Problems with your units training

[DukeM]

Reverend B,
It would seem that you too try to get things rolling for good training. Other then the current budget restraints and taking into consideration what barney said on his last post at “cool websight” do you think it is your SNCO’s or your officers that are shutting you down. Or is it something else. Give me a clear picture of what types of problems are going on at your unit. That goes for anyone who wants to reply to this topic.

[Reverend B]

Okay, on the bigger things, no it would be over the head of the "local" command, but there has been instances where it has not made it out of the company...just ask TonyM to go into this one. He is the connection/network and legwork man. It is pretty insane how he constantly digs things up that are not only viable, but he has found multiple ways to do these things for free or even low cost to the units. There is always a way around things budget wise. There is still disbelief that the "volunteer army" will volunteer their time to do these things for free. Everyone above is always talking about "pay, pay, pay...gotta get the troops paid". You can tell people right up front that you will and the boys will do all the training on your own, for free, and all that the unit has to provide are things such as classrooms, the training area for use, and minimal kit and equipment. There is still a "no" to things such as that.

I understand that there are quite severe budget restraints, and every time that I see what I refer to as "Class "A" wasters" doing fuck all when they are supposed to be working drives me. I am sure that a few of their days could be cut in order to send a small team over to a patrol competition, for example.

I have seen numerous good ideas get blown out of the water. My unit has a Nav ex coming up, and one of the senior Cpl. suggested that a good twist to the training that would be valuable.

Basic training ideas can easily be implemented into the cycle, without burning up any extra budget. When was the last time a fighting patrol was bumped on the way to the objective? Perhaps other units do these things, perhaps it is just a lack of imagination on the officers’ part, or perhaps it is a lack of the officers’ abilities because they think that they will lose control or face or what not.

Like I mentioned before, we have received a new OC and what he has done in his short reign with us is good (he has been with us for under a year now). He has turned some boring training into more realistic and harder training already. Don’t get me wrong here, I am not ass kissing, just acknowledging.

If the troops fail at something that was hard, they will try harder. Contrary to what a lot of people may think, troops want to be trained, that is why they joined. I'll say here, coming from an infantry unit, that infantry more than so want this. Have them get bored of training, treat them like subhuman, or give them bullshit training just to keep them from having to much "down time" is wrong. They will vote with their feet come time.

I never believe in the word "no". Any wall, if it cannot be jumped, burrowed under or able to be walked around, can always be breached. There is always a way to do things, but if there is a constant repression from the top, then things will just turn to frustration.

Like I said, talk to TonyM on this subject. Email him personally. The things that he has set up are fantastic, and like I said, there is always the "no" response, with out any reasoning behind it.

[Barney]

So folks, any idea why voluntary training is frowned upon? I know two reasons why I never allowed it.

1. Medical Coverage: When you sign a Cl A pay sheet, or Cl B contract, the government is held to certain specific obligations in terms of providing medical care to you, both immediately upon your injury, and for your recovery and rehabilitation. When you are there 'volunteering' your time, the legal obligation becomes more of a grey zone, and in theory, your coverage could be denied, as you weren't officially on the Crown's dollar. Now, in theory this is an academic arguement, as injuries are rare, right? Not so, I have seen, and dealt with cases where injuries happen during training, and members lose school terms or employment. Not so academic now, when thousands of dollars, livelyhood etc are on the line.

Result: I always make soldiers sign in and get paid. It ensures complete coverage, start to finish, for my people! As a leader, one should never accept anything less.

Oh yeah - forget the 'pink paysheets' for voluntary parading, their legality has been contested too.

2. Cost of doing business: It's a lesser reason to be sure, but the higher Brass must be made aware of the REAL cost of doing business. If we always accepted doing more with less, they'd come to expect it as a way of life for you. And, while some people may show up for the challenge/fun/loyalty etc, most recruits have a more financial compulsion - money for school. Over 80% of recruits are Univ/College or High School students. They want money, and lots of it. Take that away, and their intrest goes to McD's.

