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This podcast is for and about soldiers of the Canadian Army.
Its primary goal is to provide them with useful information through thoughtful and open discussions that reflect their mutual interests and concerns.
Though soldiers are our primary audience, the topics covered on this podcast should be relevant to anyone who supports our soldiers or who has an interest in Canadian military matters.
Hi. I'm Captain Adam Orton with the Canadian Army Podcast. Being in charge of a brigade is a big job. You're responsible for thousands of troops and have to keep the whole thing running. It gets even harder when you're deploying internationally which is happening now as the Forward Land Forces Battle Group in Latvia expands to a brigade.
Capt Orton:Colonel Cédric Aspirault is the Brigade Commander for 5 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group and the first commander on the ground for the Forward Land Forces Brigade in Latvia. And he's gonna tell us what it's like to prepare for this task. Welcome to the podcast, sir!
Col Aspirault:Good morning! Nice to be here, Adam.
Capt Orton:So pre Ukraine invasion, I know I had a lot of conversations with people about this, and I know even some other people had some conversations about the concept, "You think Russia is gonna invade Ukraine?" I was like, "Nah, it'll never happen." And then like, 24 hours later, it just like, happened.
Capt Orton:What if an adversary tries to push through your brigade?
Col Aspirault:We'll be ready.
Capt Orton:I love it!
Col Aspirault:But the important part of it, it's exactly that. Do not assume that will not happen. We have to plan for it and be ready for it. The great advantage that we have, however, it's that we are there. We are developing a plan there.
Col Aspirault:The teams that will rehearse, train, will train on the ground that they might fight on. The plans that they will develop, the reconnaissance that they will conduct, the spots that they will go and define could be the one, could be the spot that they will use to fight. So that's a tactical part. On the operational part, we will be integrated into the NATO plan, and that NATO plan is coordinated throughout the entire region, and that's important because it's not just a national intent. It's not just Latvia-Canada.
Col Aspirault:It's not just 11 other countries that are part of the team that will work in a small space. We will be part of a bigger thing. NATO, it's a big thing. NATO is a powerful organization and we'll be part of it for that time. So we'll be ready.
Capt Orton:Wow. That's a that's a great answer. I like that. So you've got two big jobs. You're setting up a brigade and also somehow you're still running your brigade back home.
Col Aspirault:Yeah. Building a new brigade in theatre is not something that happens often, so it's gonna come with a lot of new challenges. It's building a new headquarters. It's building a new mission task. It's building infrastructure also at the same time and being part of a great team with the Latvians.
Col Aspirault:And there are things going on still in Valcartier, support on domestic operations, there are other missions that we need to support. We had a lot of involvement in Op LUMEN recently, Op HELIOS. So there's two things going on: there's building up that brigade while continuing working with 5 CMBG and achieving all the mission tasks that we have back home.
Col Aspirault:So I wanted to make sure that I have people close to me in order to be able to make the right call at the right time. So I selected people that had the right experiences around me and then I also made sure that we have a strong headquarters that continues to work on the current issues back in Valcartier.
Capt Orton:So you're setting up this brigade. Is that the actual mission? Or, what is your mission in Latvia?
Col Aspirault:The mission is to reinforce the deterrence part. So that's the first goal. It's going there, reinforce what's there already, support the Latvian plan, being part of NATO, and accomplishing our deterrence mission. That's my primary mission. The second part of it will be setting conditions for those that will follow us. Making sure that the next brigade headquarters will go into a structure that will be completed and a structure that will work for them and everybody else that will follow us.
Col Aspirault:So we are creating that structure. So we are making sure that we are making the right decision at the right time in order to make sure that the one that will follow us will not have to think about how do we establish ourselves, but mostly think about how do we fight that brigade.
