It's almost 21 years since I turned over command of an infantry militia unit, and if parading strength is an indicator of success, I guess I have something to be proud of, but I don't know whether I can claim all the credit. During my command I had a group of officers and NCOs which was second to none in the District (the Bde in those days).
Times change. I readily recongize that, so many of the things I did then would not work now. In fact, they would not be tolerated.
First, I directed that we would no longer be in the individual training business. All IT would be done at someone else's time, labour and expense. We had just completed a fall/winter recruit course which started about 30 strong, and graduated about 5 individuals. What a waste. My solution was to do all recruit training in the summer, and concentrate on collective training.
Trade progression training days in those days was the responsibility of the District.
Over the fall/winter/spring I ran an exercise every six weeks or so. I issued the aim and scope of the exercise to the training officer, and all training in that six week period was directed at preparing individuals to perform their role in the exercise. I allowed raw recruits to attend, but limited their participation.
I tried to make these exercises as exciting as possible -- escape and evasion, rapelling, airmobile assaults on the locks on the local canal, exercises with our allied regiment in Jamaica and North Carolina, an exercise in Florida (turned down until I rewrote it as a District exercise). If we went to Meaford, I would not allow any instruction to take place in buildings (that was what the local armoury was for).
I tried to vary the activities of training. For example, the basic reason for winter exercises in those days was to master the skills necessary to live in tents in winter conditions. I had the training officer design an exercise where tent commanders were given a few grid squares in which to conduct their training. They then had a list of items to accomplish -- erection of tents, cross-country snowshoeing, map and compass, etc. But they planned and conducted the training. The officers were given monitoring and assessment tasks. One year, the main activity was cross-country skiing. But in the background were all those skills needed in living in tents in winter.
I extended that concept with a helicopter company from a New York Army National Guard company. We flew tent groups to isolated grid references in Allegeny State Park. On dismounting, the tent group commander was given sealed orders which told him the grid reference in which to set up his tent, a RV and time the next afternoon when the platoon would come together, and then a company RV for Sunday morning where the company would be airlifted out.
The point of all this ramble is that although it might seem the CO is training his unit at the Private soldier level, he should be using that activity to train leaders. The ability to conduct a range practice should be developed long before reaching the rank of Major. I tasked my Majors to conduct live-fire manoevre exercises.
Another short war story. The local Parks Canada tourist site wanted to celebrate an event by demonstrating how the military presence had evolved over the year. The superintendant had arranged for re-enactors for the most part, and approached me for a demonstration of an activity appropriate to the Militia at that time. He basically wanted a "troop the colour" ceremony. I gave him a platoon air assault. I decided that the summer course would provide the soldiers, but suddenly the platoon commander was unavailable. I had the course sergeant conduct all the training (monitored by me, of course) and command the assault. Twenty years later he still speaks of the spark he had in that I trusted him where others would not.
When I took over the unit, we were hard pressed to put 60 people on the floor. When I left we were bumping 300 on a regular basis.
As I noted, I don't think a CO could do the types of things today that I was able to do in 1980, but certainly he can make training exciting and at the same time train the next generation of leaders.
