I have, on every occasion that requires me to be in contact with staff level officers and SrNCO's, seen nothing that would indicate a change for the better in the professional development of JrNCO's or JrOfficers. The staus quo appears to be maintained at all costs (usually at the expense of the lowest private) and the worst enemy they ever face is complacency.

It is my greatest fear that my offspring will one day (without my foreknowledge) join the ranks of the CF. They will experience the opposite of what they should be...proud citizens serving a great nation. They will instead become confused, embittered people that will do almost anything not to have to make any effort of will to accomplish a poorly planned mission of a wannabe polictically motivated officer. Shades of the USSR!

I have only one suggestion that may cause the CF to change direction in a positive move. Start all over again from the beginning. No politics, provisions for personal gain or career advancement or anything that would detract from the mission of producing sound private soldiers with the attitude that they will not advance until they themselves have trained their own replacement to be as good or better than they are at the area of speciality they occupy. No more schools (or empires), no more shuffling off the dead wood to another posting and let 'them' deal with a problem child. Leadership development through the hardships of real (or at least realistic) training. Sensible, common sense methods of corrective measures in discipline and not being 'fearful' of what a decision now might have on your future later. Mature, wise counsel that comes from older, more experienced soldiers rather than higher ranked less experienced officers.

To some this is close to heresy or treasonable thinking. To others this is 'pie in the sky' wishful thinking. To a very few that know, this is the only way that we as a nation can expect to survive an encounter with an enemy that knows the weaknesses of complacency and how to capitalize it. That enemy will not respect any ROE, Hague Conventions or any 'decent' method of warfare. It will be our undoing as a nation if we fail to correct this shortcoming. We must stop relying on our 'sure knowledge' that if the balloon ever goes up we can rely on our Allies to the south to bail us out. It won't happen.

I can't add anything to that fine "vent".

And a good thing it does, too! If we don't train the soldiers to handle weapons well and safely, we'd better make certain they can express themselves well in the subsequent investigations.

>The Reg F is better off but only because of overseas deployment, forceing workup trg which turns out combat ready troops.