Capt Orton:Right. And we're lucky here to have an actual brigade commander who is about to deploy. And we haven't talked a lot about the concept of battle procedure, which is doing all the stuff to get ready to do military stuff. And part of that is mission analysis, which is looking at this mission is, like, this is my job. How do I pick this apart and approach the different chunks? So what came out as you went through that mission analysis? Did you identify any potential challenges or anything interesting as you were looking at this?
Col Aspirault:Yeah. For the challenges part, it's Roto 0. So there's things that we don't know that we don't know. And so we'll discover it throughout. So what I wanted to make sure, it's actually build a team that is building teams. And I don't wanna be cheesy about that, but I need team builders. And when you have team builders, you can create those little teams that will find solutions. I like to say that staff officers that have friends have solutions. It's exactly what I'm trying to do.
Capt Orton:That's true.
Col Aspirault:It's, finding the right people that will make the right connection to find the right solutions at the right time. Once you have that, you can build on what's already there. Building on the success of Task Force Latvia and building on the success of the battle group already established and the Latvian Brigade that are already there. So we'll use that to build the brigade and deploy all the resources that we need in theatre.
Capt Orton:So maybe people can understand the scope of things also, what do we have on the ground right now and what is that growing to in terms of numbers?
Col Aspirault:So currently, in Latvia, we have just over 1500 people, including our multinational partners. And then when we will deploy the brigade headquarters and the brigade assets and other multinational national partners, we will go up just over 3000 people.
Capt Orton:You mentioned a Roto 0, and we actually had an interesting discussion of that before recording. What does that actually mean? Do you care to describe what that means for you in this context?
Col Aspirault:Yeah. It's a great question because usually, Roto 0 will be the first one out. But as we know, we already have a battle group there since 2017. We have Task Force Latvia, a strong headquarters, already deployed there. So what's Roto 0 for us?
Col Aspirault:So Roto 0 for us will be the deployment of a brigade headquarters and also the fact that we will reorganize their headquarters in order to make sure that the assets already deployed, for example, the artillery assets that as per our doctrine will usually reside at the brigade headquarters level.
Capt Orton:Right.
Col Aspirault:And that makes it kind of a Roto 0 where there's going to be new challenges. Headquarters and signals will bring new wires, new equipment, new communication equipment in order to create that headquarters and make sure that we can speak and communicate to everybody that are part of that brigade.
Capt Orton:So truly, you're getting not only new physical infrastructure and setting it up, but also you are designing command structures to manage the troops and what's happening there that don't currently exist.
Col Aspirault:Exactly.
Col Aspirault:So the way that we see it... so two things - infrastructure. So first part, we are bringing an extra 600 to a 1000 people depending on where it's going to be and when it's going to be. So that's the first part. As you know, Adazi is already pretty crowded, and we wanna make sure that we are not overcrowding that camp that will be essential for us in the next few years. So we are building on Adazi, so our new infrastructure. There is a new accommodations being built. And also we are building a new camp in Ciri that is west of Riga, and that will be a new camp that will be completed in October 2024 where we'll be able to set up the new headquarters there. So what's gonna happen, and that's being part of Roto 0, where we will start in Adazi and during our tour, we will move to Ceri and establish the new headquarters there.
Capt Orton:That's, that's a lot of moving parts.
Col Aspirault:It is.
Capt Orton:And you got a lot of people working on making that happen. How do you fit into the bigger picture of what's on the ground there?
Col Aspirault:Yeah. One thing that we will have to change is when we're getting in, we're thinking about being a Canadian brigade, but we will not. We'll have to think about being a NATO brigade. As soon as the brigade headquarters deploys and gets in, we'll feed directly under the NATO division, Multinational Division North. That's a Denmark led headquarters in Adazi.
Col Aspirault:From there, we will also link up the planning cell in order to make sure that we fit in the NATO plan. So it's not just going to be a national plan. So as you know the region, we have Estonia north, Latvia, and then Lithuania south, And we know that there is national plans, but now there is going to be a new NATO regional plan and we will be part of that plan. So one of our first tasks will be to get in, link up with the planning teams, and make sure that we develop a brigade plan, line up with the division plan, and line up to the corps plan that is in Szczecin, Poland. So we'll be able to fight altogether if we need to.
