Unit Training Scenarios

[Devlin]

Hello All:

I along with a few other members of my unit have been tasked with developing a "scenario" for our unit‘s training this year. When I say scenario I mean a plan that the unit would follow and build on throughout the training year. Looking for something that the troops will get excited about and look forward to participating in.

What do any of you do at the unit level that works well?

Our unit is an S&T coy with our Maint coy being located in a seperate city so training with them is not always an option.

Thanks in advance for an ideas or suggestions you have.

:soldier:

 

[brin11]

Devlin,

You have your work cut out for you. As someone at the lower end of the pay scale I‘ve never had the opportunity to plan unit training as you will be. At the unit level though I would probably approach it from two directions.

1. Find any type of training that increases comraderie. I find the smaller the unit size the better for this. While military training is important don‘t forget about adventure training. This is an excellent way to bring people together in a more relaxed atmosphere. When I was first posted to Petawawa our platoon (Weapons/ancillary) went out right away on a three week adventure training trip. I bonded with the people there in those short weeks much faster than in garrison and saved me much time in sorting out the people and their personalities. Of course, these days, with budget constraints it can be difficult to just get mandatory training done let alone adventure training!

2. Trades training. This is so important. Sometimes I find people get wrapped around the pole trying to get the mandatory stuff overwith they forget what individual trades should be doing and learning. This is easier in some trades than others. Don‘t forget to plan exercises where people get to carry out their day to day jobs within the military.

Good luck and hope this helps.

 

[Eowyn]

Devlin,

Although I‘m an EME officer. Here are some suggestions that were tried in our S&T Pl.

Road Rally
Ambush Drills
Hide and Harbour Routines with Crash drills
A real DP, the tough part is getting someone to be the receiving unit
Night Driving

You can also try some "fun" things like a dismounted patrol exercise, map & compass course instead of just the MLOC lecture.

 

[762gunner]

Some good suggestions there. In the context of previous posts, training should start at the lowest level and escalate. In other words:
Each soldier should know their job well and be familiar with the job of their next-up (in the chain). Then go to some of the previous scenarios on a section level (smaller scale). Do some review in the classroom perhaps, then go to platoon drills and scenarios, then company, then unit, then perhaps some sort of annual combined arms ex (i.e. your unit with various dets from other units. At each level, training will also include more people at the higher levels, so everyone gets involved.
I personally don‘t believe that one trade is better than any other (other than the Airborne ) but by a general plan like this teamwork builds from a small scale to a large one.
Wish you luck.