I was planning to stay out of this discussion as I have decided to try and step back from getting involved in these decisions and let the new server-based leadership take the reigns, such as our lovely Directors @Wolfro & @Gears. However, I see some major flaws in some of the things in this thread.
With EOD being taken away from 21st due to them having an excess of trainings that they give, they are no longer considered EOD personnel or bomb defusal experts. There was never any lore behind this, and the only reason they received the trainings for TECH & EOD in the first place was because the SOBDE leadership were on really good terms with 21st leadership when SOBDE decided they didn't want it anymore and so gave it off to their friends in 21st under the stipulation that SOBDE could still assist in hosting these trainings which they no longer are able to.
If 21st had been given the defusal kits then it wouldn't have been given to every job, it would have gone to your engineer job (which I believe is your pilots) and all pilots will most likely be getting them in the hotfix as long as the addon is working as intended. The defusal kit was given to SOBDE EOD members as a means of stress testing the bombs live on server with a small amount of members and collecting data before the distribution of a potentially unstable addon to all battalions.
The fact that the battalion wasn't consulted isn't something that will always happen, sometimes decisions will happen without consulting those affected as it may be what server leadership deems as best fit for the server at the time. This is sometimes required as the Directors in their positions are expected to be able to take a step back to look at these decisions objectively from a server-wide standpoint when sometimes people can have unintentional tunnel-vision and only consider their own battalion due to the fact they don't have the knowledge of how other battalions may be operating/performing.
The option for 332nd jobs was given to the current leader of the 501st at the time, being Rohan when he was XO and there was no Commander Rex. Rohan chose to go with bodygroups for all 501st jobs rather than specific 332nd jobs.
21st currently have the following trainings/priority;
TECH.
GMACT 1.
GMACT 2.
GMACT 3.
Ship Boarding.
EOD (Which they want to have back from SOBDE).
UT-AT (Has been requested but no decision made as of yet).
I'm sure they can live with losing one training. Also, 21st is the home battalion to the only members of the republic to be able to cloak other than Omega Squad as well as a unit full of jobs with Westars. For example here; 501st get no trainings, their Torrent Company jobs get no extras & 332nd are bodygroups.
There are other ways of doing ship infiltration. You guys also have, TECH training to splice doors? You have SO who can cloak and wait for enemies to pass through? You can usually just fly in the same way the droids are flying out? Not having EOD does not invalidate this roleplay.
The entirety of SOBDE was given the training, not just their EOD specific jobs. That means there are currently, 25 members (including Jedi and their Regimental) that can host these trainings. SOBDE are also some of the most active players of the server due to their sign-in requirements.
The TRAINING was given to SOBDE, not the entirety of EOD roleplay. Meaning, if you're in 21st and you want to be EOD trained and do EOD tasks or incorporate them into your ship boarding , you get it from SOBDE. You guys are making it sound like you were told that you're not allowed to do EOD anymore at all. This is not the case.
The only thing they do while out of combat at the moment is host SOBDE tryouts. This gives them a different avenue of the server to be able to explore & will make the server more enjoyable for them as they have a purpose other than just sitting there bored between events.
This is straight up, not true. SOBDE had it when I first became a Director in December 2019, it's only been a year. SOBDE had it for the previous 2 years before that and did an extremely good job with it. It was only given to 21st by request of the SOBDE leadership at that time.
There are four reasons this argument doesn't make sense;
1. 21st already have the following trainings in which they run. TECH, GMACT 1, GMACT 2, GMACT 3, External Ship Boarding, Cold Weather Warfare. You guys have also requested the UT-AT be added as a training for 21st and also want to keep EOD, you guys have plenty of other trainings to be able to indulge in.
No battalion should be a one-stop-shop for all trainings. You have to realise that other battalions (Such as 501st, 212th, CG, Dooms Unit) get nothing.
2. If your battalion's only draw is the fact that you have a training that you run, then you're doing something wrong and that should be a reflection of your BCMD & RCMD if nothing is done about it. 21st has an entire unit with Westars and the only unit of troopers outside of SOBDE that can cloak.
3. Other battalions are doing extremely well without trainings for members external from their battalion, for example Doom's Unit. They don't need a training to be special. You can bring up the argument of "but they have shields on some of their jobs", but 21st has cloaks on some jobs and westars on some jobs, so think about that before responding.
4. The SO loadout can be changed with a server suggestion. The fact the battalion hasn't put one up, is not the fault of the rest of the community. The responsibility on the loadout of your battalion is up to leadership of the battalion if they want to allow a suggestion to be made to change it & then community feedback. Can't blame the community if you haven't made a suggestion for it.
In conclusion; The battalion is blowing this WAY out of proportion for what it needs to be, however speaking with the Directors could be the first step of changing this, but that communication hasn't happened. Instead it went straight to the forums/discords. Remember our High Command members, Head Admins & Directors are there to listen to your concerns, answer your questions and work with you towards a resolution.