As for adding an attack on a patrol etc, I don't know your unit's ammo situation. Med Coy's always got Sweet Fuck All. And, QL2 with the pyro lecture always burned up almost all of our annual pyro allocation. Maybe your Ops O has the same choice - attack here, or train new recruits to the standard there.

That said, there are ways to do cheap training. Here's one I did: Extrication from a mangled vehicle using a Kendric's Extrication Device. Done on a parade night. Bought 1x car wreck $80.00, towing expenses $100.00, local fire dept and jaws of life - free. Car hood with unit name carved in by air chisel and signed by all members - priceless.

Always remember, these people are not necessarily incompetent just because you don't see immediate action on you immediate request. I always tell my troops, especially when I hear that 'I work for a living' line, that if they want my job, they can have it. You choose where the money goes. You choose who goes on course, and tells the others why you passed them over. You stand there and be the focus of blame for the troops because they have no idea what constraints your unit has to operate under.

Keep trying though, maybe someday you'll get through.

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Death to the Purple One

[Quimby]

I'm one of the troops in the same unit as the Rev and TonyM. I've seen their ideas and those of others get shot down over and over again. Now if you tell us that such and such an activity is planned or an ex with any sort of interesting training is in the works we just laugh and shrug it off. We are always surprised when anything fun and interesting actually happens.
As an example, two weeks ago we spent our Thursday night moving lockers. A few weeks before that we did absolutely nothing. It was so bad I crossed my name off the pay sheet and went home. I personally haven't heard a good explanation of why this goes on. Money is being spent for this type of "training", although not much as we don't usually parade more than a dozen guys.(Gee, I wonder why that is)
The only real reason I stick around is for the social aspects of military life. If I'm going to have a shit job I might as well do it with a good bunch of guys. I've had plenty of shit jobs and had to work with complete wankers.
From my point of view it's the officers who seem to shut down any type of fun, effective training. The SNCO's seem like they're trying to put together good training and actually teach us something but time and again it doesn't happen. The Rev is right; if the training is fun we will come out for nothing. It seems some people in the CF are determined that troops shall not have fun or learn anything useful. But I'm sure more SHARP and diversity training would solve all these problems.

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An armed man is a citizen. An unarmed man is a subject.

[Barney]

Well Quimby, maybe your unit just sucks goat nuts in this respect. But, and remember my experience is limited to Med Coys, I've seen Officers who are Nurses get their troops in to see autopsies, or do rotations on the Burn Ward. I've arranged paid 12 hour ride-outs with ambulances. I've seen a trauma surgeon, who is a Capt, come down regularly to get his troops trained to HIS standard in emergency medicine. Or how about air medevac training, we've done that on rare occassions!

I've also came from a unit on the verge of collapse. You think only your ideas get bounced? I was the full time Ops O, the same rank as the Coy Comd. He sucked, I'm just average. His training sucked royally, no plan, no leaders, no troops. SO, I wrote an entire plan for a weekend disaster scenario ex. In a local community, with local OPP, fire, cadets, ambulance, hospital, community news, and possibly (not for sure) helicopters (lesson here - never tell troops helos are coming, the flyboys are too unreliable, if they show, it's an awesome surprise/reward). Pretty much as high speed as a med ex gets. I thought for sure, I'd get troops back with this! And it was cheap, for the civies wanted to work out their disaster planning end as well.

I'd started the liaison with all the civies, worked out the details, and even written up the orders. BUT, the CO said I couldn't tell the OC what to do with his training.

I've shown both sides of the coin here. Things ain't bad all over, in some places it's really working quite well. Personality is everything. If your leaders are true leaders, then they try hard to find solutions. If not, I can't help ya, just transfer, make anonymous suggestions, or try to outlive them.

Remember one thing though. If Pte Bloggins walked through my door with an idea and said here's my thoughts, and here's the memo, can we do it, I never turned them away, even though they'd technically broken the chain of command. If Pte Bloggins told me training sucked, and all the officers were idiots, and they knew better than anybody else, my Warrant Officer dealt with the issue. Presentation, logic, and diplomacy are everything.

BTW - what is your unit?

