Highjack alert!
I'm highjacking this thread for a bit of a history lesson.
In the army, in the '50s and '60s, Signals was a poor relation in the militia. Technology was changing and there was not enough money to equip and train militia signals units and people. They were poor relations and as they became less and less able their status deteriorated further and further.
Enter Chairman Lew Wylie, a signals colonel (then - he retired as a MGen) and a highly regarded/respected (by the combat arms generals) officer. He was, at the time, in charge of the fixed/strategic communications network, which may or may not have been a system or a command - I'm old enough to be allowed to forget reorganizations which are older then 87.5% of army.ca members! "Here's what I'll do for you," said Wylie to the army brass: "I'll take all your signals militia and make them into my own communications reserve. These CommRes units will have almost enough equipment to support a militia area exercise and they will be able to borrow kit and regular force people from their parent strategic/fixed communication network units. When you, in the regular army, need augmentation (which was why, back in the '60s and '70s, the militia existed) I will send you trained regulars, from my units, and I will backfill my static units with reservists."
So was it written, so was it done!
The army was happy - we didn't really want the bother of managing the signals, anyway. The former signals reservists seemed happy enough (and well enough trained when I had a bunch of ‘em in ‘81) - they still had jobs.
I suspect it is still prohibitively expensive to equip and train reserve signals units. Maybe there's another Chairman Lew Wylie out there - probably a captain or major now, who will rescue the signals reserve in 2022.
