DG Land Reserve on "sustainable Reserve Force"

[The Bread Guy]

Provided without comment straight from the Info-machine - let the tea leaf reading begin!

Brigadier-General Kelly Woiden, Director General Land Reserve talks about maintaining a sustainable Reserve Force while achieving a work-life balance for reservists.

The Canadian Army Reserves are an essential component of the total Army force representing the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) in communities across Canada.

“The Army Reserves is an integral part of the Army; we’re at approximately 19,000 folks depending. We’re approximately 48 per cent of the total Army strength,” said BGen Woiden, a proud reservist for over 35 years.

In your community

“The beauty is they’re all across the country in small and large communities. Sometimes you don’t know who your local reservists are; it’s all citizens from different walks of life.”

Reservists make up 123 units in 117 communities across the country.

“They’re citizen soldiers; they’re active within the community, and have a tendency to give. Especially the ones who stay in the reserves, many of them are very prominent within their communities because they can handle more than one thing,” explained BGen Woiden.

Keeping the Reserves sustainable

The Army is conducting a thorough review of training that includes a detailed look at the Army Reserve. The amount of time the reservists are asked to train is being assessed in order to achieve a reasonable work-life balance

“Between civilian life and reserve or military life, it’s our challenge to find a sustainable work commitment that’s able to provide what we need on the force generation side of the house,” said BGen Woiden.

Reservists are part-time soldiers; a commitment of roughly four evenings and one weekend a month, as well as various training sessions throughout their careers.

The goal for Reserve training is to deliver it in manageable amounts, usually through courses of no more than two or three weeks in duration. Once or twice during his or her career, a reservist may have to take courses that run longer. For the reservists’ civilian employers, military training is a bonus.

“There is a benefit to the employer, they are getting a highly trained, experienced individual and those skill sets are transferable,” BGen Woiden points out.

The Canadian Forces Liaison Council (CFLC) is a group of volunteer civilian employers that looks at issues such as soldiers getting time off work for training and deployment. The CFLC works with business and industry to establish military leave policies that are clearly defined between reservists and their civilian employers. BGen Woiden depends on them to be a direct line of communication between the worlds of business and industry and the Army.

Post-Afghanistan Era

BGen Woiden says the goal is sustainability. “Retain the soldier once you’ve got them trained. Allow them to progress, be leaders, take on more responsibility, and in many cases provide that benefit back into the community.”

“We need to be viable, sustainable, and relevant as we transition from deployment on operations like Afghanistan,” said BGen Woiden. “We need to ensure the force generation base in the Army Reserve is robust and capable of providing the training and personnel required for operations: whether that’s domestic or expeditionary.”

Many reservists deployed to Afghanistan; more than 4,200 over the 12 years of the Afghan missions.

“Those that went to Afghanistan volunteered. They took time off from their civilian occupation or their families to be part of an integrated Army operation,” noted BGen Woiden. “Part of it is to keep them in, to challenge them. They’ve gone off and now we need to take that experience level they’ve gained and impart it to the Reserve Force and the Army as a whole.”

Collective Training

Sovereignty operations in the North are an important part of the current Army Reserve mission.

"The road to high readiness cycle including 12 months on, 24 months reconstitution phase, now is focused on sovereignty in the North," said BGen Woiden.

Operations NUNALIVUT and NANOOK are Regular Force sovereignty operations that take place in conjunction with Arctic Response Company Groups, which are staffed by reservists.

As well, there are many local training exercises throughout the year for Reserve units and brigades.

Collective training beyond sovereignty operations is also important. Exercise MAPLE RESOLVE is one of the largest and most intensive collective training exercises of the year. The biggest value of collective training is experience in interoperability, making Reserve soldiers familiar with operations, communications, command and control together with their Regular Force counterparts.

 

[MilEME09]

Once or twice during his or her career,

Try four or five for techs General, that are on average of 7 weeks. When reservist leave legislation only covers 20 days, tell me again how i am suppose to keep my job?

 

[PuckChaser]

Try four or five for techs General, that are on average of 7 weeks. When reservist leave legislation only covers 20 days, tell me again how i am suppose to keep my job?

The question then becomes, do we destroy PRes tech training so its nothing like the Reg F but easier to stomach for PRes members, or stop offering those trades as PRes options?

 

[pbi]

Provided without comment straight from the Info-machine - let the tea leaf reading begin!

I was Kelly Woiden's COS when he was Comd 38 CBG: an able commander and IMHO one of the most capable GO's in the Army Reserve. He certainly understands pressure of Res duty/civ work/life balance: he had a demanding job in the defence industry, was doing his Masters, and was raising a family at the same time as he was commanding a Bde spread from Prince Albert to Thunder Bay.

That aside, I see absolutely nothing here that doesn't get dredged up, almost like clockwork, every few years or so. Most of it is boilerplate or good wholesome motherhood. My gut feel is not to read too much into it at this point.

