The Canadian Army Journal, Vol.7, Number 1

[Infanteer]

The Doctrine and Training Bulletin has renamed itself as the Canadian Army Journal.  This periodical is the launching pad for dissemination of new ideas for soldiers in the Army.  I would encourage soldiers to read any articles that may interest them and provide some of their own thoughts in response.

This thread can be a starting point for anyone who wishes to share those thoughts.

Here is the link to the online version of the Canadian Army Journal:

http://armyapp.dnd.ca/ael/adtb/vol_7/CAJ_vol7.1_e.pdf

Cheers,
Infanteer

 

[Scoobie Newbie]

"This periodical is the launching pad for dissemination of new ideas for soldiers in the Army."  I think you should take out solders and insert officers.  I have only seen one article written by a NCM make the pages.

 

[Infanteer]

Nonsense, Sergeant Arthur Majoor makes frequent contributions to the journal; I've seen a few articles by Master Corporals and Corporals as well.  And by the term soldiers I meant men and women of the profession of arms, regardless of rank.

 

[pbi]

CFL has a good point, though. Many Regular Army WOs/NCOs have excellent ideas that would benefit the Army, but they are very reluctant to publish. I have tried unsuccessfully over the years to get some of these guys to put this good thinking down on paper, but no luck. I'm not 100% sure why this is, but I have a feeling that a number of WOs/NCOs see professional writing as "officer sh*t" and stay clear of it. Some would say they do not have time, and others would be uncomfortable with the reaction in their mess.

This is a great pity because nobody has more valuable experience than our Regular Army WOs NCOs and much of it is not being captured. As well, there is a whole different perspective from "The Other Side of The Fence" that IMHO officers would do well to read. If the AJ is "officers only", IMHO we are all the poorer for it.

I encourage any WO/NCO who reads this site to publish, and to encourage others too. By the current CF definition (see Duty with Honour) WOs/NCOs are part of the profession of arms. Cheers.

 

[Scoobie Newbie]

Infanteer I didn't say I read every article published.

 

[Acorn]

PBI, my experience is similar. Many NCOs/WOs regard the literary aspects of the profession of arms as "officers' country." I take the reaction to the new ILQ as a good example. Many Sgts and WOs of my acquaintance regard the requirement to write a paper on one battle or another to be the sort of academic bumf that should be confined to universities and staff colleges (and thus, officers). NCOs/WOs are regarded as the implementers of ideas, not generators. The old story of the colonel evaluating a young officer candidate comes to mind:

"The Col asks the OCdt how he would ensure that the flag-pole was erected buy the designated time. The young officer-to-be makes a bunch of calculations, manpower assessments, and time/task evaluations and eventually has the pole erected. The colonel then points out the proper way: "Sgt, I want a flag-pole here by 0600 tomorrow morning."

Of course, at 0600, the flag-pole was there as ordered.

The parable aside, it is clear that NCOs/WOs have something to offer the profession of arms beyond the simple technical implementation of the will of the officer. That being said, we still have some hurdles to overcome.

Acorn

 

[Infanteer]

Good points guys; though SNCO's and OR's offer participation from time to time in the more theoretical aspects of the profession of arms (such as the Army Journal), it is an exception rather then a rule.  Perhaps this is a sign that our military culture has not yet unlocked the full potential of the NCO Corps.  We are an Army of the information age, not one of the industrial era, where NCO's were confined to dress, deportment, discipline, and technical proficiency.  By having his "boots to the ground" for a good portion of a 20 year career, a SNCO should have lots to provide in terms of experience and ideas.

The next logical question is, how do we unlock this potential?  Obviously, instilling this aspect of the profession of arms into NCO's will take a different approach then the one commonly applied to Officers, as we need these leaders in the units and training the private soldiers.  My first guess would be to start with professional development courses for NCO's at every level of promotion (MCpl - Sgt - WO - MWO - CWO).  Something like a 3-4 week course that approaches professional development from the standpoint of a solid military education.  NCO's would be presented with material and be asked to write on their experiences in the military, allowing them to put to use to all their field time and their technical expertise; this could later be elevated to more detailed writing geared towards lower level staff, planning, and ideas on proposals that the NCO's have had direct experience with.  Hopefully, this course could be taught by other SNCO's to reduce the notion that this would be "officer shit pressed onto the NCO Corps".

