Training the Operational Staff

[davidbfpo]

I searched for staffwork and amongst the very few threads shown, this appeared the most fitting.

A KoW article by a Canadian officer on the 33rd Canadian Brigade Group (33 CBG) Headquarters exercise with the USMC in cool Camp Pendleton:http://kingsofwar.org.uk/2012/07/sta...ons/#more-7235

Which IMHO is doubly interesting as the unit is:

a reserve formation, part-time soldiers, composed of university professors and high school teachers, policemen, software engineers, supply management specialists, occupational therapists and a variety of other occupations. The unit is also a conglomeration of officers and soldiers from militia units across eastern and central Ontario who work as a group only occasionally.......virtually all participating had made at least one tour to Afghanistan.

Some of the points made have appeared in Jim Storr's book The Human Face of War.

There is an interesting different point of view, an Australian one too, on the use of reservists:

The case for committing complex and professional war fighting skills to the Reserve may be tempting for Australian defence planners, but it makes little sense. War fighting is a profession and modern weaponry and tactics are highly technical and complex. Like Olympic athletes, when professional soldiers train less they achieve less. Any decision to warehouse war fighting capabilities in the Reserve is really a decision to let the capability atrophy and fail.

Link:http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/...y-Reserve.aspx

I know SWC has recently discussed in the US context the differences between regular and reservist components.