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Death to the Purple One

[Cree Warrior]

Here's my thoughts on this.
Firstly, I think Canadians get TOO MUCH leadership training, and what that causes is a whole unit that thinks it can lead, plan, implement etc. instead of just following orders.
Secondly, the Canadian military has a "can't do" attitude versus a "can do" attitude. Example; in the US during basic you would get sooo smoked if you said "can't" to anything, NCO's said all the time, "If you're not cheating, you're not trying hard enough". If you have a timing, you will make it, no matter what or how. It's ingrained into everything. So what you end up with, from what I've seen, is training and a can do attitude that permeates everything in the military. At times you are outright encouraged to break rules to complete a mission.
In Canada (again I'm speaking only from my experience) Most officers and NCO's I've met have a "can't do" attitude. If you bring something up or an idea they will immediately have a number of reasons why that won't work. Whether it be, because they've tried it unsuccessfully, SAFETY, regs, rules, money whatever. I dont know how this began, I suspect its an over politicalization (sp?) of the military and an indication of moral, but it permeates the Canadian military.
If you were to sit and watch a US Company commander plan an EX and a Canadian Company commander plan an EX (I've seen both). The differences would amaze you. Even if you simply counted the negative versus positive comments made.
How do we change this? (I'd better have answers after griping eh?) I think those of you who are leaders need to encourage that 'can do' attitude in your troops. It's more fun for them to. If they have to get from point A to point B in 1 hour, then they HAVE to get there... Remember, if you ain't cheating you ain't trying hard enough.
If they're training and they sneak off in the middle of the night (when they should be racked out) to E & E off to a local pub...hey that's good training...heh heh. Well mayb not, but you get my drift.

Sua Sponte

[TonyM]

Sorry guys, I've been pretty wrapped up at work for a while. No end in sight yet. I'll jump into this as soon as I can. In the meantime Duke & Barney if you're curious as to some details of things I've tried to put together, search back look for "Swiss Raid" or "Fallschirmjager Cup" or "Ranger course", plus others. Currently I'm getting a USMC Scout/Sniper to come up to give us some training and in contact with a reserve SEAL platoon for some small boat work. We have two small boats, but they'll rot in the CQ before anybody plans on using them. Gotta go. More to follow.

[Quimby]

Unfortunately, despite TonyM's work in trying to put together some fun and interesting training with foreign units, I magically predict some officer will feel his toes being stepped on and this venture, and many others to come, will be shut down, with no apparent reason given. But maybe I'm just drunk and bitter.
I'm sure some SHARP and diversity training would sort me out.

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An armed man is a citizen. An unarmed man is a subject.

[garett]

I think my unit needs a couple of boats but I can totally see them going and getting a couple of Coleman canoes from Crappy Tire.

[Reverend B]

Garret:
Get your CQ to look into getting CF assault boats. I beleive that every infantry unit in Canada is entitled to 2 "free" boats.I could be wrong, but I think that actually every "DA" or "DI" (ask your CQ, he should know what I am talking about, it is the unit account)is entitled to this. This is so if you have outlying coys. in your unit, they too are entitled to a pair of assault boats.

[Disturbance]

how big are the assault boats?

[Reverend B]

Same ones that the engineers have, 6-8 man, if I remember. You'll probably get all the nause about "who will run them?"....the typical "cause a problem" bullshit that always comes up. Any pioneer and some recce qualified people(why do we need these cross-trained people? Wasn't there an argument once against this...saying that MG and Driver's courses where good enough for the infantry?) can run these with engines.

Talk to the navy about that. A couple of years ago, a buddy of mine swung a deal with the navy divers for free engines, just had to sign them from one account to the other...but guess what happened on that one?

Any hammerhead can paddle one.

Talk to the navy about life jackets. They have some good inflatable ones, but again, there will be those who oppose...just because.

Talk to someone in the jump companies about where they get there inflatable life jackets from if they have to do a water jump.

If there is some "safety" concerns, talk to the engineers, I am sure that they would be happy to sort you out with any type of regulation or rule concerning troops and assault boats.

