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The
Canadian Infantryman- Who they really are…. The best! by Major-General (Retired) A.R. Forand, CMM, Colonel Commandant, Canadian Infantry Branch While I am no longer a serving officer in the Canadian
Armed Forces (CF), I was recently appointed Colonel Commandant of the Infantry
Branch. This honorary appointment allows me to visit our infantry battalions,
regular and militia, and to offer advice to the leadership of the Army from the
perspective of an old soldier who cares about the efficiency and well being of
our front line combat troops. In view of recent events at home and abroad, I
want to raise some serious issues that I feel must be redressed by our
government. The press coverage of the CF has increased since 9/11. This
outrageous attack against the Over the past decades, successive governments have lulled
Canadians to view our military as neutral peacekeepers who will never be
required to protect The media have focused attention on the soldiers of 3PPCLI.
We have seen them in triumph and tragedy; representing our nation with grit and
professionalism in the incredibly difficult operating conditions of 9/11 was a wake-up call to action. A parliamentary
committee studying the needs of the CF recommended strongly (including its
Liberal participants) to our government that immediate steps should be taken to
revitalize the CF with a massive injection of funds and other direct support.
Will this fall on deaf ears in the Cabinet? Are they willing to commit the
resources needed to redress these glaring deficiencies? Or, do they
seriously believe that The peace dividend that was clawed out of the CF
through broad and deep force reductions in the early 1990s, following the
collapse of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War may have been premature.
Even the most cursory review of the
current international situation shows that
the world has never been a more dangerous place. The strength and overall capability of the CF has been
slashed even though our troops in
recent years have been committed to dangerous and demanding combat missions in
the Balkans, Gulf War, Somalia, Haiti, Rwanda, Eritrea, East Timor, Kosovo and
Afghanistan. In addition, large numbers of troops have been called upon to deal
with serious domestic problems: i.e., The recurring theme in all of these missions is that we
have a very serious shortage of ground troops; and in particular, in infantry.
Let also be very clear that without
the support and participation of the militia personnel it would have been
impossible to participate in all of these missions. The Army, regular and
militia, is stretched to the breaking point. Equipped with inadequate resources
and obsolescent equipment, it has
struggled to do much more with much less. The Infantry’s operations tempo is a
demanding burden that is carried most evidently by the officers and
non-commissioned officers (NCOs), who not only serve in mission after mission
abroad, but also spend long periods between missions deployed away from their
families training new generations of soldiers, or on career courses or on other
numerous tasking. In the case the militia, individual this can mean that he has
to succeed in getting from his employer, a guarantee to have a job on his return
or to quit or to cease his studies in order to be able to serve his country.
This overall situation has not been accomplished without cost – as a group the
CF has the highest divorce and suicide rates in In all of these missions accomplished with enormous
success, I believe that full credit and recognition has not been given to that
special breed of cat who, in the end, carries the war to the enemy, wins the
battles and accomplishes the majority of the missions: the Canadian Infantryman.
He is the heart and muscle of our Army! the
infantryman is perhaps the most misunderstood profession in the Canadian Forces.
Popularly seen in terms of trench warfare and as mindless cannon-fodder,
there is an ignorance about what the infantryman is and what he (or in a few
cases, she) does. So, as Colonel Commandant of the Infantry Corps, I am going
to get on my high horse and tell you who these soldiers (regular and militia)
are, what they do, and why I am so proud of representing them.
I have spent my adult life in their company
(I would do it all over again -- and again).
In the course of my last 33 years, I have had the privilege of commanding
troops from 33 countries on missions from I say, with more conviction than I can express in print,
that Canadian soldiers, and in particular Canadian Infantrymen, are the finest
in the world. They have over this century won, at significant cost in lives, a
world wide reputation for courage, resourcefulness, determination, adaptability,
initiative, skill and success in battle,.and at whatever missions they were
given. These accomplishments are made more laudable because they were/are
achieved, as we all know, in the face of long-standing and increasingly severe
constraints in terms of resources: manpower, equipment, public and political
support. Being an infantryman, at whatever rank level, is not a job.
It is an all-consuming task and challenge.
Not everyone can become one; it takes a special breed of person; the fact
that they are recognized as the Queen of When considering the unprecedented number of tanks and
aircraft which seemed to dominate the battlefield, it is all too easy to
overlook the immense contribution of the foot soldier. The simple fact is that
without the infantryman, all the exertions of the tankers, gunners and pilots
will be for nothing. Time and time again, it has been proven that a nation could
be bombed to oblivion, but would not admit defeat until its citizen looked out
to find foreign soldiers on their streets. Reaching these streets is the job of
the infantryman and he is the only one to be able to do it. Regardless of the season, the climate or the terrain, the
infantryman can and will fight, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and
fifty-two weeks a year. It has been sometime since an infantry battle was called
off due to adverse weather conditions. Yet those same conditions can still
ground planes; mud, snow and sand can still halt tanks, guns and trucks. But at
the sharp end, the infantryman is still called upon to fight alone! The
frontline or the operations area is always delineated by the positions the
infantry occupies. Few profession calls its members to undergo the physical
and mental hardships and fatigue as those required of an infantryman and their
leaders. Few profession has the faith to place the health and
welfare of its fittest and most youthful members in the hand of its youngest and
most inexperienced leaders. Few profession faces its leaders with this great
contradiction of leadership: That on one hand of the protection, training and
nurturing of soldiers under your command; while on the other hand having to
deliberately expose those same soldiers to the most lethal hazards of war to
achieve military missions. No other profession asks its members to perform more
diverse functions, acquire different trades and tasks throughout their careers.