Capt Orton:What's happening with the Canadian battle group on the ground right now?
Col Aspirault:So the current Canadian battle group will continue to train with the Latvian Brigade up to September. And once they completed their training, their collective training there, they will join our brigade, the Forward Land Forces Brigade, and that will be the last piece for a full brigade. And then from there, we will be able to develop our main exercise in November that will be the biggest brigade exercise that we'll have done for many years. But that exercise will integrate all the new equipment that we will have brought forward into theatre.
Capt Orton:So we've been talking about all these chunks, and it may be hard for somebody to conceive who doesn't have an understanding of what that looks like. Can you describe what 5 CMBG is? What is that brigade? What does a brigade look like?
Col Aspirault:Yeah. What's a brigade?
Capt Orton:That's right.
Col Aspirault:In Canada, what 5 CMBG is, so it's eight different units. Each unit is between 400 and 600 people.
Col Aspirault:So we have three infantry battalions, we have one armoured regiment, one engineer regiment, one artillery regiment, and one service battalion that will provide all the logistics to that brigade. And finally, we have the headquarters and signals that will provide the headquarters part, the staff officers, and also the connectivity to make sure that all those units speak to each other.
Col Aspirault:The difference between a home brigade, like CMBG, and a deployed brigade is that when we deploy, what we are going to do, we will create battle groups. And a battle group is a basic block of a fighting army. So what we do is we task purposely build a unit.
Col Aspirault:So it could be between 400 to a 1000 people, but we task purposely build it, and it could be armoured led or infantry led. And then we'll merge armoured or infantry to that leading element. And then we'll add engineers, and we can add also other assets like artillery in order to reinforce that. But it's a small unit that is already mixed and ready to fight. In theatre, in Latvia, it's what we have already.
Col Aspirault:So we have a multinational Canadian battle group there. It's already built to fight. And then we will have other battle groups that will join us in order to accomplish our mission as part of the Forward Land Forces in Latvia.
Capt Orton:Yeah. And you bring up a really good point because, you know, people back home, maybe somebody who hasn't deployed yet, you spend a lot of time with your respective group. Right? Infantry people stay with infantry people, generally speaking, and you don't do a lot of combined stuff. But as you're describing, when you're deployed, everybody's together now. So the structure is notably different, and I'm assuming the reason for that is so that any organization potentially involved in combat has access to all the pieces that they could possibly want. Whereas in just having a pile of infantry is great, it's limited in what infantry does.
Col Aspirault:Exactly. And that's the difference between an infantry battalion and a battle group. Like, it's ready to conduct a task as required, and we don't have to rearrange the entire organization just to accomplish that task. It's already done, ready, and they train together. So they know each other. They know what they can do for each other, and they know how they can help each other.
Capt Orton:Now that you have extra pieces to that too, which is also contributing nations. Who's coming out to play with us?
Col Aspirault:So we already have many countries with us as part of the Forward Land Forces Battle Group. So that's the main contributors. We can say Italy is already there, or Spain is already there. But one of the main new contributors will be Denmark. Denmark will provide a full battle group as part of that brigade that will be there for 6 months and will join the team in August.
Col Aspirault:However, as we know Sweden joined NATO on March 7th and we are extremely proud to say that they will join the Forward Land Forces Latvia starting in January. So their first deployment as a NATO partner will be part of the Forward Land Forces Latvia, and we are truly looking forward to work with Sweden in Latvia.
Capt Orton:How do you plan on dealing with integrating these new elements? You know, different countries have different ways of doing business. You know, we have our doctrine. Sometimes there's a period of adaptation where we learn to speak a common language. What does that look like to you?
