Officer of Engineers

Sir,

Two very different situations. The regforce is short of people and those qualified will be tossed around to fill up deployment slots. It is not uncommon for a company of one battalion to flushed out another battalion's battle group and it may not even be in the same combat arm. Gunners have been known to be re-rolled into infantry.

The reserves/militia/territorial army, however, still recruits and trains locally. While you may still have examples of non-Scots in the TA regiments, the predominantly composition is whatever the locals are. However, when deployed, the reserves are used mainly to flush out the regforce battalions and would not be deployed as a single battalion.

__________________
Chimo

Ray

Colonel,

Territorial Army is a different kettle of fish, if it is on similar lines as the Indian Army.

What I want to understand is whether a Regular Scots unit has only Scots or it is open house to all?

If so, what I am interested in knowing is that the fervour technically would not be the same if the people staffing the unit were not from the same clan.

__________________


"Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."

I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.

HAKUNA MATATA

dave lukins

Open House Sir, You can join any Regiment (places permitting). I don't think the question of Clansmanship is valid anymore

Ray

Dave,

When the chips are down, it matters. It matters.

Ask the pro!

Note: 1 RTR has a thread!!!

dave lukins

Yes Brigadier we do However we are an exception to the rule..We really do have a Regimental Family Spirit over a long time. We all stayed together throughout our Service life, so most of us "grew-up" together. Nowdays Troops are moved into other Regiments for a short period of time then moved again. eg. In the last two years my own Son has been seconded into three Regiments

Chelseaman

What dave has is said is true, we were a family and the only people that came and went regular were the attached guys (REME ACC etc) but many of them stayed years as they did not want to leave

Ray

That's the way we are in the IA. One unit for life!

We are a family and we are there for life, though officers have to move on after they have commanded or moved to another unit for command.

It build up the Regimental and unit spirit.

Odd that this is the tradition given to us by the British and this is what has stood the Britain in good stead in WW II and India thereafter; and it imagine, they have abandoned a fine system!

Any reasons?

But then, to be or not to be a Sikh Regiment. That is the question!

Officer of Engineers

There's only one, Sir, and it's always the same one - budget cuts. The same thing happened in Canada and Australia. We cut personnel to save money on wages but were determined to keep the regiments. We've gone from 4x4 to 3x3 and in Canada, we even tried the 10-90 (10% regforce, 90% res - that was a disaster and a half) battalions. At one point, some of our battalions had only 200 people.

In such situations, the luxury of staying in one regt for your entire career disappeared and in fact it was frown upon. You're hoarding the expertise to one regt when it was needed everywhere.

Though in Canada's case, I think the best solution was to shift alot of the regforce regts into the res militia.

A question, Sir, how is the Indian Territorial Army structured and what is its membership? Regforce guys finishing their careers before retirement? Or regforce guys who can't get their promotion but get it in the res?

Ray

Colonel,

From the horse's mouth:

Indian Army

-{SpoonmaN}-

A Sikh Regiment is a good idea. I guess one concern with it is what happens if that unit is destroyed on the Battlefield, there'd be hundreds of Sikh families that would have lost their loved ones all at once. Then again, this is an issue with all the 'local' units as well.

Personally, I think Australia could learn from the UK and recruit foreigners. We could raise our own Gurkha Battalion, that'd put a bit of an edge on the ADF. There's already talk of recruiting from the Pacific, although not into segregated units. I guess one concern is if we have to take over somewhere like Fiji to settle a civil war, what will Fijian soldiers think? If we do have segregated units, then we could simply not send them, however we'd have no such option in a mixed force.

__________________
"I have this to say to the people of Australia: Kick me, I'm different."

Officer of Engineers

You would have the same problem the Brits and Canucks have, namely not enough people to man all the jobs. Whoever mans the Gurkha/Sikh battalions will be 2nded to other battalions and vice versa when the Gurka/Sikh battalions get deployed.

Tronic

That would not matter in my opinion. A soldier joins to fight for his/her country; if a unit is destroyed, it would be a loss to the families regardless of religion or ethnicity.

__________________
Nabha Sparasham Deeptam
-Touch The Sky With Glory

Ray

Tronic,

That is the correct!

The country comes first, always and every time!

Officer of Engineers

Sir,

Can you advise us as to requirements within the Sikh Regiments as far as NBC warfare is concerned? NBC gear is extremely unforgiving and I doubt that modern NBC gear can fit properly over what you've just stated.

Ray

They don't wear the turban then.

They wear a cloth called the 'patka'.

Beards tucked in.

Snug as bug!