[DukeM]

Barney, it’s good to see that you’re getting to cross train your people with the public/private sector around you. But your in a medical unit what do you need butt loads of ammo for, protecting you patents? If you want to use pyro and blanks, train with an infantry unit in the field. The small amount you do get will go a long way when you don’t have to supply an enemy force with rounds and pyro. And correct me if I’m wrong but are QL2 ammo allotments not a brigade responsibility. And do you think you could just toke you C7 down to where your local police ERT was doing a live fire CQB range and learn some stuff from that public/private sector. That's not going to happen. It’s a different world in the combat arms. They can't even take their bread and butter to a recruiting display at schools because of the politics. Try to remember that.
Cree Warrior, I think your right on the money. There is nothing you can do about the past but you can mould the future. You have to take the politicalization / Oprahfication out of the CF at the lowest level. Then start building that can do attitude. It’s not going to be easy, you will step on your dick more than once and you will piss off your fair share of army-chair politicians who are looking to only cover their ass in your unit. Don’t let this stop you though. If you don’t try you will never succeed. It’s people with attitudes like you that will change the face of the CF.
Quimby, had to use your Oprahfication it was too funny. Anyway it is interesting to me that you tonym and reverend b are all in the same unit. There must be some bad shit going on there for you all to be bitching so much. Is it your platoon commander(s), SNCO’s or what? I believe that every body deserves answers on why they waste there time in coming to get trained when they just do shit that should have a work party hired for. Was this on your training plan? If it wasn’t your OC should have a GOOD reason for why it was changed. Ask him in writing through your chain of command. Your time is valuable and although things are not all fun but they are important (like cleaning equipment after an ex.) It should not waste your time.
ReverendB good info on your last post but lets try to stay on the topic. As for your first post, WHO is stopping this shit before it even get out of your company. You said you have a new OC is it him? Give me some real solutions you might think would fix the problems at your unit.


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The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.

- Thucydides

[Enfield]

Has anyone tried to arrange some kind of training with Police ERT? The big-city teams have great facilities, and the troops would love to check out MP5's and other high-speed kit. I've always wondered why we didn't use them, it would seem they have a lot to offer.

I've heard a lot of rumours that 31 Brigade in Ontario is doing a lot of high-speed, interetsing ex's - regularly using assault boats, blackhawks, etc. Anyone know anything about this?

Enfield

[This message has been edited by Enfield (edited 04-15-2001).]

[Barney]

DukeM, sadly I remember the good old days of recruiting displays where the RHLI or ASH of C would bring all their toys. It really brought the young 'uns out to the recruiting centers. I cannot possibly fathom why we can't do this anymore. Did we scare people? Or, did the Liberal Govt decide that it didn't fit in with all their 'Soft Power' crap that spewed out.

I understand that Med Coys are different. If all of you will forgive the analysis, we are the 'politically acceptable side' of the forces, always there to help fix people. Thus, we do have an unfair advantage in arranging local training. That said, I have heard of local units in my home area doing 'combined arms' exercises in the past. The Navy took the troops out, helped land them in assault boats and I think an old higgins boat was used too. They assaulted the beach, got resupply, and helicopters evacuated casualties to a med station, then to a hospital.

I wonder if you could get that going in your area. Sometimes, it helps to broaden the scope to get the buy in and support from other units.

As for joint training with ERT, I've never heard of it. And, I don't know if it could or couldn't be done. Have you ever heard of the Service Rifle Assoc? Do they have a club in your area? When I was in Kingston, we had them run a range for us on the base. We fired Bren Gun, Lewis Gun, Dragonov, Steyr, SA-80 prototype, Snider Enfield, and a wack of other toys. It's a good blast for a day. See if your unit can invite them out for a range afternoon.

I was just thinking here, a dangerous thing for an officer I know.... But, here's a trick I was going to try. If you give a suggestion to your OC or Ops O, it's too easy for them to dismiss it. BUT, if you know somebody on the ERT or other group you want to train with, have their organization initiate an inter-governmental department request. It's harder for your Unit or Bde to refuse if a well written request for assistance comes from another organization. PS - This also works for foreign countries, especially Commonwealth nations. If they ask for your help, our Govt feels pressured to oblige.

