From: Thomas Barclay <Thomas.Barclay@s...>
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 11:37:33 -0500
Subject: [OT] Interesting Facts of Canadian Military Life
Glenn joked: Canada has an army big enough to require Generals? Oh, that's classified, right? [Tomb] Glenn, you probably don't realize this, but at one point, we had more generals (flag rank people) per soldier (non- flag rank) than anyone else in NATO: 1 per 1000 men in uniform. The nearest competitor was Denmark or someone with 1 per 27000 or something like that. We actually joked about forming up an infantry company of flag rank officers at NDHQ for emergency purposes before we realized that the logistics tail would be... unmanageable to say the least. I think we've trimmed back some since the heyday, but the idea was that we'd have enough general staff to quickly fill out the forces in times of crisis (like maybe if WW1 happened again....). This doctrine failed to note the fact that in today's world, trained *soldiers* is what takes time to produce and that you can't just stick a rifle in a guys hand and make him a good infantryman overnight. That takes time and training. And its worse in other trades. And as for your comments about the Militias just south of the border, that actually makes a surprising amount of sense. But acquiring surplus webbing in Canada (even to replace bits of your own issued kit that had "gone walkabout") was a challenge. I eventually ended up with two full sets, but it took me years to acquire them. And one whole set was "permanently borrowed" by someone in my unit who quietly faded out with no forwarding address. Besides, the Yankee Militias wouldn't like our gear for compatibility reasons. I don't think (haven't seen latest US LBE) that we use the same clip arrangements. US used ALICE clips far longer than we did. The sad part is, they might have been better. The webgear I used required certain pouches to be present to hook together at all (unlike most of the older yokes) and they used plastic clips which tended to get nubs broken off during installation. Now, mind you, the new load bearing equipment (the vests) look very cool and very adaptable, but I haven't actually got to handle any of those yet. And of course, I'm sure the pam for building your LBE is still a matter of need-to-know.... :) Tomb "Too many generals spoil the army"