DG-41 said:
It's enormously frustrating as a leader, because you want to give the guys an opportunity to practice the skills they learned on course.
This is one of the intangibles in the Delta. Skill fade. It's not that Reserve courses don't equal that of the Regular Force (regardless of whether the course is high intensity/short duration or low intensity/long duration) but it's the expereince portion that causes the sharpest deliniation of the delta.
DG-41 said:
But the upside is that when you DO get the time to practice - like, say, in the work-ups to a deployment - Reserve units can be brought up to the same quality level as any Reg Force unit.
Yes, but Reservists have a "remembering curve" to overcome due to skill fade and, therefore, require more time to be brought up to speed. There is also an "unofficial" learning curve as well. Most Reservists will arrive for pre-deployment training qualified, fit and raring to go but having never seen some basic kit (like a PAQ3, TCCCS CI or a KITE sight) and having never worked in an organization bigger than Section/det or troop/platoon for more than 7 days at a time. These are things that a Reg F unit takes for granted.
DG-41 said:
We'd be MUCH better off if we sent entire Reserve units (or composite Reserve units, a la Stalwart Guardian) instead of individual augmentees. Everybody would start off on the same footing, everybody would develop together and in step, and we could leverage the already-in-place command and support structure - and everybody would be happier.
There are numerous pros and cons to this, beaten to death in other threads, but I'll bring out two points.
First, for the individual soldier, it removes the Reservist's ability to be assimilated, to "hide in plain sight" among his fellows. Second, it places the entire sub-unit under the microscope. Both are distracting and can be demoralizing.
The bright side to this is that the numbers of Reserve leaders who now have recent operational experience is growing and they can be trusted to train their own, given the time, resources and support of the force generating units/CBGs/ASUs and the deploying unit. This, as we know, costs money.
The most frustrating and time consuming part of getting a Reservist on a deployment is not pre-deployment training, it's administration. Too many Reservists show up at the AAG without the basics signed off (such as shots, I cards, dentals, kit, etc.) because:
a. the Support Bases/ASUs will not expend their limited resources on a Class "A" Reservist unless he's got a tasking message in his hot little hand; and
b. the soldier is too reliant on "the system" to prepare him, rather than exercising some initiative and sorting himself out (for example, every Reservist has a dental plan.).
Look at Palladium Rotos 11 through 14 and Athena Rotos 0 to 4. The "Lessons Learned" in deploying Reservists are never incorprorated. Best practises are discarded. We (the BIG we of "The Army") make the same mistakes
over and over again until they become systemic and entrenched as "the way it goes".
The dichotomy is that a Reservist is not funded or mandated (or expected) to maintain any decent level of short term deployability and that the "system" is neither funded or mandated to encourage him to do so. Status quo is the status quo. Anything else costs money.