ARmy Rumour SErvice

G_B,

I'm not a fan of yes men either, I just accept that at my lowly station there is not much I can do to change a decision that's already been made. I'm left with the choice of bleating about it or trying to see the best in it and leaning forward.

Merry Xmas fella. I hope your spleen venting makes you feel a bit more cheerful about our lot!

Sorry Dude - I was a bit sharp there. IMHO the Lt Div are making the very best of the situation, and will retain their core ethos. I get revved up by this subject, so apologies for the rattly safrty catch. You're quite right to adopt your attitude...I only wish other Divisions (like mine) were acting as coherently as the lt div.

Have a good leave.

Originally Posted by GROWNUPS_BEWARE

Sorry Dude - I was a bit sharp there. .................

I don't think you were being a bit sharp there.

Obviously in the end, one must accept what happens, but there is nothing wrong with speaking out about stupid ill thought out decisions. By not doing so gives the powers that be the false impression that all is well, and empowers them to go on.
It has been claimed that all soldiers were given the opportunity to speak out in a poll of sorts, and apparently few said anything against it, so teh thought is everyone is fine with the proposals. Had more spoken their true mind, perhaps the outcome would not be exactly as it is now.

Bit sharp in rifting Blunt Bayonet as a Yes Man, when chances are he's just stagging on and trying to make the best of things.

Don't retract any of the points I made. But VMT for the moral sp!

I would certainly support the position that the breadth of our experience across all Infantry roles is what sets us apart from our closest ally. I would also add to that the trust we have in our Junior Oficers and NCOs born out of the very flexibility that Grown ups Beware has clearly laid out below. I am currently serving my second tour in the sandbox both have been in US led organisations. Believe me they are paying a heavy price for their exclusive focus on high intensity manoeuvre warfare in the past anything vaguely asymetric was the preserve of the Ranger Regiments or SOCOM(that's now changing fast). I would also add that the US also has an individual posting system. I find them an almost souless soviet like organisation bound by strict rules, that contribute to a mission direct rather than mission command atmosphere. Let us hope we to do not end up like them. Caveat Emptor!!

95Nails

Originally Posted by RCSignals

Originally Posted by GROWNUPS_BEWARE

........................

Chap, you're missing the point. Sadly so is a large proportion of our leadership because they spend most of their time at Staff and not in Command posts....I bash my head against my issue desk because I am suffering the same fate....it comes back to the hallowed word 'capability', and all that lies therein. It takes wise and seasoned men, with backbones of steel, to articulate what won't appear on an excel spreadsheet.

Why are our Infantry so effective? Equipment? You jest. Numbers? Never. Entrance thresholds? Not going by the stories from ATRA. Training? Ah...onto something here, but there's more. It is their FLEXIBILITY and VERSATILITY. How do you take a gang of Cumbrian reivers from preparation for high intensity war to framework patrolling and COIN within a matter of hours, and back again? How do you take a unit in the AI role and give it a PSO tasking and conduct covert surveillance with them all within the same town in Bosnia or Kosovo? This CAPABILITY is found from their collective experience in a variety of infantry roles...and this comes as a result of the Arms Plot. Within an WO/Sgts mess or across the officer spectrum in any inf bn today you will have AI/NI/Mech and light experience which gives a corporate memory not found in other armies. CO of the Black Watch in Telic would agree with me, as would many others. It is this human dimension that is being lost, being unchallenged and glossed over. And when we specialise to role, as FIS will dictate, we will lose that breadth of knowledge - even when mitigated my Individual Posting.

And the great cries of 'that ship has sailed', and 'lets move on' is intellectual idleness. If a suboptimal plan has been made, it is our duty to discuss and debate it. The infantry is being reduced. Battalions are not completing Collective and Individual training to the mandated standards and risk is being taken across the board. Harmony is routinely broken. Our people are not happy. We routinely exceed our defence planning assumptions. We have the TA on the Operational Commitments Cycle....conducting duties they were never designed for, and then we gloss it over by saying we're 'an army to be used'. We've redesigned the 'Future Army Structure' to utilise the 'rule of three' in our brigades, when we know damn well that you need four manoeuvre units to generate a reserve or a pursuit force (for our fourth core function)....And Future Infantry Structures removes the breadth and variety of experience of our re-roling infantry and the strength of tribal cohesion of battalion manning and replaces it with Individual Postings. You might as well be a Gunner. And if you're a Gunner, you might as well be Gay. Finally, we're trading a heavy armoured brigade for a light brigade that is fighting for its existance as a deployable force on the back of a 'medium' capability based on unproven technologies - in short reorganising from 'most difficult' to 'most likely', a serious serious defeat for the forces of reason...because we exist to defend the realm against threats seen and unforeseen.

If I were you, my friend, I would occupy myself with applying that fine brain to the real truth, and the real solutions, of todays complexities, rather than an encyclopaedic knowledge of the party line.

And before you tell me about 'financial realities', spare a moment to consider that in the Eighties and early 90's we were considered the sick man of europe, with an ever dwindling GDP, yet had an army of nearly 200,000. Today we're the worlds fourth richest country, and the planet's oldest democracy, with responsibilities to match, in a more uncertain and more dangerous world. By all means make efficiencies...but not at the expense of 'capability', and our nations security.

Excellent. Some of the best I've read on the whole matter.