Anyone else have any ideas.

 

[pbi]

Infanteer: I certainly believe in encouraging our WOs/NCOs to write, but just to play devil's advocate here, I wonder about "forcing" them to do it. I also wonder about the side-effects of a career system that might demand more written work than field work from our NCOs and could begin to skew the  priorities of WOs/NCOs away from practical experience. We must take vrey great care not to turn off nor disadvantage the excellent field leader NCO who has no wish to write.

Having expressed that concern, I think that there are three ways we might initially go at it, barring a more formalized approach:

a) encourage it from the top: the CLS and RSM of the Army, on down through the chain of command and the RSM net;

b) stress that writing is not a way for WOs/NCOs to "prove" themselves to officers but rather a way for them to teach and improve the whole Army, including officers;

c) perhaps have a writing award (a good one, not a cheesy one....) that can only be won  by CWO and below. Bring the winner to Ottawa to get the award, publicize it, etc. At first, I bet these guys will get the sh*t ribbed out of them in the Mess, but in time it might catch on.

I am in full agreement that we can do more with our NCOs. This AM I watched a very sharp young USMC Sgt First Class who was essentially running the entire JOC night shift here at Bagram, incl officer D/Os.  Very self-confident and squared away. I know our guys could do this too. Cheers.

 

[Infanteer]

Infanteer: I certainly believe in encouraging our WOs/NCOs to write, but just to play devil's advocate here, I wonder about "forcing" them to do it. I also wonder about the side-effects of a career system that might demand more written work than field work from our NCOs and could begin to skew the   priorities of WOs/NCOs away from practical experience. We must take vrey great care not to turn off nor disadvantage the excellent field leader NCO who has no wish to write.

True, that is why it is essential to keep the classroom environment to a minimum as we aren't training Staff Officers here.   However, I think we must promote the idea that one of the parts of being a professional is thinking about and advancing ideas on ones profession.   All that they've experienced may go to waste if they cannot pass it on to others.   That is why I advocated utilizing the personal experiences of an NCO as a good place to encourage writing for professional development; making them go to books and check reference material will just turn it into a task.

I like your ideas, they act as a form of peer promotion (good job, you know your shit) vice superior officer coercion (write me a paper, Sgt).

Perhaps the best way to encourage NCO's to contribute to the professional dialogue; implement their ideas to some degree.   That will show them that others are listening to their unique point of view and that we value what the NCO Corps has to contribute.   Perhaps, the next time the military has a decision to make, issue a call for proposals from the NCO Corps on what they feel is the best way to provide things.   A panel of SME's will evaluate all entries and provide face to face feedback on their ideas; even better, perhaps all who submitted could be included on the judging, allowing them to hold their ideas up to the proposals of their peers.   The winner will be included to some degree in the final decision making progress of whatever is being done.   Who knows, maybe if such a thing is done you'll have a couple dozen NCO's screaming to do something that wasn't clearly evident from the vantage point of the decision maker; now we're networking here.

Here is, in my opinion, a good example of what a soldier from the Ranks can contribute in terms of professional writing; and it happens to be from our very own KevinB.

http://nightoperations.com/Doc/Infantry-Rifle-Carbine1.pdf

Anyways, just some thoughts from the wayside....

 

[a23trucker]

There is no question that the NCM's can provide intelligent input, I've witnessed it here many times.
I only wish that I'd have as many good conversations in some officer's messes..... :
It may be the formal style that scares away some (including officers), They may think they would have difficulty presenting their thoughts in a suitable format. They may only be familiar with writing or communicating in an informal or point format.
Maybe the Journal could accept Ideas/outlines, then have a staff writer flush it out, return for proof, and once acceptable submit it with " BY MCpl XXX with YYY"
Maybe one way might be to take some of the questions posed in this forum and present them as topics for discussion on a page in the journal.
Cheers
AM

 

[Matt_Fisher]

This AM I watched a very sharp young USMC Sgt First Class who was essentially running the entire JOC night shift here at Bagram, incl officer D/Os.   Very self-confident and squared away. I know our guys could do this too. Cheers.

Sorry to nitpick, but we don't have the rank of Sergeant First Class in the Marines.  Sergeant First Class is a US Army rank which is on the E7 pay grade.  The Marine equivalent is Gunnery Sergeant.

Cheers!

