Looks like it was a good Ex and probably great experience for all involved. I've met this Capt Dave, he's a dick. We had differing opinions on what sort of soldiers he should look to for recruiting into the JTAC program. He's a believer that they should be a "shooter" (qualified SOF Operator) first and that "you can teach them that radio stuff in a day". I tried to convince him that if you took Radio Operator's from the Army that have Tac Aviation experience and FAC's, and send them through the normal SOF screening/training before they start the JTAC training. Our eyes on the ground, Forward air controllers (FACs).
You could do both, it depends on how much training time they get on the skills they don't have.You simply won't be a competent commo guy in a day and becoming a JTAC in the US isn't something you learn in a few days either. To do one job you have to be good at the other too. To think that anyone though will receive a day or two train up and be as good a commo guy as the guy that received weeks of training and years of experience is lunacy.
That was my feelings exactly and my argument with said individual, it takes 4 years to reach the Journeyman level as a Signals Operator and that doesn't even take into account any speciality courses/training paths that you take on. I would be more than willing to take on as much of his knowledge as a shooter.
The CF is in such a major transition at the moment, that many different routes are going to be tested, sadly this may take away from the assets available to the shooters on the ground.
Well, in short, The Canadian Army was one of the most feared Army's in WW1, WW2 and Korea. After that, because of government changes and whatnot, we sort of became branded as PeaceKeepers, by the international community. A noble brand, but not really good for soldiers who are trained to ram a bayonet through a badguy. Only in the last few years have we gone back into a combat role. And as a result, having once again proven ourselves in battle, the army is going through changes, right from Basic training, to newly formed units. With the creation of these new units and such, there is a lot of trial and error. Thats basically what I was getting at.
Pete, I completely understand what your getting at. The problem is where they are looking to recruit to fill these JTAC positions. Isolating it to already qualified shooters when there are other pools in which they could draw from. The role of a JTAC is that of a highly qualified communicator, so why not draw from a already qualified pool of communicators?
Well they could do it like the Dwyer Hill boys and have specialists come in as supporters. Give them some Insert/extract courses and a few shooting packages...
I think that is the idea but I meant the original recruitment pool from which they get their bodies. Have you seen any advertisements to apply to be a JTAC out in the real world?
I have worked with US JTAC's overseas... Great guys, who saved our lives many times.... I presently do not see anyone in our Air Force who comes close to those guys. (Maybe I just haven't seen them). The closest ones we have army side are the FOO/FAC's in the Recce Platoons and whatnot.
Thats good, but I think they should sort out the conventional side too. SF can always get attachments from other countries to roll with them. And seeing as we are mostly using US and Brit CAS, it really has to be an in depth trade. Our birds don't get deployed enough.
I completely agree. And with my background I've done a lot of work with the FAC/FOO courses and worked the G3Air TacCP for a while. Did some work with the Multinational FAC's in Afghanistan doing dry runs. And working in the Tac Avn world with the Helo's, it's a broad spectrum that most guys don't get shown. I argued it with this Capt Dave that it was needed across the Forces and that there was already highly qualified and motivated soldiers out in the conventional world. I'm sure that it will be noticed eventually by someone higher but by that time, it will be to late. It takes years to learn to be able to talk on the radio as if it was a natural reaction. And there is more to it than just turning the radio on and talking on it. ;) Especially when it comes to aircraft.
