[Jon Skagfeld]

I have just arived back from a liasion visit with a Reserve Army Infantry Battalion.

During the visit, I was made aware that certain Reserve Army assets were commandeered in order to support overseas operations.

Specifically, this unit, from 32 Brigade were ordered to give up (1) Iltis, (1) LSVW and (1) MLVW as well as several radio sets of the new TCCCS variety.

Trying to not confuse non-military persons reading this, suffice it to say that Reserve Army assets are being dragooned into Regular Force deployments.

These assets, from only one of the many Reserve units in 32 Brigade, are to be used in support of Roto 13 (Bosnia) and Op Apollo (Afghanistan).

This siphoning of Reserve Force assets clearly identifies a major problem with our current Liberal govenment's attitude toward the Canadian Forces in general. (Am I beating a dead horse here?)

In order to support an overseas commitement, Reserve Force units must surrender their training assets to taskings for which such assets the Regular Force should have on hand, as a matter of military preparedeness.

So, the Reserve Army loses training assets. How the Hell are unit Commanding Officers supposed to conduct training for preparing for defence or war, if they have assets which are less than the authorized scale of issue?

As a still serving commissioned officer, I suppose I'm not supposed to say this sort of thing...but, Goddammit this Liberal attitude towards our military is shameful, repugnant, economically disastrous and not good for a soldier's health.

Rant ends, out.