 

[Rifleman62]

pbi:

He certainly understands pressure of Res duty/civ work/life balance: he had a demanding job in the defence industry, was doing his Masters, and was raising a family at the same time as he was commanding a Bde spread from Prince Albert to Thunder Bay.

I would say very demanding job, with a fair amount of international travel.

Then the skunks got into his house and contaminated the ventilation system.

 

[Crispy Bacon]

Okay, who is *actually* in charge of the Reserves?

VCDS oversees the Director General Reserves and Cadets (DGRC), which is headed by the Chief of Reserves and Cadets.

CMP has a Reserve Support Advisor (DRSM).

Now we have this person (to be clear - nothing against him), who is the Director General of the "Land Reserve."

Who *actually* oversees and represents reservists? Is this another case of HQ bloat paralyzing the existing commanders from being able to act?

 

[MilEME09]

The question then becomes, do we destroy PRes tech training so its nothing like the Reg F but easier to stomach for PRes members, or stop offering those trades as PRes options?

They actually just did that, instead of a 3 month QL3, a 6 month OJT period and another 3 month QL5, it is 4 mods that are roughly 35-45 training days each. Much of the equipment that would put us on par with the reg force is gone, sniper rifles, shotguns, mortors, sig, lee enfield for working with the rangers to name a few. As a token gesture our last mod is now C3 howitzer. Vehicle tech is about the same now, but all our training is done at the school with no outside OJT putting the burden on units to get us doing our trades.

 

[DAA]

Okay, who is *actually* in charge of the Reserves?

VCDS oversees the Director General Reserves and Cadets (DGRC), which is headed by the Chief of Reserves and Cadets.

CMP has a Reserve Support Advisor (DRSM).

Now we have this person (to be clear - nothing against him), who is the Director General of the "Land Reserve."

Who *actually* oversees and represents reservists? Is this another case of HQ bloat paralyzing the existing commanders from being able to act?

I do believe, that DGRC acts more in an "advisory" capacity, as opposed to C2.  Reserve Forces are "environmental" and controlled by the respective groups.  (ie; Army PRes, NavRes, ARAF, CMP (DRSM), etc, etc).

So the DG Land Reserves, respresents the Army Primary Reserve only.

 

[pbi]

Okay, who is *actually* in charge of the Reserves?

VCDS oversees the Director General Reserves and Cadets (DGRC), which is headed by the Chief of Reserves and Cadets.

CMP has a Reserve Support Advisor (DRSM).

Now we have this person (to be clear - nothing against him), who is the Director General of the "Land Reserve."

Who *actually* oversees and represents reservists? Is this another case of HQ bloat paralyzing the existing commanders from being able to act?

They're under the command of their respective Service. Since all Army Reserve units answer to a Division HQ, that Division Comd represents them to the CCA, but that is complemented by a Res DComd in the Div and a Res "rep" in Army HQ.  DGLRes has no command authority unless CCA delegates something to him. This position existing long before the current crop of DotCom HQs appeared.

 

[Crispy Bacon]

I do believe, that DGRC acts more in an "advisory" capacity, as opposed to C2.  Reserve Forces are "environmental" and controlled by the respective groups.  (ie; Army PRes, NavRes, ARAF, CMP (DRSM), etc, etc).

So the DG Land Reserves, respresents the Army Primary Reserve only.

Understood. So DGRC is a horizontal or lateral "liasion" if you will, representing all of the reserve forces together to the VCDS?

My question is somewhat rhetorical. It seems to me that we have too many hands in the pot, all trying to represent "the reserve force."  If each environment has a reserve advisor that pushes up their concerns to the environmental command, then why does VCDS need his own?  That's an MGen (or BGen now, I believe) whose sole purpose is to liaise with BGens and Colonels?

 

[Ostrozac]

To further complicate things, there is more to the reserves than the army, navy and air force. The Provost Marshall has reserves. So does CANSOFCOM and CF Health Services Group. The NDHQ Primary Reserve is a substantial number of people -- and they are commanded by the VCDS. Since our reserve force is so complicated, administrating and commanding it as one entity seems to be equally complicated.

 

[FJAG]

Okay, who is *actually* in charge of the Reserves?

I can help you with this.

In short, the people in "charge" of the Reserves are the environmental commanders and the heads of various Primary Reserve Lists - therefore the army, navy, air force, Comms Branch commanders are in "charge" of their respective reservists (Each has a senior reservist on their staff who are designated the DG Land Res (a BGen); Comd Nav Res (a Commodore); Comd Air Res (BGen); and Comd Comm Res (Col)) . The JAG and DG Health Services are in charge of the reservists on strength with their respective PRLs (They are designated DJAG Res (a Col); and D Health Services Res (a Col)). These senior reservists have varying command or advisory functions respecting the reservists belonging to their organizations and serve as Class A or B depending on the organization.