For example they may be required to become expert in reconnaissance, pioneers,
mortars, anti-armor, snipers, parachutist, driver, armored vehicle commander,
mountaineer, jungle warfare, administrator, instructor, -- there is no end to
the list because there is always something new to be done.... Few profession sees such limited financial compensation for
such grueling work hours, nor dislocation
from family so frequently, nor routine endurance of such austere conditions. But above all else, no other profession than the armed
forces calls on its members to make the unlimited liability contract; that is
the commitment to give ones life if necessary to achieve its government interest
or to protect the nation. It is worth recalling that in WWII Canadian
infantryman took 70% of the army’s casualties but represented less than 10% of
the army’s strength. The average life expectancy of an infantry platoon
commander in combat in North-West Europe was six weeks. In the future the majority of wars will be fought by small
units in urban area, jungle, mountain, wooded areas or deserts. (The majority of
the operations where the Canadian Army has participated recently has also been
on similar terrain) The “raison
d’être” of the infantryman “ to close with and destroy...” will remain
if not increase. Technology may be able to improve military capabilities, but it
will never replace the need for “boots on the ground.”
Indeed, the increased capability to gather and exploit intelligence and
information on a global scale will increase the need for fighting forces who can
act individually, with initiative and judgement, and are able to used the
information locally. However,
increasing missions abroad, and unrelenting force reductions have played havoc
with the structure and operational depth of our infantry (both regular and
militia). The reality is that the CF as a whole, and the infantry in particular,
have responded to this unending mission creep by cannibalizing units, running
down training capabilities, and expending limited critical resources. All units
are undermanned. More new purpose-equipped infantry units are needed now to
carry the burden of international missions that have been passed to the
infantry. Some incremental improvements have been made. The Army is dealing
painfully and slowly with a massive turnover of personnel that is exacerbated by
the introduction of complicated new equipment weapons systems like the Coyote
reconnaissance vehicle and the new LAV III armored personnel carrier. These
systems include complex electronics, incredible surveillance systems, and
impressive fire-control systems. All of these technological advances require new
skill sets that take time to establish and maintain. They all call up a broader
depth of skilled manpower. An excellent story was broadcast recently on CBC Newsworld
describing the training that Third Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment (3RCR)
from Petawawa (with some militia elements) had completed as a contingency in the
event they were to be tasked to deploy to Afghanistan to replace 3PPCLI (this
did not happened). The message in
the broadcast was that 3RCR did not relish the thought of going to war but they
will respond if so ordered, with confidence and competence.
But equally clear was the concern that if they are ordered to deploy,
they expect to have sufficient soldiers; adequate equipment, appropriate
training and the full support of all Canadians, and especially our government
– the politicians who sent them there to fight for our security. If they need
help in setting a priority, the commanding officer of 3RCR summed it up for CBC
Newsworld in two sentences: “The
answer is dead simple. We need more
people, full stop.” We have the history, we have the core professionalism, we
even have (for the most part) the equipment), what we are missing is the mass
– the numbers of people to make the team function. Canada is at war. The 9/11 attack
in New York was the first shot fired in anger on our home shores. This war and
its terrorism has great potential to spill over into Canada. We are not neutral.
The possibility of nuclear and biological attacks against Canadian cities and
institutions is a clear and present danger. While we should be hoping for the
best we should be preparing for the worst. This includes an urgent fundamental
review by our government to identify and then to redress the operational
deficiencies of our Armed Forces, including the inadequate strength and depth of
our Infantry – the Branch that will continue to be tasked to perform most of
the ground-based operational missions at home and abroad. (Major General Alain Forand was awarded the Star of
Courage while serving with the Canadian Airborne Regiment during the war in
Cyprus in 1974; and the Meritorious Service Cross for his leadership displayed
while commanding UN Sector South during the Croatian army’s blitzkrieg of the
Serbian Krajina in 1995; he was also the commander of all army troops deployed
in Quebec during the 1998 Ice Storm). |
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Web Site Design by LCol (Retd) Rick Goebel, Calg Highrs and Capt Mike O'Leary, RCR 21 Jun 04
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L'ASSOCIATION
CANADIENNE DE L'INFANTERIE/
CANADIAN INFANTRY ASSOCIATION
