RE: Questions regarding NAC ground units, was SG IF morale

Well, that would make sense, except that unfortunately we no longer have
the Airborne Regiment.

It was disbanded by our @#$$%#$!@# federal government as a public
relations
exercise...

As such, Canada lost its "rapid deployment" force, because when they
nuked
the Airborne, they also closed down the Special Service Force
(descendant
of the Fist Special Service Force of WWII and bad-but-fun movie fame),
which was a light brigade (well, a micro-brigade) structured around the
Airborne Regiment, and including para trained Engineers, Artillery,
Light
Armour, a logistics unit, etc.

The Airborne armoured guys from the Royal Canadian Dragoons were a
particularly tough bunch, as were the airborne Engineers, as most of
them
were commando trained.	The Airborne Regiment had tasking similar to the
US
Army Rangers, and did Special Operations stuff also.  They were always
off
cross-training with groups like the US Rangers, the SAS, etc.

When the Regiment was eliminated, the parachute capability was
theoretically retained by having an airborne qualified company attached
to
the three remaining regualar infantry regiments.  This was/is a joke -
the
esprit de corps of the unit was lost, as was the concentrated expertise,
etc.

At around the same time, the federal government had decided that Counter
Terrorist direct action activities should move from being a
responsibility
of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (with their "CERT" - Counterterror
Emergency Response Team - who were trained by the SAS and supposedly
very
good) to the army.  The "Joint Task Force 2" was activated to assume the
CT
role.  When the Airborne were shut down, their special operations roles
were absorbed by JTF2 and that unit has since become a "full service"
special operations force.  

Unlike the US Green Berets and particularly the SAS, JTF2 has done an
excellent job of staying mostly invisible and not having ex-members
write
books and so on, so we don't actually know very much about their
activities, how they're structured, etc.  They might be operating at
present in Afghanistan, but we don't know.  The government stated that
they
were being deployed as part of our contribution to the "War on
Terrorism"
but that the notice that they were being deployed "somewhere" would be
the
ONLY official comment on their activities.

Historically, the first Canadian airborne force was the "1st Canadian
Parachute Battalion" formed during WWII and active with the British
paras
during that war.  There was *very briefly* a Canadian SAS, for a few
years
after the was (IIRC) but that disappeared without leaving a mark.  The
requirement for a unit to take on that sort of role was recognized
during
the '60's, and the Airborne Regiment was formed.  They saw "action" in a
number of places (Cyprus, when the Turks invaded, and a number of other
UN
jobs including their now-infamous deployment in Somalia) and lasted
until
'94? '95? when they were disbanded as a sop to public opinion.	The
Liberal
government (currently still in power, under the same Prime Minister)
decided that because there was some controversy surrounding the unit, it
would be better to get rid of the unit all together than solve the
problems.  So, the government destroyed the unit, and the Airborne moved
into a very sad category, being as far as I know, one of two units in
NATO
history to be "disbanded in disgrace" (though the government didn't put
it
quite that way at the time).  The other was the 1st REP of the Foreign
Legion, who rebelled and tried to stage a coup in Algeria.  Quite
pathetic
really (the decision, not the Regiment).

Yes, I'm partisan ;)

>The GZG Digest        Friday, November 30 2001        Volume 02 :
Number 782
>
>Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2001 22:11:35 -0600
>From: "David Rodemaker" <dar@horusinc.com>
>Subject: RE: Questions regarding NAC ground units, was SG IF morale
>
>To add to the discussion, a Canadian retired military type informed me
that
>forces that the Canadians would contribute would probably be the
Canadian
>Airbourne Regiment (1st, 2nd, and 3rd Commando) and the Joint Task
Force
>(about 250-300 men at the moment)
>
>David
>

********************************************

Adrian Johnson
adrian.johnson@sympatico.ca