Col Aspirault:One great thing about having a multinational headquarters is I will have a piece of all of those contributing nations within my headquarters. So that's gonna help in the planning process to make sure that, if I can say that, translate the Canadian way to do things to their way to do things. But also on our side, we are making an effort to do it the NATO way. It's not a big difference, but there's nuances that are important.
Col Aspirault:For example, the orders format. We are used to our Canadian way to write things, but on the NATO part, they will just change the sequence a bit. But it's the way to do it and we've done it through some of the training that we've done, some of the exercises, force ourselves to speak NATO. It's not because I'm using one mission task that's clear for every Canadian here. That's the same thing for Denmark or Spain or other countries that will be part of our team. So we have a part to do in that, making sure that we speak NATO, but also integrating every main element within our headquarters to make sure that our orders reflect their reality, and they understand exactly what we are trying to achieve.
Capt Orton:And so now, also, we have that capacity to learn from other NATO nations who do things similar to us, but not exactly the same. So we have a chance to learn from maybe how they do things, but also they learn from us.
Col Aspirault:Yeah. For example, we are bringing forward a new communications system to share information called SitaWare. And that we'll mostly use at the brigade headquarters, but also at the battle group's headquarters. Denmark has been using that program for years. We started using it during our training, exercises, and we learned a lot from Denmark, and that makes us better.
Capt Orton:Well, it's interesting because we've been trying to think of ways to discuss the concept of better decision making and doing planning and then having tools or software in this case or whatever, that helps you minimize the timeline to plan and help organize and coordinate information to be able to go faster from the planning stage to the execution stage, I would guess.
Col Aspirault:It's not just faster. The quality is there now.
Capt Orton:Right.
Col Aspirault:It's not PowerPoint based as we all seen, building a PowerPoint and then shredding that PowerPoint as soon a decision is made.
Capt Orton:That's right.
Col Aspirault:So what's gonna happen is as soon as the decision is made, the exact counter measures, for example, will be transferred to the ops side. So there's no single use products anymore. Everything that the planning team thought about and the details they put into their work, will be directly transferred to everybody that is part of the brigade. And that program can bring live data so we can actually see the planning work in real time.
Capt Orton:Hypothetically, you're gonna have all the blocks on the ground. You're gonna be there. You're gonna have multiple nations contributing. What's gonna happen while you're there? What are you gonna do other than constructing those structures and maybe doing some planning? What's what's the day to day for an average soldier?
Col Aspirault:There's a lot of new equipment being pushed forward. And one thing that we wanted to make sure that the new equipment is well integrated. So we'll make sure that the troops have time to use that new equipment to make sure that they understand what's the impact of it and find a good way to use it. We experienced it before in Wainwright with tax, the system where we gave it to 12 RBC where they used the equipment. They actually, after a few weeks, they were better than the technician that developed that system and it's what we wanna do in Latvia. So as soon as we have new equipment, we'll give time to the troops to train on it, experience it, and test it, and see what they can do with it and be better at it. So on the day to day basis, troops will not just be involved in training as collective training, but also experiencing new equipment that will be pushed forward.
Capt Orton:And they'll be doing exercises as well, I guess. What's that gonna look like?
Col Aspirault:Exactly. So after they've done their individual training, test the equipment, we will do collective training. So collective training will be done at the battle group level and then the NATO exercise will be pushed on us. Could be just the headquarters that will conduct the exercise, and sometimes it will be a field exercise where the headquarters will also deploy with the troops and will conduct the exercise altogether. So many training exercises that will enhance our techniques and firefighting skills, but also exercises that will practise and confirm that way that we speak and work with every nation deployed with us.
Capt Orton:So we have all these larger scale training opportunities, and from that, I'm assuming there's gonna be some really cool stuff happening in terms of training.
Col Aspirault:That's the beauty of being part of that NATO plan because there's going to be new training opportunities that we will seize. There's people that deployed in Latvia before that trained in Adazi for most of the tour. But what we're gonna do is we'll find opportunities to train with the flanking units. If there is an opportunity to go train in Estonia, we will seize it and we'll send troops there and train with Estonian troops, but also it's not just training. If I push a company there, I will give them time to visit Estonia.
