Canada pulls ahead...

[milnews.ca]

Haven't had a chance to look this over yet, but given the interest, here's what appears to be the first crack at reviewing the literature, and setting up goals for the next phases of research:
http://pubs.drdc.gc.ca/inbasket/8392...R_2009_075.pdf
(1.26 MB 120 pg PDF)

[Ken White]

Seems to make sense in most respects -- at least they acknowledge they're feeling their way into uncharted territory. I think it will be beneficial...

Thanks for posting it.

[milnews.ca]

You've seen the "how ready are they to head downrange?" research mentioned above. Now, the CF and its research arm want to see how returning troops are doing after they come home from Afghanistan - this, from MERX:

.... The Department of National Defence, Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC), Toronto, Ontario has a requirement for the conducting of interviews, in both English and French, on post-deployment reintegration experiences of Canadian Forces (CF) members, transcribe the recorded interview material, translate any French interview transcriptions into English, and write brief one to two page summaries of the major themes emerging from each of the interviews. The work for the first set of interviews, transcriptions, translations and summaries (first post-deployment cycle) is expected to commence in May 2010 while the work for the second and third set of interviews, transcriptions, translations and summaries (second and third post-deployment cycles) will commence approximately October/November 2010 and April/May 2011, respectively …. The funding for this project is limited to: $45,000.00 CAD (all applicable taxes excluded) for the firm requirement, and $45,000.00 CAD (all applicable taxes excluded) for the optional requirement….

An interesting tidbit from the bid document*: the drafter of the docs says, "Past research** suggests it can take several months for military personnel to readjust after returning from deployment, with four months being mentioned as the typical readjustment period following a fairly stable deployment such as Bosnia," adding this latest research aims to compare the post-Afghanistan experience to that.

If you’re interested in other research along these lines, check out the DRDC’s Centre for Operational Research and Analysis’s Technical Memorandum “Effects of Personnel Tempo on Military Members, their Families, and the Organization: An Annotated Bibliography” published in November 2008 here (PDF).
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* - Full bid document available by e-mailing me. The Statement of Work from the bid documents is available here.
** - Thompson, M.M. & Gignac, M.A.M. (2002). The experience of Canadian Forces augmentees. In P. Essens, A. Vogelaar, E. Tanercan, & D. Winslow, Eds.), The Human in Command: Peace Support Operations (pp. 235-263). Amsterdam: Mets & Schilt/KMA.[/size]