Dancing Bison said:
WOW! for a positive person you are sur sour about the state of the trade. Like a great WO said to me once, "you have great ideas, bring them forward" guess what i did and it was recognized by my higher up. Have you brought these pout up with your boss? Doubt it. Oh ya by the way I'm at 1 Sigs the unit that you mentioned that was all out of waco... ;D Ask yourself a question! was the problem really at the leadership level? and what level was that. I a soldier who got posted at 1 Sigs 3 years ago and I can honestly say that they have been the best one so far...perhaps because the present leadership is doing very well at all level. Everyone is involved in every issues and problems (technical, operational) are solved as a team. Now for the state of the trade I agree that not everything is up to snuff, however I get involved in order to change things, and so far progress has been made. I agree with you at 100% about MES, that cell does not fully fonction with the best of engine. Example, we have proposed that the MES manager be a point of presence at the school (CFSCE) in order to educate the new siggies about choice of sub-occ, instead of wasting 1 full year on trade trial when one knows already what he/she wants to do...
You're right. Normally I am a very positive person even through a heavy amount of adversity or difficult conditions. However, what really pissed me off lately is the effects that dumb decisions are having on people. Career implications. It's one thing to dangle spec pay or not, I never believed it would or will happen; it's another to drastically alter people's careers with horrible decisions. It's effecting great people I work with on a daily basis who are fantastic professionals whom are putting up with all this shit and shinning like great examples to the rest of the trade.
It's getting old, fast.
Also, as others have mentioned (thanks, and yes, some of you have me pegged on who I am IRL, no biggey! I talk the talk there too) I was at 1 Sigs during a crazy time. Just as I was leaving in 2013 it was starting to turn around but it started a little earlier for A and B Tp, not C unfortunately... Thank god that now it's waaaayyy better. I've spoken with some pers whom work there now and it's night and day compare to when I was there...
Furthermore, I have brought all of these things up the chain of command every... single... Chance I got. The last OC I served under at 1 Sigs was female. She (fantastic individual) retired after her post there, no doubt her boots full of the madness inherent of 1 Sigs at the time. I had her ear, that's an understatement, we had several private and public conversations about the trade, 1 Sigs and all the terrible things our chains did. I also took the opportunity to professionally blast the head of Signals at the time, a Col and his Chief when they visited us behind the LTF on a wintery ex. They asked my opinion and I very carefully explained my point of view and that of the subordinates I had at the time. They literally wrote things down... I wasn't the only one either.
Red tape only knows what's happened with all the hot air I and many others have blown up the chain. It really didn't fall on deaf ears with my last OC; she drastically tried to implement change and I think she and the engineer RSM who worked with her were the catalyst for the change at 1 Sigs. I think it's where it IS right now because of them and I only hope the rest of the chain followed.
Another thing... I know a lot of people have read this thread and keep track of it... All I can say, is I voice my opinion for everyone else. I've been lucky. I do not represent everyone in the Signals community nor do I presume to think I know what's best. Again: I don't promote the idea of spec pay.
What I mean to say is, I've actually had a good career in the Signals world and the Canadian Army. I've gotten everything I was told I may get and I honestly have gotten almost every single goddamn thing I asked for. Curse and blessing that is can I tell you! I've gotten literally tens of thousands of dollars worth of IT training both in-house (CFSCE, 1 Sigs etc...) and outside (paid civilian courses)... I've gotten incredible training and operational experiences (Op Athena, TAV's, TLD Staff, European ex's) and had experiences I'll never forget in my career so far. I know I've gotten lucky and had it good... ESPECIALLY compare to some people,
hence I cannot IMAGINE how people feel who haven't had it good. That's what makes me so damn mad when I see things go downhill like a freight train on fire without any brakes because of stupidity and ignorance! I'm still at a very low level (MCpl) and obviously don't have the view of things from somewhere in NDHQ where the Col of Signals sits but from MY perspective, almost everything wrong with our trade can be fixed... That's what's so horrible about it all. It's the dinosaurs and 'great idea fairies' who stagnate everything by not allowing change or forcing through really bad changes.
So yes, I've become a little bitter since 2008 when I created this thread. That being said, I'm going to keep trying to do things the best I can, where I am at this time, and make things better for the ISTs and personnel I work with. I implore everyone else to attempt to do the same!!!
PS> Somehow, logic somewhere prevailed and the guy whom wasn't allowed to go on his 'new' DP1.1 IST course because he didn't meet the pre-req's was allowed on it the day the course started! So, although he's face ANOTHER setback, he's now getting it done. Jumping through yet another hoop...
PPS> Leaving on a positive note: Due to budget cuts, a lot of departments ran out of funding for the end of the year (entire Q4 actually it seems)... This left us in my shop without much support, our direct instructions from my chain of command was to 'make it work then'... In a good way. If they can't give us a solution (Ottawa/engineering etc) then we'll work out our own. How is that positive you ask? FREEDOM. Before, it would be "NO GOD DON'T CHANGE ANYTHING! CALL OTTAWA, YOU CAN'T CHANGE ONE BIT!!!!".... Now it's... "Well we're screwed if this doesn't get fixed... We're literally N/S... . So yeah, kick ass, take names and make it work!"... The guys I work with and I are planning some awesome technical things for our net. Maybe for once we get to be the 'good idea fairies' and make things actually work better. Or maybe we'll break shit. Either way, I'm in uniform, it's all our gear, it's in our hands, the gloves are off!
That's the one thing that seems to stay the same in our trade, we're the 'make it work' people. When the chain of command fails us, when people fail us, when the institution we signed our lives too fails us in some aspect, we still make it work. Somebody save the army when we don't!