Col Aspirault:It's the new way to do things while we are in Europe. Let's see it. Let's see more than Adazi. Let's see more than Riga. Let's give the opportunity to the troops that are deploying to go see those beautiful countries that are Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, if we can, but at least seize regional opportunities to train, but also to experience Europe and see it while you're there.
Capt Orton:So for sure right now, somebody is holding their phone yelling, "What new equipment? Tell me about the new equipment!" So you wanna tell us about that?
Col Aspirault:Yeah. So on the individual side, so as you've seen, we're actually wearing it, there's the new combat uniform coming in. 5 Brigade already started weeks ago signing out the new uniform. We also have the new pistol, C22, awesome pistol. And then there's going to be new drones coming in, that will be very interesting. Also, I've seen it a few times. The troops have already trained with it. Awesome assets. Also, we'll have air defense coming in a bit later, and we'll have counter UAS also will come into theatre. So new equipment, new communication equipment that's gonna help us with manoeuvering the brigade headquarters as dispersed as we can while being able to share the information.
Col Aspirault:So new technology brought forward, new equipment, and there's other pieces that will come in. But one thing that's going to be interesting also for the troops, it's the fact that the equipment will not sit in Canada. The equipment, as soon as we get it and it's ready, it will be pushed forward. And so there's pieces that the troops will only have access to when they are in Latvia.
Capt Orton:I just wanna highlight the dispersed headquarters idea because there's been a lot of philosophical conversation around the headquarters recently about the idea of either, like, you know, a centralized headquarters or a dispersed headquarters. What is the value of a dispersed headquarters?
Col Aspirault:I like to go back to doctrine, often.
Capt Orton:That's right.
Col Aspirault:Yeah. There's many things written in doctrine that we forget about, and when we go back to our books to say, "Oh yeah, it does exist."
Col Aspirault:So one of the functions that we have to do is protection. How do I protect my headquarters? And there's many ways to protect the headquarters. We can create a bubble. As we've seen in Afghanistan, the way that we were the headquarters, it's being underneath a bubble, a radar bubble with other assets that was protecting the headquarters.
Col Aspirault:So in this case, being centralized, tight, and big, was the way to do it. That was the way to protect the headquarters. In Latvia, it's different. And as we learned in Ukraine, it's better to be dispersed. So that's the way that we protect the the headquarters.
Col Aspirault:And it's not just protecting command, but it's to make sure that we create a resilient headquarters. So if something happens to one of the parts, the rest of it can function. So dispersed headquarters is just another way to protect the headquarters with the tools that I have at this time. There's many articles being written at this time on dispersed headquarters around the world. And it's not just to be able to sustain a strike, but it's also how we camouflage ourselves.
Col Aspirault:Like, how do we hide in that transparent battlefield where everybody knows where everybody is from satellite views or to be able to use electronic warfare to see how communications are being transmitted throughout the battlefield. So how do I hide my brigaded headquarters with transmissions and also hiding the view, the satellite view, and also how do I make sure that I'm resilient. So dispersed headquarters, it's one of the answers, but it's not all of it. We need to think about protection as a whole. And as a brigade commander, I need to take everything in consideration to make sure that I am able to be a resilient headquarters and be able to command and control throughout the operation.
Capt Orton:You know, it's "One Army", and for those that know how the Reserves fit into the whole picture, it's not a separate group of people explicitly. But have you given any thought to how the Reserves fit into this plan?
Col Aspirault:Well, reservists are essential in this plan. We saw the success of integrating reservists at the right time in Afghanistan.
Capt Orton:Yeah.