Matt

 

[pbi]

Doh! I realized that when I re-read the post this AM. Thanks Matt. Cheers.

 

[PPCLI Guy]

Or perhaps we should challenge the Jr and Sr NCOs who post here so clearly and precisely to subnit an article or two?

 

[Matt_Fisher]

I had LCol. Fleury, former editor of the CAJ approach CASR about publishing my Leopard CAT article
http://www.sfu.ca/casr/id-leo.htm
However it was decided that since the article had already been given a goodly amount of exposure to CF/DND pers. through its online form, it was decided not to publish it and instead give space to someone with an article that didn't have the exposure already.   I didn't have a problem with that at all, as I'd prefer to see the CAJ as a source of new ideas that deserve recognition and discussion, rather than reprints from elsewhere (such as my CAT article).

*Note*  Had I read the post through, I'd have seen that Infanteer beat me with the reference to Kevin Boland's article.

KevinB has written quite extensively online through the www.nightoperations.com website and has an outstanding article on the shortcomings of the C7A2 and a proposed C7A3:
http://www.nightoperations.com/C-7_A2.htm   If I am not mistaken this article was published in the Infantry Journal?

I think what may spur NCMs to write more would be formal acknowledgement of their professional writing works.   If some type of recognition were put into PERs for promotion purposes for having articles written and disseminated.   Those that are ambitious and want to seek higher leadership positions would have a system of encouragement to spread their knowledge and ideas throughout the community to help produce a better end-state of the Forces.

I'm glad to have forums such as CASR, the CAJ and this one to discuss matters relating to the profession of arms in Canada.   What I think would be a huge improvement is if the Infantry, Armour and other respective branch/corps publications were more widely available online.   A couple years ago I approached the editors of the Infantry and Armoured journals to see if I could obtain a private subscription to each respective publication., but they don't offer such (at least at that time) and their very future existence was expressed in terms of doubt due to lack of funds for their operation.   If funds are that tight, it would seem to make great sense of publishing them online, as an electronic version would be far cheaper than the print version to create and maintain.

 

[Infanteer]

Or perhaps we should challenge the Jr and Sr NCOs who post here so clearly and precisely to subnit an article or two?

I've had a few ideas for papers that are in the formulation phase (ie: various notes and scattered papers and thoughts).  I've been meaning to collect them into a thesis and argument, but my problem is that my energy shifts so often between different areas that things never take off.

Perhaps I'll take up your challenge and commit myself to following through on my chaos of ideas.

 

[PPCLI Guy]

Perhaps I'll take up your challenge and commit myself to following through on my chaos of ideas.

And perhaps I will take up my own challenge as I seem to have lots of extra time on my hands these days...

 

[onecat]

I haven't been in the army long enough to really talk about this subject in great detail.  But I do know that more and more of our culture is geared to going to university or collage and also applied to NCM's as well. Having gained this experience in school either before they join or during is going to help  SNCO's and WO's apply this knowledge in Journals like this.  A lot has changed in the last 20 years, and Canadian culture has changed as greater importance is placed being able to express your ideas on paper.  It's skill that needs to learned just as any other, and could be that current gen of SNCO's isn't as comfortable in this skill as their fellow Officers are.

 

[a_majoor]

Just on a personal note, what motivated me to write in the first place was an event at a conference. The "round table" discussed many interesting and innovative ideas, and we were working on a summary to present to the main body of the conference, when the "dinosaur attack" came. One by one, the interesting and innovative ideas were struck from our final summary, and the end result was: "things are fine the way they are, we need to keep doing things the same way, only more so..."

I did not agree, and wrote my dissent when I got home. The conference organizer included it in the conference report, and I have been going ever since.

Everyone needs a way to express themselves, writing articles for the ADTB/CAJ is mine. These boards are probably better for many people because they are faster, give reasonably quick feedback and allow a degree on anonymity. (Less chance of repercussions). If CAJ retooled a bit to allow faster publishing (monthly vs quarterly), and the idea that publishing has negative consequences was firmly squashed, then you might see more NCO's and OR's submitting articles for publication.

 

[Andyboy]

I have trouble believing that as a reservist my ideas are taken seriously. Optimist by nature, pessimist by experience.

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

You won't know untill you write it and submit.
And as a sidenote I think if you knew the background of some of the "heavy hitters" here on army.ca, you would find thats not the case,[though I will add] as much as years past.