Internal recruiting

A friend e-mailed me a couple of doctored recruiting posters for JTF2 a little while ago - he thought they were kind of funny. The real ones are dark and serious, on purpose.

But a piece in today's Ottawa Citizen by David Pugliese underscores the fact that the CF special operations community is indeed on the hunt for new talent:

Lt.-Cmdr. Walter Moniz, the spokesman for Canadian Special Operations Forces Command, said JTF2 and the Canadian Special Operations Regiment based at CFB Petawawa had revamped their websites and other units in the command would soon follow suit. He said the process was in keeping with a general overhaul of Canadian Forces web pages to look similar as well as to "keep a fresh look" for the sites.

At the same time, though, JTF2 has also produced the recruiting posters and put information on its website to entice those in support trades in the Canadian Forces to give special operations a try.

"There were times that people didn't know we looked for support trades, so when you go on the site, you'll see a listing of that as well," Lt.-Cmdr. Moniz said. "It was in essence to broaden it to ensure we better inform people what was available there for them."

Lt.-Cmdr. Moniz said the commander of special operations, Col. Mike Day, had listed the growth of the formation as one of his priorities. The websites are used not only as a recruiting tool, but also to provide information to the public, he added.

Generally speaking, if anyone at CANSOFCOM is talking with the press, it's with a purpose. In this case, I'd guess that the purpose is to encourage CF members to apply to join a special operations unit. In a time of increased operational tempo, it's likely difficult to get soldiers to commit to an even higher degree of secrecy, uncertainty, and fitness in all aspects of the job - especially with some of the misconceptions that continue to circulate even within the CF. But that's what they're asking.

It will be interesting to see if the internal recruiting effort bears fruit. I know of a fellow in the navy who is a fitness buff, and an ex-wrestler. Weapons tech CFR'd to the MARE classification, extensive boarding party experience, etc. Just the sort of guy the SOF community is looking for. But talking with him about this sort of a job was eye-opening: he would have loved to have such an opportunity as a younger man, but since he's married and a fairly new father, it just doesn't make a lot of sense to him.

This is the challenge that CANSOFCOM, and especially JTF2 faces: the young and unattached are the natural fits from a lifestyle point of view, but the older and more mature are the more desirable candidates from a psychological perspective.

Growing a SOF specialty within an armed forces is a delicate thing. You don't want to water down the quality, and you can only get so many numbers through the program without losing the "special" in "special operations." But more and more, the SOF skill set is needed to deal with today's security problems.

I wish them the best of luck in their efforts to draw in new blood. I have a feeling they're going to need it.