Col Aspirault:We were able to sustain Afghanistan because of the help of the reservists. It's sustaining operations forward. So that's one thing. Second thing, it's to also find or expose people, reservists, to what the Reg Force is and provide them an opportunity to join the team. And you know what? After a tour, the level of expertise is the same. We don't see any difference between a corporal coming from 1st Van Doo and a corporal coming from 6th Van Doo - that is a Reserve unit. And we want to maintain and keep that quality soldier within the Reg Force . So if there's opportunities and exposure to reservists, we will make that happen.
Col Aspirault:We have great success at the 2nd Division. We changed the way to do things. We used to just have a block of positions designed for reservists and say, okay, they will do force protection.
Capt Orton:Yeah. That's right. The classic.
Col Aspirault:Yeah. But it's not the best task for anybody, actually. So what we've done, is first we asked all the reservists within the 2nd Division who is available to deploy and when. And that's an important question because reservists have a life. They have a different life. They go to school, they have a real job, and they are doing something different. So we got a survey out. We got many answers, and we developed the plan based on availability of the troops. We said, "Okay, this person is available in January 2024. Actually, I have time to train them and make them a LAV driver." I have some people available later. Okay. There's other tasks, other positions that require less specific training or qualifications. So we task tailor, I will not say reservist positions, like brigade positions and make sure that it's transparent for everybody.
Col Aspirault:I have reservists everywhere, it's not just force protection, and they are throughout the battle groups, throughout the brigade quarters, throughout Recce squadron, artillery, logistics. So I was able to take reservists from every unit within the division. And you know what? They will feel like part of the full team.
Col Aspirault:It's not just a group of reservists together. They are part of the Reg Force and they are throughout the brigade. And so far, we are over 20% and I'm looking forward to see how many people that will stay part of that team because I need new people within the brigade and I need great people. And hopefully, there's reservists that will want to join the brigade after the tour.
Capt Orton:I'll confirm, by the way, because I looked at the task brick, just out of curiosity to see what they were at, and it's about 1600 positions right now with about 400 reservists filling those positions. So it's a real thing. Like, the number there is notable. That's what I'll say.
Col Aspirault:And, again, we have to do it now. Like, it's not let's wait that we need people.
Capt Orton:That's right.
Col Aspirault:We have to do it now and we have to do it properly also. Because if that 21% that we have did not enjoy their experience, did not learn or were treated as only reservists for the tour, they will not come back and that's not sustainable. It's a "One Army" thing. We need to do it together, and we need to appreciate the help of people that will actually take time off their work. They will put their school aside for a year to be part of that great thing.
Capt Orton:So, obviously, because it's a brigade, we're not rotating out a whole brigade in one shot, and it's probably different chunks at different times. But roughly, how long are people gonna be spending on the ground?
Col Aspirault:Roughly, people will spend 6 months on the ground. It's going to be a normal tour, what we've seen before. And there's a few key positions that will be there for 1 year. For example, myself, my Sergeant Major, and my Chief of Staff will be there for one year. However, the bulk of the troops will be there for six months. The first battle group will be there from June to December from 2 Van Doo from Valcartier and then will be replaced by assets from 1 Brigade. Then in June of 2025, the entire brigade will be replaced by personal from 2 Brigade from Petawawa.
Capt Orton:So it's just kinda like a stew. You got some stuff, it's going in. You got some other stuff, you're taking it out. It's kinda rolling. A little bit of everything happening at the same time.
Col Aspirault:Exactly.
Capt Orton:Throughout this whole thing, we've been talking a lot about technical stuff and kind of how all the pieces come together. I would assume at your level, you know, there's a lot of moving parts and all of that, and different people lead in different ways. How would you describe your command philosophy when you're approaching these problems?
Col Aspirault:That's a great question. When I went in 5 Brigade, I had that same thought or same reflection as any new commander coming into theatre. However, commanding 5 Brigade is one thing, but commanding a multinational brigade, it's another thing. However, there is a concept that are important to me that I'm keeping and I'm bringing forward with me, if I can say that. It's making sure that the troops that are working with us are experts on everything that they are doing. Making sure that my tankers are the experts in tanks, that the infantry are the experts in infantry.