In addition to that there are numerous directorates and agencies within the CF and DND who have responsibility for "reserve" issues e.g. recruiting, pay and benefits, etc.

Finally there is an advisor to the CDS called the Chief of Reserves and Cadets (who is a Class A reservist MGen) His/Her organization comes under the organizational structure of the VCDS but note that the advice function goes directly to the CDS (In fact the CR&C sits on the CDS's Armed Forces Council).

In order to do the job of monitoring, coordinating and implementing reserve issues within the Forces, the CR&C has a staff and his own council.

The staff is responsible for day-to-day activities and is led by a regular force BGen designated the Director General Reserves and Cadets and a Class B reservist Colonel designated the Director of Reserves. Much of the staff's work deals with the VCDS and other elements of the VCDS's empire.

As well there is a Reserve CWO.

The CR&C Council meets at approximately one month intervals to get briefed on and to discuss issues respecting reservists in general. The members of the CR&C's Council are the DGR&C; DRes; CR&C CWO; DG Land Res; Comd Nav Res; Comd Air Res; Comd Comm Res; DJAG Res and DHS Res. In addition both the Commandant of the Canadian Defence Academy and the Director General Military Human Resources Policy and Planning sit as ex officio members of the Council.

That defines the overall high-level leadership and authority structure for the CF reserves. Note however that "being in charge" is a relative term. Command and advisory functions vary depending on how each environment or PRL is organized. I think you can safely say, however, that the senior regular force commanders to whom the reservists belong are "in charge".

Hope that helps.

:cheers:

 

[Ostrozac]

FJAG,

Just an update to your info -- the Communications Reserve has been folded back into the standard army reserve structure, and the MP's have left the army reserve and now are part of the Provost Marshall organization.

 

[FJAG]

FJAG,

Just an update to your info -- the Communications Reserve has been folded back into the standard army reserve structure, and the MP's have left the army reserve and now are part of the Provost Marshall organization.

Ah! The passage of time and the lack of information available on the CF internet pages. I should have prefaced this with "correct as of the day I retired in 2009".

I knew that as I was leaving that all the army Comms Res types were going over to the army but it was my understanding that a Comms  Res element remained with the C&E branch. I'm not sure if that is correct as of today or if the Comms Res are still represented on CR&C Council.

The change within the MPs are a new one on me but I would expect that if they transferred to the Provost Marshall then there would now have to be a new PM PRL. I have no idea as to whether or not their representative sits on the current Council but it would seem logical that someone should.

All in all, the various changes in organization and individual representatives on Council do not effect the general thrust of the question as to who is "in charge" of the reserves.

Thanks for the update, Ostrozac.

:cheers:

 

[NSDreamer]

The article isn't realistic as it is. I'd quote out the line stating one weekend a month and 4 thursday nights, but I fail at quoting from quotes apparently and will now stop trying.

My average month consists of 1-3 Tuesday nights, 4 thursday nights 2 weekends at a minimum, usually 3, if we are running courses and you're qualified to instruct, you can be looking at 4.

We feed recruits the line of 1 weekend, 4 training nights and then we ask a lot more and state no taskings or courses unless you attend all because of the IBTS requirements...

It's all messed...but hey, fun right?  :

 

[dapaterson]

The remaining Comm Reserve is essentially an ADM(IM) PRL, less than 150 pers in size.

 

[MilEME09]

The article isn't realistic as it is. I'd quote out the line stating one weekend a month and 4 thursday nights, but I fail at quoting from quotes apparently and will now stop trying.

My average month consists of 1-3 Tuesday nights, 4 thursday nights 2 weekends at a minimum, usually 3, if we are running courses and you're qualified to instruct, you can be looking at 4.

We feed recruits the line of 1 weekend, 4 training nights and then we ask a lot more and state no taskings or courses unless you attend all because of the IBTS requirements...

It's all messed...but hey, fun right?  :

Dont forget the being one of only a hand full of people that actually show up so its six people doing the work of 20

 

[OldSolduer]

Who ever gets off the bus.... And it's usually the same bunch.

 

[dapaterson]

Too many Army Reserve units are unwilling to take the necessary action to release folks who rarely show up and don't contribute.  Of course, they are not helped by higher headquarters that state, in writing, that Pers Admin is about #5 on the priority list (until it gets bumped further down).

 

[George Wallace]

Too many Army Reserve units are unwilling to take the necessary action to release folks who rarely show up and don't contribute.  Of course, they are not helped by higher headquarters that state, in writing, that Pers Admin is about #5 on the priority list (until it gets bumped further down).

It doesn't help, that when a unit does try to get rid of its 'deadwood', higher levels of HQs (Bde and Area, now Div) sit on the documents for long periods of time, perhaps even losing it in the process.