As for what 31 CBG is up to, it's been a year since I left, but we were becoming a lame duck Bde back then. Hopefully things have changed.

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Death to the Purple One

[towhey]

Barney said "I cannot possibly fathom why we can't (take the toys to recruiting displays) ... anymore. Did we scare people? Or, did the Liberal Govt decide that it didn't fit in with all their 'Soft Power' crap that spewed out."

Presumably, the "toys" are weapons?

Good question! I felt this way, too, while I was the RSSO with the Rocky Mountain Rangers. In fact, I asked a number of questions in high places and made my opinion known (pointed opinions, me? hard to believe, I know...)

Somewhat surprisingly, my career didn't end there and then, and even more surprisingly, I actually got a brilliant response from a LCol Class A reservist who was in charge of recruiting for then Pacific Militia Area. By day, his civilian job was as a marketing consultant. Back then, I didn't know what that was, but now I often are one.

Anyways, aside from the legalities of the Canadian Criminial Code (which wasn't an issue back then, but now very much is), and security concerns, and public affairs concerns (some valid, many not), there is one overwhelming reason why taking weapons to a recruiting display is not necessarily the best idea.

Quite simply: they don't help recruit soldiers.

Notwithstanding that we soldiers love showing and telling, and notwithstanding that people do get turned on by the weapons, my experience eventually convinced me that this LCol was right: Well-run recruiting campaigns with weaponless displays are quantitatively more effective than those with weapons on display.

Sounds like heresy! But, it's true.

Consider: What happens when you have weapons on display? At every such display I've been on, you tend to get a core group of keenly interested prospects who hang around and finger the weapons, chat up the soldiers at the displays, etc. Good, right? Actually, no.

Most of these guys are already interested in joining. Most of them are, in fact, already "there" in terms of "head space". The weapons are a turn-on, but totally unnecessary for them: they're going to join anyway.

Meanwhile, your one or two recruiters spend 20 to 30 minutes chatting up these folks who are already "sold" on the reserve -- and aren't able to talk to those who might need selling, because they're "decisively engaged" with the keeners.

Net result: you "recruit" the 2 or 3 folks who would have walked in the armoury door anyway, while the dozen or so prospects who could have been "sold" on the reserve walk away, because there's no one free to chat them up.

Is there a better way?

This is what's worked for me in the past -- after the concept was explained to me by this LCol/Marketing guru guy who deserves almost all the credit.

1. Set up a really sharp, inviting display.
2. Staff it with bright, young, articulate, fit and confident soldiers.
3. Their mission: talk to as many people as possible, for as short a time as possible -- just long enough to assess their interest, get them excited about the possibilities and invite them to come visit the unit on a parade night -- or, better yet, invite them to a special "open house" to be held at the armoury a few days later.
4. Give them a "take away" -- a brochure, a flyer, etc. that they can walk away with, pin on the wall, stick on the fridge, etc. reminding them of the time and place. Something they can bring with them to the armoury and say "I'm here because I got this at..."
5. If possible, get them to sign an interest list and offer to send them more info in the mail and/or phone them the day before to arrange to meet them at the door, etc. Ideally, you want to leave at the end of the day with a list of hot prospects.
6. Have someone at the Armoury Door looking for "lost souls carrying green brochures" on the appointed day. Greet the prospects and make sure they're shepherded around. Don't make them wander the parade square feeling foolish, trying to figure out where the 22nd Fleet of Foot might be located, or determine whether they should wander into the "BOR", "MIR", or "JRC" for more info.

The key to this process is: you can't close the deal in a shopping mall. To sign someone up, they ultimately have to walk into an armoury. So, get as many as possible there as soon as possible.

Don't show them weapons in the mall -- it takes too long, and limits the number of people you can talk to. Instead, tantalize hot prospects with the opportunity to "come on up to the Armoury on Tuesday, and we'll show you all the weapons we train on..." Big, powerful hook.