Col Aspirault:And sometimes we believe it's obvious, but it's not because we don't give them time to do that. And I wanna make sure that I give them time to do that, to be the expert into their own trade. Once we do that, we make sure that they fit with each other and they are able to fight together. So to bring the expertise and trusting each other in order to conduct the exercises or to fight together, and they understand what they are doing. So for me, it's extremely important to see a brigade is not 4000 individuals.
Col Aspirault:It's not ten companies. It's not eight units. It's one brigade. One brigade together is extremely strong and everybody enables each other and everybody as part of that brigade makes the brigade itself extremely strong. So we start at every level. We want to make sure that we give them time to be an expert in what they do, and then we build together, in order to be able to fight a brigade, exercise a brigade.
Capt Orton:And we can see, like, when we apply that approach, again Afghanistan is a great example, is people come back with that level of expertise, and it has a follow on, or a lingering effect that people transmit that expertise and learn those lessons and pass them on. And then it has, like, a ongoing impact on a lot of the trades as a whole on how to do things better.
Col Aspirault:Yeah. And people are learning from that. Like, if you spend your entire life as part of the armoured regiment, you will not understand how much better you can be if you're working without infantry and vice versa. You will not understand what's the artillery firepower until it's actually being used in front of you.
Capt Orton:That's right.
Col Aspirault:So working together in theatre, creates links and understanding that's hard to understand, but we need to do it and experience it together. And every expertise merged together makes something incredibly strong and nice to see.
Capt Orton:I recently had a discussion with somebody and we're talking about leadership within an organization. There's the human side where it's like how you connect with people and, you know, you be yourself, you know, like Adam Orton "human being" versus Captain Adam Orton. And also connecting with the people that you work with where sometimes regardless of how human you want to be, you're a representative of your organization and as a higher leader more so. And sometimes you have to connect with humans as a human. With a big deployment like this and all of this stuff, there's a lot of leadership weight on your shoulders, obviously. How do you manage the human side of being a normal person and connecting with your troops while they're on deployment?
Col Aspirault:You need to be yourself. Like, you are not a commander because you've been somebody different throughout your years. You've been chosen for what you've done before and not for what exactly what you are now or what you could be. So there are things that you need to be yourself. One thing that's important for me is to trust my team, is to enable them to do their job.
Col Aspirault:Because if I do not trust them, I will want to do what they are doing or check everything that they are doing. And if I do that, I will not be able to command properly and take time to reflect on what needs to happen later. So trust for me when we talk about mission command, it's one thing, but sometimes we need to reflect on what mission command is, but it's all based on trust. And trusting your troops, trusting your commanders, trusting your key staff is essential to make a brigade work. Because as a commander, you don't have time to do everybody's job. You need to do your own job and let everybody else do their own job within their own expertise. And make sure that they are able to do it and give them the tools to be better at what they do. But in order to be better at what they do, you have to give them the space to do it. But it's all based on trust.
Col Aspirault:I really like that. That's a really good answer because I feel like mission command in particular, which is the act of basically delegating and trusting your subordinates that they just do the job that you told them to do, is a really powerful tool that a lot of people don't understand and is really useful.
Col Aspirault:And sometimes technology is gonna go against that because as a commander, I can see what section number 1 can do. And it's easy for a commander to wanna move section number 1. But it's not my job to do it. And I need to to realize that and make sure that I give the space to any commanders that are part of that to do that and let them go.
Capt Orton:Well, thanks so much for being on the podcast, sir. I really appreciate it.
Col Aspirault:Thank you for giving me the time. It was a great opportunity.
Capt Orton:Alright. Well, that was Colonel Cédric Aspirault, who is the brigade commander at 5 CMBG and the future commander on the ground of the Forward Land Forces Brigade in Latvia. And I'm Captain Adam Orton for the Canadian Army Podcast. Orton out.