Part of the problem that I see, WRT "purple trades" is the fact that any of them, at one point or another in the career (especially at leadership trg time) could be in one element (air, land, sea), do that training (leadership), and then move on to another. I will give the example of a medic I know (no, not my wife). He did his "leadership" trg while with the Navy (I will try to keep the sarcasm out of that oxymoron), and was consequently posted to 1 Bde. We taught together on a SQ course a few years back in Wainwright, and he was at a severe disadvantage to all those that did their CLC, JLC, PLQ, etc with the army. When it came to weapons handling, he had to be shown the difference between the "plastic one" (C9) and the "wooden one" (C6), and his take on discipline and leadership certainly differed from those that had an army upbringing. Another instructor on the course, whose wife was another "purple" trade, fascinated (or was it nauseasted?????) me with the tale, that while she was on her "leadership" course, they were given carte blanche on what they taught for their skill class: she taught knitting, and a plumber taught how to replace a toilet. Fascinating stuff, all of which can be had on Martha Stewart Living, or Holmes on Homes........ I somehow doubt she knew how to strip (or teach for that matter) a C7. My wife (the medic) told me how there was a guy on her JLC, who "through no fault of his own" had never touched a C7 in his career (except basic training) and had to learn it the hard way: right before he taught a class on it.
As I mentioned, I taught on a SQ course 2 years back, and I have to admit, I learned a lot on it. I helped construct a Stage 6 trench (I had only seen them in Demo positions before). And because my 2ic was a keen Para Coy MCpl, I learned some fighting patrolling and other things from his tool bag. I knew for a fact that those soldiers were going to be better trained (as a soldier) than almost all the Cpl's and possibly some MCpl's at my unit (if not even higher ranks.....). Of course, all 44 students on the course were going PPCLI, so it was basically a mini-BIQ for them (no point in treating them like lambs, before they would get to the slaughter), so I'm not sure if it would have been an identical course if it were 44 cooks-to-be, or 44 supply-tech-wannabes, but I would think it would have been up there. Most of us instructors were very glad to see that the system was going in this route, until we found out that not every SQ course was running the same way. The other SQ course running just ahead of ours didn't have the same personalities involved (I'll leave it at that.......) and they had somewhat differing philosophies than the majority of our course staff had (we'll not get into the MOC's involved....). As well, we heard that on some bases, the SQ courses would be run entirely by "purple" MOC's. I have seen CSS unit's try to "out-infantry" the infantry on exercise (cam all the time, fully tactical all the time, etc), so I would hope that they would get the gung-ho types, who would "keep it real". But I am too much the cynic for that hope. Having said that, I have seen some of my Armd Corps brothers teaching in a less than gung-ho spirit, so I know that it isn't limited to one "realm".
As for all this army training scaring people away from the military (ie tradesman), has anybody put any thought into how many gung-ho people are scared away from the huggy-kissy training that is (or more hopefully, is no longer) conducted??? I see a lot of good soldiers frustrated by the lack of esprit-de-corps and good training, jumping ship for greener pastures, be it OT or civilian jobs.
Too many people feel that if you train a tradesman to be a soldier, it somehow pushed all that fancy training out of their brain, and they couldn't possibly be able to retain the skills required to be able to scramble a egg, or remove the screws from the back of an instrument panel..... Or the attitude that they won't need to "man the line" or conduct a section attack. Does the name Jessica Lynch mean anything to anybody? Or how about the great number of CSS trades killed in Iraq by ambushes and suicide bombers? The oft repeated stor of people in Bosnia not keeping firing pins in their C7's because they were ordered to, to cut down on ND's, is too crazy to NOT be true. And since those people were purported to be from the NSE (National SUPPORT Element) I don't think that there were too many "hard" soldiers in that clag.
What I know (which is admittedly little) about the Marine Corps philosophy (A marine first.....) is what the way ahead should look like for us, and from what I've heard coming out of the new CDS, this WILL be the way ahead (for the next two years, until a regime change, anyway). There will be much gnashing of teeth, threats of release, holding of breath until faces turn blue, etc, etc.
Al