A briefing note that explains why a military regiment based in Medicine Hat will identify with Calgary in the future doesn't satisfy a national advocate for reservists.On March 6, reservists in the South Alberta Light Horse (SALH) Regiment were told they would lose their decades-long identity to become another part of the King's Own Calgary Regiment (KOCR).Steve Giberson of Reserves 2050 acquired a briefing note on the change and shared it with Western Standard. The document adds more details to the rationale."Operational demands for Armoured Cavalry have increased with the expansion of OP REASSURANCE in LATVIA, especially with the standing deployment of a tank squadron from 3rd Canadian Division," the top point reads."Both 41 Canadian Brigade Group armoured units will be reorganized to maximize their force generation capacity, while remaining as two distinct regiments and preserving their proud histories and heritage."Giberson, who had 26 years experience in the regular forces before spending five years as a reservist in Ontario, can't make sense of the reasoning."The logic for Latvia doesn’t hold. Reserves are deployed on every operational mission we do. This is accomplished by individual reservists joining up with the regular forces unit that is leading the deployment. Occasionally, there are times when there are enough soldiers from a given reserve unit available to deploy that they actually send them as a cohesive, formed group but this is rare," Giberson explained."No matter, since ultimately the reserve members fall into a regular unit for deployment; there is no admin or operational imperative to introduce this proposed regrouping."The 41 Canadian Brigade Group, of which SALH is a part, sent a letter to Medicine Hat Mayor Linssie Clark on March 7. The letter explains how the nine army reserve units that are part of the brigade group are also part of the Third Canadian Division."Over the next two years, over 2,000 soldiers from 3rd Canadian Division will deploy overseas on a variety of missions. The largest commitment will to Operation REASSURANCE in LATVIA where the Canadian mission is expanding from a contingent of approximately 800 personnel where Canada is leading a Multi-National Battle Group to a contingent of approximately 2,220 where Canada will be leading a Multi-National Brigade that will include battle groups from our NATO partners in Denmark and our new NATO partner Sweden," the letter explains."It is expected that at least 20% of those soldiers deployed to Latvia will be reservists and on some other missions the ratios are much higher. In the case of the armoured squadron, over 20 reservists from Reserve armoured units may be required for each rotation. This will be extremely challenging for Reserve units to sustain."Giberson noted that the mayor was only told of these plans the day after SALH members were."If there was an operational reason to do this, a good six-month period of consultation with local community leadership would have been appropriate and invite the Mayor to the formal announcement. This letter to her looks exactly like the afterthought it probably was," he said."They are skating because they don’t want to admit they didn’t think it through."The briefing note says that KOCR will lead joint field training exercises with the SALH squadron in Medicine Hat and Lethbridge for the next year. That squadron would then rebadge to KOCR "likely sometime in 2025." Afterwards, both SALH and KOCR will have a headquarters squadron and two armoured cavalry squadrons."The South Alberta Light Horse will be concentrated in Edmonton, and the King’s Own Calgary Regiment will have a Headquarters Squadron and one armoured cavalry squadron in Calgary, with a second armoured cavalry squadron in Medicine Hat and Lethbridge," the document explained."These changes will improve command and control arrangements and allow both units to recruit more soldiers and fill out their establishments. The South Alberta Light Horse have typically paraded less than 50 members in Medicine Hat over the last two decades, yet there are another 100 vacant positions on establishment there. Moving those vacant positions to Edmonton will allow the South Alberta Light Horse to grow and generate more soldiers for operations."SALH was formed through the amalgamation of three units in 1954, with the earliest branches going back to 1905. The briefing note says as SALH is itself amalgamated, the regiments they join may have name changes to "respect the heritage of these proud regiments while encouraging esprit de corps."Giberson says a name change wouldn't prevent a loss for Medicine Hat which has headquartered a regiment for so many decades."I note that they do not explain how tearing the SALH from its historical community footprint would lead to more local Medicine Hat and Lethbridge men and women to join the reserves," Giberson said.
