they had to carry on long marches? It simply doesn't work. When you have an officer who barely scraped through a BMQ that Pte(R) excelled at, then the best anyone can hope for that officer is that he make 3i/c of the silverware cabinet in the officers mess one day. Well the exact same principle applies here. Troops should not be in a position to observe their officers when they're green, fucked up, and don't yet know what they're doing, because that impression will always be with those troops. There's a reason we keep that separation, and i feel that this principle is being fundamentally violated in the reserves with the Pre-Phase2/Pre-Phase3 training using troops. And it needs to stop immidiately.
Oh, and this is coming from an NCO, not an officer, in case you're wondering...
...but WTF do i know?
