OldSolduer said:
Speaking as a CSM (albeit a Primary Reserve unit), the CSM and the NCOs are the enforcers of dress policy, so in reality he is doing his job.
BUT...The CSM also has the duty to inform the chain of command on issues regarding dress, the policy of "no non issue kit", etc.
This is where the CSM must use his greatest asset, his common sense. What is good for KAF or the FOB or the base is not what is necessarily good for the desert or the Arctic or wherever we deploy.
In my opinion, there are far too many "dress & deportment" nit pickers (I beleive some of you called them "kitosauruses?") and far too few soldiers in the upper echelons who use their common sense.
There is a time for issue kit only....and that is during ceremonial parades. On actual operations outside the wire, common sense should prevail.
Having said all this, as a Primary Reservist, I don't really want my soldiers to go and spend hundreds of dollars on non issue stuff, only to be told they can't use it. And I agree, only four mags in your vest is far too few. Ten would be much better.
When I was young....(now I know many of you will laugh at this cuz I'm old...not) I used to wonder at what would happen in a firefight with only 5 mags.....would we have to take a "time out" and rebomb?
This hits home with me. I wear my non-issue rig on my PRes exercises, partly to break it in and train with but also partly to widen a trail that was blazed by other officers and NCOs before me, taking progressively larger steps in my unit. I occasionally got into a heated discussion with some other officers who scoffed at 10 magazines as a "purely TF thing" that had no relevance in Canada.
I've also seen in the MSM from military 'experts' who say things like "show me one time when Canada has lost a fight due to running out of ammunition".
I think a simple section attack will illustrate the inadequacy of 5 mags quite well. My last ex culminated in a platoon attack using blank ammo. I was in the lead section and we became the firebase as the platoon sorted itself out and did its flanking. This was the only exercise where I was actually carrying extra 5.56mm on stripper clips in addition to my 5 full mags.
Well, H-Hour admittedly took too long, which shows how much practise we needed, but the fact is that i was down to one loaded magazine (and yes, i was applying proper rates of fire.. we even invented a
new one, called "slow rate", which was accented with the delightfully pathetic sounds of Mo' rounds now and again). H-hour was still 5 minutes away, so my fireteam partner and I took turns firing and rebombing. There's no way we coud have maintained a meaningful amount of suppressing fire and still had enough for H-Hour. I came across this time and again, and I'm sure others have too during their section attack training.
Edit: I forgot to add that I think one of the reasons why section attacks go on for so long is that the enemy refuses to die until the assault element actually takes the trench. Come to think of it, I didn't run out of ammo nearly as fast on exercises where we used MILES gear. I could probably attribute that to the fact that I haven't done a traditional section attack using MILES - typically we only see the stuff during our Bde exercise, and then only during the Raid / ambush.
Actually, since I haven't ever done a
live section attack, would someone who has be so kind as to let me know if they have the same problems?
It doesnt really end. To put it in perspective though,since I have got here I have not once worn a tac vest, not once worn the ballistic glasses, use my own small pack,and have rails on my rifle. When you are out and about as long as your pl chain of command doesnt care anything flies.
