ARTS 71 AND RSS
Captain R.J. Beardmore
Wainwright, Combat Group Concentration and formation exercise, Militia Concentration. SSEP (5B). Civilians, students, long hours, and irregular holidays. These are some of the thoughts that summer 1971 brings to the minds of 3 RCHA personnel. To six people, it brings to mind something else, something which made me keenly aware of two seemingly insignificant entries in the base telephone directory - - aware also of two small offices tucked away in the large headquarters building.
ARTS was held at Wainwright during the summer of ’71. ARTS is not an extension faculty of the University of Alberta. However, it does involve education – even co-education.
ARTS stands for Area Rank and Trade School. Its composition was a headquarters, staff, and students for the eight courses which were conducted. The courses were Major Qualifying, Captain Qualifying, Lieutenant Qualifying, Senior NCO RCIC, Senior NCO RCAC, Artillery Technician, Administrative Clerk and Small Arms Instructor. All of the students were militia personnel from Pacific Militia Area (the province of BC) and Prairie Militia Area (geography between the Lakehead and the BC border), regular force personnel from 1 Combat Group and militia personnel from the two militia areas.
Co-educational classes were enjoyed by the students of the Major Qualifying, Lieutenant Qualifying and Administrative Clerk courses. The rest of us appreciated the presence of the ladies as well.
Through working with ARTS ’71, I realized that there is a deeper involvement of regular force personnel with the militia than I had originally thought. Therefore I conducted an informal investigation and discovered that a rather extensive organization does exist to assist the militia units. This organization is responsible to FMC and is basically the same in each of the five militia areas.
Each Militia area has a headquarters, for which a typical personnel breakdown is as follows:
Wainwright, Combat Group Concentration and formation exercise, Militia Concentration. SSEP (5B). Civilians, students, long hours, and irregular holidays. These are some of the thoughts that summer 1971 brings to the minds of 3 RCHA personnel. To six people, it brings to mind something else, something which made me keenly aware of two seemingly insignificant entries in the base telephone directory - - aware also of two small offices tucked away in the large headquarters building.
ARTS was held at Wainwright during the summer of ’71. ARTS is not an extension faculty of the University of Alberta. However, it does involve education – even co-education.
ARTS stands for Area Rank and Trade School. Its composition was a headquarters, staff, and students for the eight courses which were conducted. The courses were Major Qualifying, Captain Qualifying, Lieutenant Qualifying, Senior NCO RCIC, Senior NCO RCAC, Artillery Technician, Administrative Clerk and Small Arms Instructor. All of the students were militia personnel from Pacific Militia Area (the province of BC) and Prairie Militia Area (geography between the Lakehead and the BC border), regular force personnel from 1 Combat Group and militia personnel from the two militia areas.
Co-educational classes were enjoyed by the students of the Major Qualifying, Lieutenant Qualifying and Administrative Clerk courses. The rest of us appreciated the presence of the ladies as well.
Through working with ARTS ’71, I realized that there is a deeper involvement of regular force personnel with the militia than I had originally thought. Therefore I conducted an informal investigation and discovered that a rather extensive organization does exist to assist the militia units. This organization is responsible to FMC and is basically the same in each of the five militia areas.
Each Militia area has a headquarters, for which a typical personnel breakdown is as follows:
It is interesting to note that the senior appointments for the various departments are filled by militia personnel, and in fact, the militia is responsible decision-making in these departments. Each department head, however, has a regular force assistant who acts in an advisory capacity for his counterpart.
Each militia area is further broken down into militia districts, and a typical personnel organization of a militia district headquarters is as follows:
Each militia area is further broken down into militia districts, and a typical personnel organization of a militia district headquarters is as follows:
Each Militia Area has a number of regular force personnel working within the area under the designation of Regular Support Staff (RSS). The team includes those personnel working at the militia District Headquarters.
A number of other regular force officers and men (distinct from the two headquarters mentioned) belong to RSS, with their numbers and corps dependent upon the number of militia units and their corps within the Militia Area. The RSS are generally scattered throughout the area in twos and threes to assist the militia units, which are also scattered throughout the area.
The function of the RSS is to assist and advise the militia units in all aspects of training and administration towards the fulfillment of the militia’s roles. The militia’s roles are:
Sometime in the future, when you are told you have been posted to the RSS, you will madly hunt for this article, which I hope will give you at least a general idea of what you may be doing.
The two entries in the Wainwright directory? They are:
Regular Force Support Officer 4389
Regular Force Support Staff 4389
In reality, two people. Each has an office and a phone sharing the same number, but now we know something about their functions.
The Canadian Gunner 1971, Volume 7, December 1971
A number of other regular force officers and men (distinct from the two headquarters mentioned) belong to RSS, with their numbers and corps dependent upon the number of militia units and their corps within the Militia Area. The RSS are generally scattered throughout the area in twos and threes to assist the militia units, which are also scattered throughout the area.
The function of the RSS is to assist and advise the militia units in all aspects of training and administration towards the fulfillment of the militia’s roles. The militia’s roles are:
- To provide trained individuals for augmentation and reinforcement of the regular force;
- To provide trained sub-units to support field force for the defence of Canada and the maintenance of internal security;
- To provide trained personnel for augmentation of the Civil Emergency Operations organization; and
- To form the base on which the regular force could be expanded in the event of an emergency.
Sometime in the future, when you are told you have been posted to the RSS, you will madly hunt for this article, which I hope will give you at least a general idea of what you may be doing.
The two entries in the Wainwright directory? They are:
Regular Force Support Officer 4389
Regular Force Support Staff 4389
In reality, two people. Each has an office and a phone sharing the same number, but now we know something about their functions.
The Canadian Gunner 1971, Volume 7, December 1971