Recent content by Ostrozac

There are other parts of a brigade that are some of the hardest to force generate — the signals squadron, the intelligence company, and the Role 2 capable Field Ambulance.

Getting an exchange posting to 10 Mountain Division but living in Kingston is certainly an interesting flex, that’s for sure. I mean, I don’t like Watertown much either, but still…

And this becomes the field upon which the regimental system fights its battles. Everybody wants a piece of everything, so if one of the brigades becomes the only place where you can potentially get six month rotations to Cyprus/Bosnia/Haiti/Eritrea, and similarly, if that brigade is cut out of...

Oddly enough, the last major culling of reserve regiments was done in the 1960’s — a period when not only were the majority of WWII veterans still very much alive and with us, but many were still serving. Didn’t stop regiments with service in Hong Kong, Normandy and Italy from getting the chop...

Bermuda has recently discontinued conscription. As a result, and due to that island’s economy and cost of living pushing up wages, their new volunteer soldiers are now paid extremely well. A Bermuda Regiment Corporal makes slightly more than a Canadian Warrant Officer — but he will spend every...

A project 22870 rescue tug doesn’t normally mount any armament, so it wouldn’t have a CIWS. Press releases have suggested that the Vasily Bekh was carrying an SA-15 Gauntlet air defence vehicle on the upper deck for self defence, but an SA-15 is missile only, no guns.

For a long time, Steward had a reputation as one of the few hard sea trades that didn’t have a retention problem. It was regularly in the Green, even, although I haven’t seen the most recent numbers. Something to consider when you’re tinkering with peoples career paths might be to start with...

The niche of a light tank is that it lets you have a tank in places where you can’t logistically support MBTs. CVR(T) in the Falklands, Sheridan in Panama, that sort of thing. If you’re trying to up the firepower of your light forces, that‘s probably fine, but it’s ultimately still a niche role...

The 172nd Light Infantry Brigade were the main US Army unit in Alaska for a good chunk of the Cold War — they were then expanded into the 6th Infantry Division in the 1980’s when the light infantry division project got off the ground. No doubt expanding the force in Alaska didn’t hurt when it...

Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) was Chairman of the Senate Defence Appropriations Commitee during the period when the light infantry divisions (6th, 7th, 10th, 25th) were being established. Ted was a lot of things, but he wasn’t a New Yorker.

We already have plenty of paths for people to stay at their current rank, whether through actively opting out of career progression or passively refusing to do the things required to succeed at promotion boards. A direct copy of the US Warrant Officer or 1970’s-style Specialist rank system...

On paper, everyone agrees with you on the importance of the brigade. Even policy. From SSE: “The Army trains to fight at the brigade group-level.” We sent a brigade to West Germany and we sent a brigade to Korea. We’ve known this for a while. But in practice, building brigades is hard work. And...

One of the best arguments that RMC had going for it over other commissioning plans was that it created bilingual officers early in their career, saving the traditional and expensive practice of pulling your best leaders out of units mid-career so that they learn enough language skill to promote...

There is case law that you can be ordered to go the mess, so that isn’t always an option. The future of messes is certainly one aspect of our culture that does need to be addressed; for an institution that was widely believed to have been in decline for decades, messes do seem to show up with...

The big difference is that if that Sgt is ordered from Bragg to Washington DC his BAH goes from 1500 to 2400 per month. If posted to San Francisco it would be 4800 per month. If that MCpl is posted from Gagetown (one of our most affordable large bases) to Ottawa (one of our least affordable) —...