Infantry Reserve Project Marches On

Monday, June 12, 2006 08:24 PM

The City of Prince George is going to invite the Department of National Defense’s Land Force Reserve Restructuring Project to visit Prince George to see what this city has to offer when it comes to possibly setting up a militia in Prince George.

The time is right to review the possibility of setting up one company of primary reserve infantry soldiers in Prince George says the Chair of the Mayor’s Militia Action Committee, Sheldon Clare. He says Prince George is one of the largest cities in the country that doesn't have a primary reserve presence. There had been a unit here from the 50's through to 1970 and Clare says its time to bring it back.

In his presentation to Prince George Council, Clare says the population base has grown since the last review was done and the City is in a better position to be home to such a unit. He also points out the federal government has announced it is going to increase funding for National Defense. Clare estimates it would cost $1.36 million to set up such a unit in Prince George, and another $720 thousand a year to keep it operating.

Clare says there is support for such a unit as there are three solid cadet corps in the region, and potential recruits could be drawn from the cadet corps, the general population, the college and the university.

The Mayor has indicated City Administration has been looking for aprivate partner who might be willing to build an armoury which the Department of Defense coud then lease. "My understanding is that they have operational costs, but don't necessarily have funds for capital expenditures, "said Mayor Kinsley. Councilor Gratton pointed out there are a couple of closed schools in the area which may be potential candidates to fill the building needs.

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Posted on Monday, June 12, 2006 08:24 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: Palopu on June 12 2006 10:53 PM

The old armoury on first avenue was initially built by the Army and was used by the Rocky Mountain Rangers, and Air, Sea, and Army Cadets back in the 50,60 70's. This building has a high ceiling and cement floors, and is presently being used to collect bottles. I doubt that it could ever be used for an Armoury again, however that was what it was originally designed for. The rail siding behind the building is still called the Army Spur to this day.

The Rocky Mountain Rangers were referred to as **Saturday night Soldiers**

Money should be spent to beef up the regular Army, Airforce, rather than these dubious **Weekend Warriors**.. Sheldon is an old Army Cadet 70's 80's so he of course would be in favour of the idea.

Posted by: Dirtyrottenresearcher on June 14 2006 11:02 AM

Those "Saturday night soldiers" won the Boer War and two world wars, they contributed to the Korean War, and have augmented regular troops in many peacekeeping and other military operations including Afghanistan. Reservists have put their lives on the line many times. Those are hardly dubious contributions.

Posted by: Palopu on June 14 2006 1:31 PM

My point is that this country needs a first class, well finianced, and independently mobile, Army,Navy,and Airforce. Once we have this in place then we can continue to support Reservists, however we should not try to hide our inadaquate armed forces behind and bunch of Reservists scattered around the country.

Reservists put their lives on the line after they are called up., and do not make anymore of a contribution to the overall effort of a war, than those who volunteer when the conflict begins. If my memory serves me right Canada had approx 100,000 volunteers at the beginning of World War 2. How many reservists did we have at this time????

Posted by: Dirtyrottenresearcher on June 14 2006 8:22 PM

C.P. Stacey in Volume 1 of Six Years of War (p. 41) states: "...General Order No. 124, which called out "on service" 99 units of the Non-permanent Active Militia, in whole or in part. The number of units affected was subsequently increased to 106. The force thus called out on a voluntary basis amounted to roughly 10,000 men...
The citizen soldiers' response to the order was excellent."

These were at least partially trained people who volunteered to go, well before the volunteers (again reservists or Non-permanents who served for the duration) started signing up. In a come as you are war, reserve forces have been critical from the time of the Greek city states right to the present.

The Canadian official military histories (Stacey and Nicholson) are well worth reading.

Palapou, I agree that the armed forces generally has been underfunded, but it is a whole package. The "Total Force Concept" integrated the regular force and the reserves with each playing their particular roles. The reserves are important for their role as the soldiers in the community, that is the visible footprint of the military. The regular force are those in the 'ready rack' who can deploy or train those who will be as needed. It is foolish to suggest that one part of the total force should suffer at the expense of the other.