A briefing note that explains why a military regiment based in Medicine Hat will identify with Calgary in the future doesn't satisfy a national advocate for reservists.On March 6, reservists in the South Alberta Light Horse (SALH) Regiment were told they would lose their decades-long identity to become another part of the King's Own Calgary Regiment (KOCR).Steve Giberson of Reserves 2050 acquired a briefing note on the change and shared it with Western Standard. The document adds more details to the rationale."Operational demands for Armoured Cavalry have increased with the expansion of OP REASSURANCE in LATVIA, especially with the standing deployment of a tank squadron from 3rd Canadian Division," the top point reads."Both 41 Canadian Brigade Group armoured units will be reorganized to maximize their force generation capacity, while remaining as two distinct regiments and preserving their proud histories and heritage."Giberson, who had 26 years experience in the regular forces before spending five years as a reservist in Ontario, can't make sense of the reasoning."The logic for Latvia doesn’t hold. Reserves are deployed on every operational mission we do. This is accomplished by individual reservists joining up with the regular forces unit that is leading the deployment. Occasionally, there are times when there are enough soldiers from a given reserve unit available to deploy that they actually send them as a cohesive, formed group but this is rare," Giberson explained."No matter, since ultimately the reserve members fall into a regular unit for deployment; there is no admin or operational imperative to introduce this proposed regrouping."The 41 Canadian Brigade Group, of which SALH is a part, sent a letter to Medicine Hat Mayor Linssie Clark on March 7. The letter explains how the nine army reserve units that are part of the brigade group are also part of the Third Canadian Division."Over the next two years, over 2,000 soldiers from 3rd Canadian Division will deploy overseas on a variety of missions. The largest commitment will to Operation REASSURANCE in LATVIA where the Canadian mission is expanding from a contingent of approximately 800 personnel where Canada is leading a Multi-National Battle Group to a contingent of approximately 2,220 where Canada will be leading a Multi-National Brigade that will include battle groups from our NATO partners in Denmark and our new NATO partner Sweden," the letter explains."It is expected that at least 20% of those soldiers deployed to Latvia will be reservists and on some other missions the ratios are much higher. In the case of the armoured squadron, over 20 reservists from Reserve armoured units may be required for each rotation. This will be extremely challenging for Reserve units to sustain."Giberson noted that the mayor was only told of these plans the day after SALH members were."If there was an operational reason to do this, a good six-month period of consultation with local community leadership would have been appropriate and invite the Mayor to the formal announcement. This letter to her looks exactly like the afterthought it probably was," he said."They are skating because they don’t want to admit they didn’t think it through."The briefing note says that KOCR will lead joint field training exercises with the SALH squadron in Medicine Hat and Lethbridge for the next year. That squadron would then rebadge to KOCR "likely sometime in 2025." Afterwards, both SALH and KOCR will have a headquarters squadron and two armoured cavalry squadrons."The South Alberta Light Horse will be concentrated in Edmonton, and the King’s Own Calgary Regiment will have a Headquarters Squadron and one armoured cavalry squadron in Calgary, with a second armoured cavalry squadron in Medicine Hat and Lethbridge," the document explained."These changes will improve command and control arrangements and allow both units to recruit more soldiers and fill out their establishments. The South Alberta Light Horse have typically paraded less than 50 members in Medicine Hat over the last two decades, yet there are another 100 vacant positions on establishment there. Moving those vacant positions to Edmonton will allow the South Alberta Light Horse to grow and generate more soldiers for operations."SALH was formed through the amalgamation of three units in 1954, with the earliest branches going back to 1905. The briefing note says as SALH is itself amalgamated, the regiments they join may have name changes to "respect the heritage of these proud regiments while encouraging esprit de corps."Giberson says a name change wouldn't prevent a loss for Medicine Hat which has headquartered a regiment for so many decades."I note that they do not explain how tearing the SALH from its historical community footprint would lead to more local Medicine Hat and Lethbridge men and women to join the reserves," Giberson said.