Successful companies don't waste their marketing dollars/time on preaching to the converted. Spending a half hour talking to the keeners and teaching them weapons handling is selling to the sold. They're almost certain to join anyway. Instead, focus your display attention on those who are interested, but need to learn more about the opportunity...

I've tried both "weapons on display" and "weapons by invitation" recruiting displays, the weaponless displays generated more recruits every time.

All of this to say, that recruiting displays without weapons are not necessarily the result of some staff weenie with his head up his ..... It may be a brilliant tactic.

Or, it may just be a staff wanker with his head up...

Good luck and perseverance to all the unit recruiters out there!

[Enfield]

I heard someone ask why we don't do big, flashy, recruiting drives with armoured vehciles and tonnes of kitaround - the answer, because that kind of thing does not draw recruits anymore than a smaller set up.

I've done some recruiting in schools out here in Vancouver, and my friends are on the regular recruiting circuit. The recruiting team would love to take weapons when we set up in a school to recruit, but the schools won't let us. Some schools are fine with it, some make sure they aren't operatonal (ie, no bolt), but most say flat out no. Some even make sure the pictures on our display aren't violent, and that the guns in the photos won't be shown firing. Hell, last school I was at had an article in their paper saying how the college paper would no longer carry CF ads because of the evils of the military (no joke).

In a way, I'd love to have a table full of weapons - if nothing else, it would draw attention, which in many cases we don't get.
Not sure what kind of reaction a C6 in the SF role would get tho....

In a different scenario, I did a display at a Navy Family Day last year and we brought all the kit and weapons. Probably very un-PC, but we showed every kid that came up how to use the weapons, let them handle them, etc. There's 200 13 yr olds out there that are checked out on the Carl G *grin*

But I'm not sure that bringing weapons to a recruiting function in a school or mall would generate any positive or useful attention. Some people would be scared away (ok, they probably weren't potential recruits in the first place), and we'd attract a bunch of weirdos.

I was impressed by the display that Brigade provided for recruiting (except for the fact all the pics were of C Scots =o) ) and we need stuff like that, nothing shocking, but something professional, slick, and impressive.

Having said weapons and big displays aren't great for recruiting, I DO think that a high-speed, big fancy kit, Combined Arms display is needed in many areas of Canada where the military is under-represented. People don't know what the CF does, and have no clue there's an Army Reserve, which makes recruiting off the street difficult.
Example: My regiment has a huge armoury that looks like a castle and a sign out front and a park named after us across the road. A few weeks ago the recruiting officer, on a whim, stuck a sandwhich board advertising recruiting on the sidewalk - and lo and behold, people came in, saying they had no idea this was an army facility and asking questions.
The biggest obstacle to recruiting, in my view, is that the public has no idea we exist. Showing up at a high school with assault rifles one day isn't going to cure that....


Do we need a new thread for recruiting ideas?

Enfield

PS Towhey - just out of curiosity, why didn't you go Reserves when you got out?

[garett]

We've done a bit of cross training with the police here in Fredericton but it hasn't amounted to much really. While I was on my QL2 the troops in the platoon were supposed to go fire the 9mm at the police ranges but the Sgt. i/c never showed up on that Thursday night so it never happened. A couple of weeks ago we had a bunch of cops in and one of our Mcpl's was reviewing/teaching them drill. We're lucky here because Gagetown is 20 minutes down the road. This year we fired 9mm, shotguns, and C-7s all in jungle lanes with the pop up Figure 11s.
An advantage of ours is something that I've also recognized as our downfall. My unit has numerous former Reg force members who have an unmeasurable amount of experience. However this experience isn't being passed on. If anyone has read the current Maple Leaf they would of seen our DSM who was RCR and will be going back to the Reg force. Our CSM was RCR for 30 years. One of our section commanders was in 3 PPCLI. My platoon 2 i/c until this year was PPCLI for 4 years then Airborne for 21 where he became a Master Sniper. The list goes on. What have I gotten from these fine gentlemen, fuck all. I think all they really see the militia as is a supplement to their pension. Last week I had to listen to an ex-RCR/Airborne WO bitch and refuse to go to the field.

