O my...

[Cole]

I noticed something curious when I joined up in the Reserves. What does a reserve regiment need so many officers for? Off the top of my head, my unit has 4 Lt.'s, 5 Captains, a Major and a Lt. Colonel. All this for a unit that fieleds 30-50 guys max.
Not that I am detracting from any of these Officers. Many of them are great guys and are very skilled at what they do, but, I am curious about how unit's starving for recruits could have so many bars. Is there any official mandated reason for this? Or is it just meant to keep the Officer's mess lively?

[Barney]

Actually, there's usually a couple of reasons, but the issue of succession is usually key.

Take my example for instance. When I joined as an OCdt in 92, my unit had about 18 Officers from OCdt to LCol (Med units always have more) and about 90 troops. Most of us were OCdts or 2Lts. Over the years, most of them quit, or moved on. Of those above me in 1992, only one remains in the unit, and she's a Major now. She's next in line for CO in theory. And, as I was the next behind her, I'd be next in line for Maj, and the DCO's seat (again in theory - though there's no way I'm ready for that rank yet).

Officer attrition is fairly high. Most Reservists quit after 3-4 years (hmmmm corresponds to the average degree right). So, if you want to produce one LCol, you've got to pack them in at the front end.

This also holds true for NCOs. To produce a Chief Warrant Officer takes about 120 Private Recruits enrolled over the years.

All this to say, that what you're seeing is perfectly natural for the Officers. The problem is, in an educated liberal democracy, it's easy to find OCdts who are Univ students dying for a buck or two for tuition. So many young people now have the minimum education, and CFRCs push them to commission. Finding Private soldiers is getting harder all the time.

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Death to the Purple One

[Cole]

Thanks Barney, my post wasn't a gripe or anything, just an observation.
I noticed the problem too.
One of our 2nd Lt. was a recruit and did his QL2/QL3 2 summers ago. He was the top candidate on both his courses and says he was pretty much sent to Phase training after as an Officer Cadet. He is an excellent officer, but I think the junior ranks good of used another soldier of his caliber.

[Enfield]

Barney's right - there is a high attrition rate for Officers.
We have such a bloated command structure because we use the Regimental System, and have kept the full chain of command - Lt. Col, Majors, Captains, etc. At a time, this structure was justified, but with our current 100 man (total paper strength) regiments it's kind of a farce.
But, officers are needed for a lot of positions. Adjudant, Financial, Recruiting, etc. There's a lot of paper work and planning that goes into ex's and training, and a lot of that is for O's.

Personally, I think the solution is to bring unit strength's up to a level where paying a Lt. Col is at least semi-justified because the other option is to do away with the Regimental system.