GhostRecon, you are absolutely right. Throwing money at the problems of the CF will not resolve them, in fact, if we (the CF) don't show the public that we use the money we are given wisely, it could make things worse. While we have a plan (I don't really agree with the CDS' Transformation concept) and money is becoming aval and getting recruits isn't a problem, what we lack are two things - time and will. We lack the time needed to rebuild our training establishments, to flesh out a mass training program and to amend our establishments to accept these new troops and have a valid purpose for them. We also lack the will (mainly political) to make these needed changes happen now. Not in two to 20 years, but now. This country set up the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan in just under a year (from time of concept to graduation of first courses) and in the course of the war graduated over 130,000 aircrew and over 80,000 groundcrew. That is nearly a quarter-million personnel in a relatively short time. How? Will.
Currently, we are talking about 25,000 personnel, 1/10th of the BCATP and we are utterly lost and seemingly adrift. The CDS has directed that as of 1 Oct 06, 30% of all applicants be enrolled within a week of first applying and by 1 Jan 07 that 50% of all applicants be enrolled within a week of first applying. Great. I don't think we can make those targets, but even if we did, what the Hell do we do with those folks?
RCSignals, thanks for the compliment, I do appreciate it. You are quite correct, the alarm bells have been ringing for decades, but I fear that the pigeons are coming home to roost. I wouldn't mind if it only affected politicos, I just don't want to see it end up hurting our troops, especially those abroad. Cheers.