When I look around at my unit, myself included, we're all a bunch of bags o' shit. I also believe that the quality of the troops is a direct result of the efforts of NCO's and Officers. I started out my career with the platoon with a kick ass, can do attitude and it was slowly leached out of me by the people around me. I regained it this past summer then lost it over the months of boredom.

The difference between our unit a couple of years ago and our unit today is like night and day. Our turn over rate is too high, all our potential has gone to the Reg Force leaving behind university students who just want to make a buck and unemployed people who are making a career out of being Cpls on callout after callout. Our officers are getting to the end of their careers while we aren't recruiting any officers to replace them. We haven't put an officer through the full Phase cycle in 5 or 6 years. If I pass (I will pass) phase 2 this summer......I'll be a platoon commander in the fall which if you told me a couple of years ago I would of told you that officers are the scum of the earth. This is short changing the troops who deserve a trained platoon commander but it will be good experience for me I guess. I've got a long way to go, which has been pointed out to me by DukeM ever so gracefully. Please feel free to lecture me as much as possible, I'm trying to learn from both mine and other's mistakes. Its an uphill battle trying to unlearn all the bad habits I've picked up but it's a battle that has to be fought and won.

One thing I think we're missing out on is all these trips to foreign locals to do training. My friend in the PLF was just pulled off a 6B Demo callout to go to Pennsylvania to do some good training. My friend in 8CH went to Fort Knox to use the tank simulators. The Newfies went to Florida yet again. My unit has only gotten close to doing anything like that when this past fall a platoon from our second battalion was supposed to go to Belgium to do some training in amphibious landings with their Marines. Things like that are a recruiting and retention magnet which we're missing out on.

[garett]

We've been failing at recruiting the past few years but its getting better. Our new CO has changed a few things. We now have a full time Mcpl in recruiting and a snazzy recruiting office. We have an ad in the classifieds section and are generally focussing our efforts on local high schools. We couldn't recruit a university student if our lives depended on it.
I'm working on a guy at school who was 3 RCR recce platoon for 4 years. Hes got a lot to offer us, recce course, jump course and sniper course, ISCC not to mention being in Yugo when the shit was coming down. Hope I can snag him, he doesn't have a high opinion of the militia.

[Quimby]

DukeM, glad you like the term Oprahfication. I got it off a website called fredoneverything.net. Look up an article called The Marine Corps as Psychotherapy. Very funny as well as containing alot of truth.
In answer to your question, no the Special High Intensity Training (shit)we sometimes engage in is not on the schedule. Sometimes the answer is the ammo didn't show up or we couldn't get X piece of kit we requested, but still, moving lockers for three hours? The reason I haven't raised any fuss through the chain of command is I believe there are those higher ups who would use such behaviour to deny me potential courses, taskings, tours etc in the future. In short I don't trust anyone in our unit above the rank of our platoon warrant. None of them has demonstrated they are looking out for the best interests of the troops.
As an example, I am still waiting for any word on a summer course or tasking. This may be out of the hands of anyone in our company, I'm not privy to such info, but it's ridiculous to make the troops wait so long to find out if they'll be making money or not in the summer. I know one of our troops has already secured other employment because he has no faith in the system. I'm not counting on getting anything. I'll consider it a bonus if I do. When your troops who have near 100% attendance can't secure employment in a timely manner you know your unit is fucked.

I'm starting a seperate post on recruiting, mainly because I hate long posts that go on for page after page.

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An armed man is a citizen. An unarmed man is a subject.

[enderr]

The quality of training at our unit isn't too shabby[our RSS WO is really excellent]. However, they let MLOC drag on for months, and Wednesday nights are a farce. I mean does anyone actually do proper Battle procedure, or rehearsals.. And what is this obsession with going to the states just to use their ranges, I mean Pet and Meaford have alot of the facilities. Just think instead of going to Benning or Knox you could spend a week doing intense patrolling, or run a basic mtn. course, or basic unarmed cbt. course. I think the funds are not being managed right.. Fail to plan, and you plan to fail.