Thread by @PaulHuangReport

What's Taiwan military's "reserve" training really like?
I finished my military service a decade ago as an army corporal. As a reservist I got called up by @MoNDefense last month for a week long training. Here's what I saw. Buckle up and be prepared to.. be disappointed. 1/

You will have to excuse the lack of photographic evidence since smartphones are taken away from reservists right at the gate. Strictly enforced. You'd think it's about "security", in reality it's more to do with MND wanting to avoid embarrassing photo from getting out. 2/

You will notice my training cohort was only 7 days. The much-hyped "new 14-days reserve training" was just a PR clown show made for Pres. @iingwen and her band of sycophantic press (including some foolish foreigners) to pump fake news about "Taiwan revamps reserve training". 3/

..in reality most reserve call-up cohorts are still the old 7-days system. PR group were given latest EMBH helmets (even active troops don't have), brand new boots, uniforms, gears, pistol training, staged photo-ops. Some Potemkin village level fakeries. My cohort had none. 4/

..And 7-days only b.c. I was a corporal (lowest NCO) in the army 10 yrs ago. Me and few dozen reservist NCOs /officers were called up 2 days before few hundred reservist privates (who serve 5 days) to form the core and prepare logistics for our "reserve infantry battalion". 5/

1st day is just paperwork and going through boxes of heavily worn/defective uniforms, boots, and gears to find useable ones for ourselves. Boots are the worst, just the rubber training type (PR group had brand new leather boots), most soles are bad or worn out. Sample pics. 6/

We NCOs/officers were "privileged" to pick first. Few hundred others arrived on 3rd day had to pick whatever left. These rubber boots are like ~$10 USD, it's a mystery why @MoNDefense couldn't just issue a brand new pair to all if you intend to train reservists seriously. 7/

2nd day we NCOs/officers boarded a bus that took us from base to @taoyuanairport for field briefing and inspect our theoretical [imaginary] defensive plans and positions. Our infantry company is supposed to dig in and defend this school site next to Taoyuan airport in a war. 7/

Briefing lasted 5 mins and few, not even the instructor seem to took it seriously. We were shown a "defense plan" map, which I recreated here from my notes. If this doesn't make much military sense to you, that is because it's not meant to. 7/

Before any accusation I am "leaking secrets" note these "plans" and maps have been the same for decades and widely circulated already. Heck, that @MoNDefense PR reserve cohort probably shown similar maps briefings to those clueless foreign media already. Talking about secrets. 7/

3rd day all the reservist privates arrived. In my company many only did the 4-month service (I served one year) before. Interestingly most were in the coast guard (Taiwan CG part of mil. service) rather than army/marines, incl. our company commander (who was a CG Lieutenant). 8/

Per Taiwan reserve system the whole "reserve infantry battalion", if activated, is 100% reservists and no active soldier, some served like decades ago. Even officers leading them are all reservists, with little guidance from active service NCOs/officers. Volkssturm anyone?
9/

Our company "commander" is an overweight, timid IT engineer in his 40s, who acted as if he didn't want to be there and never even address the troops once. Several NCOs and me, a lowly corporal, took over officer/leadership roles completely for the rest of the week. 10/

Anyway 4th day began the real "training". As far as weapons go, @MoNDefense randomly assigned everyone a weapon specialty of either T65K2 rifle (similar to US M16), T74 platoon machinegun (FN MAG), or T75 squad machinegun (FN MINI/M249 SAW). I was assigned the T75. 11/

..which is also weird since I was actually trained and certified for T74 when I did my active service. In 2012 I was sent to Army Armor school for weeks long "armored cavalry reconnaissance specialist" training. Here's yours truly in that year's Han Kuang exercise. 12/

Back to today, for 3 days everyone dry drill with unloaded weapons on the type assigned to. We take turns practicing basic operation, assembly, aiming at wall. For T75 we only have 5 machineguns for about 80 reservists, so you get 2-3 tries in one morning class and that's it. 13/

Other than firearm drill there was zero training, even for NCOs/officers in:
Physical training
Infantry basic maneuver/tactics
NBC (gas mask etc)
Radio/com.
Navigation
Enemy (PLA) identification
First aid/medical
Camping
Let alone "modern" stuff like drones etc.
14/

We were supposed to practice marching twice (8km) but didn't happen due to weather. Physical training was therefore zero. Though I jogged/strolled around the base everyday during free time so my distance/calorie burns were way more than others as my Fitbit recorded. 15/

6th day was the actual range shooting. But not all of us. Of 80 reservists in our battalion assigned to T75 machine gun, we were told only 40 "spots" to the range available. Why? No idea. Taxpayers $$ went to bankroll Tsai govt PR instead of buying enough 5.56mm bullets? 16/

For T75 machine gun each gets to shoot just 15 rounds (!), and only at 10 meters target. We are supposed to fire 3-round burst at target 4-8. Here's my paper target (I assigned to shoot the right side). The "zeroing" on that gun's iron sight was way off to the lower right. 17/

..Hence me, and all others firing that particular machine gun that day missed all our targets. Though my shooting certainly wasn't perfect (my first try with M249), why would they provided an "unzeroed" machine gun for reservists to do live fire training with? I have no idea. 17/

Particularly since "zero a sight" is a skill Taiwan military won't teach to most soldiers (even though every competent rifleman should learn it), let alone reservists. FYI here's a Youtube video on how to zero the sight on an M249. 18/

Day 7 is just everyone changing back to civilian cloth, returning all gears (including that worn out, pathetic rubber boots), and happily collecting their phones and GTFO. That completes all the "training" there is to it in a typical Taiwan military reserve training. 18/

Some other day I will do a complete analysis into this "war plan" I witnessed and tell you how suicidal and foolish it is, even if Taiwan military would never get the opportunity to deploy reserve cannon fodder to the beaches like this. 19/

https://twitter.com/PaulHuangReport/status/1517473119916544000

For now I encourage you to read my 2020 reporting on the truth behind Taiwan military's training, personnel, and "reserve". None have been fixed in the last two years. I was there 10 years ago, and I was there last month. This is the hard truth. END
foreignpolicy.com/2020/02/15/chi…