Reservists getting jerked around when trying to join the regular force.
Agree. This is a bit better than it was, but it still seems to be a painfully slow system. Since the person is already in the CF, it should be faster than bringing somebody in off the street. Going the other way (Reg to Res) can be pain in the a** too;
Recruiting ads. Their for pussies, simply as that.
IMHO it depends. In past few years I have seen two very good ads: one was for Navy, the other more Army oriented. In the last while I haven 't seen any advertising, period. (But then maybe I don't get out enough). I think we are a hell of a lot better than we were in the days of the geek coming down the gangway of the destroyer with a briefcase.
Support for combat arms. I'd say 99% of the people I've spoke with, many recruiters included, tried to talk me out of going combat arms
Based on comments I have heard from Comd CFRG, this is probably because Cbt Arms recruiting is doing very well: this is not where the shortages are. Inf, in particular, is doing very well. IMHO our biggest limiting factor in the CF is not the availability of Cbt Arms: it is the fact that there are so few deployable CSS folks left that we have had to do radical surgery in the Army to keep our support functions going. No support: no operations-period. And, by the way, as an Inf soldier myself, I do not want folks joining the Inf who don't have at least a complete high school diploma, which these days is the bare minimum standard of public education;
Tougher recruiting. New recruits can't polish their boots but they sure as hell know the harassment policy inside and out and know exactly when they can bend that sucker to their will and get off with being idiots.
I think we should be careful here. A bunch of guys running around in the deserts of Afghanistan right now only joined the Army in the last two-three of years. By all accounts I have heard, they are doing pretty well;
Same with people who join the military injured.
Are there really all that many of these? My experience dealing with CFRG during the period 2002-2005, covering Reserve recruiting in MB, MAN and NWONT (via our supporting CFRC and dets) was just the opposite. The medical restrictions were so tight that recruits were rejected for having old football injuries (healed years before), acne, etc. We fought a number of cases that we believed were too restrictive: without any doubt it was this medical aspect that was the most frustrating to deal with. Given the Fed Govt (ie: Treasury Board) reluctance to take on any liability in the pension area, I would be very surprised to see that we are actually recruiting many people with any significant medical problems. As far as I know, we are even cracking down on the accomdation policy that allowed people to remain in service with low medical categories.
Cheers.