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Lt. Jebus posted:Canadian Forces: Bootchat. Boots are the most important part of your kit  I'm honestly surprised there isnt a boots megathread in GiP already.
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Jan 8, 2010 19:52
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I just got off the phone with my recruiter. All trades are closed till April. This sucks. I will have been out of the military for 1 year by the time I get back in.
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Jan 8, 2010 20:56
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Well its official. Canadian Force: Brother, Can you spare a dime? Either that or we've actually hit all of our quota's, which I doubt.
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Jan 8, 2010 21:51
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Well there's at least 1 opening for a RMS Clerk somewhere. Turned in my ID card today, out-clearance docket in the works. 2003-2009 
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Jan 8, 2010 22:02
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WOFOC posted:OK, I'll throw my hat in the ring. Inf WO working with the Canadian Rangers out of Victoria. 18 years in. Any CRs on these boards? When I was on Op Nanook a while back I traded a pair of cadpat trousers for a ranger sweater. Does that make me an honorary ranger?
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Jan 9, 2010 06:09
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Fresh out of BMOQ infantry 2lt checking in. I've only seen about 48 hrs of Gagetown, and that was on Thursday-Saturday when the base was officially closed, so I have no idea what to expect when I return from my Christmas leave. Anyone have anything good/ill to say of CAP? I'm hopefully going to be course loaded, since sitting on PAT for a while doesn't seem too exciting a proposition.
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Jan 9, 2010 08:53
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Simkin posted:Fresh out of BMOQ infantry 2lt checking in. I've only seen about 48 hrs of Gagetown, and that was on Thursday-Saturday when the base was officially closed, so I have no idea what to expect when I return from my Christmas leave. Would you mind posting about BMOQ a bit? What was your daily routine like? What did you do to prepare? I'm considering joining the CF dream as an officer so I'd love to read about what you just went though.
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Jan 9, 2010 19:05
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Lassitude posted:When I was on Op Nanook a while back I traded a pair of cadpat trousers for a ranger sweater. Does that make me an honorary ranger? Not really, Canadian Rangers, believe it or not, for the most part take themselves pretty seriously. They are very proud of the unique role that they fill within the CF. They see their red hoodies in the same light that the rest of us see our uniforms. The status of "Canadian Ranger" is never confered readily or easily. Now for the the GG. She can wear any uniform she wants. (and looks good in it too!) 
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Jan 9, 2010 23:09
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Simkin posted:Fresh out of BMOQ infantry 2lt checking in. I've only seen about 48 hrs of Gagetown, and that was on Thursday-Saturday when the base was officially closed, so I have no idea what to expect when I return from my Christmas leave. You'll enjoy CAP, but it will be a worlds of difference from what you did at St Jean. It will definitely have that "army" flavour, and prepare you for phase 3 and 4 Inf. All I can say is stay fit, stay motivated, and try not to get hurt. oh yeah, chin ups, chin ups, and more chin ups.
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Jan 9, 2010 23:19
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I looked up Canadian Rangers on Wikipedia to find out what they were all about and discovered two things: 1) They are still issued WWII-era Lee-Enfield rifles. Apparently they work pretty well in the Arctic against bears and such. 2) "Issued on September 1, 1942, the training publication, The Ranger, was in circulation for the PCMR, as it contained such articles as "Know where to shoot", "Edible plants of BC", "What can you do with a tarp?", and "Dig or die"." I also discovered that those jumpers look cozy and I want one.
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Jan 9, 2010 23:41
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WOFOC posted:Not really, Canadian Rangers, believe it or not, for the most part take themselves pretty seriously. They are very proud of the unique role that they fill within the CF. Yeah, I was being facetious. I'm just happy to have my sweater. Those rangers were a ton of fun to work with. Oh, and yeah, they get those rifles and rounds as part of their kit. We got to shoot them when we were up there, and they're much more satisfying to use than a C7. They also do a number to ptarmigan and seal heads.
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Jan 10, 2010 00:03
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Lassitude posted:We got to shoot them when we were up there, and they're much more satisfying to use than a C7. They also do a number to ptarmigan and seal heads. Quite true, there's a certain satisfaction you get from firing a proper battle rifle that other small arms just don't deliver. Jungle lanes with a .303, good times.
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Jan 10, 2010 00:31
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Someone in A/T suggested I cross-post this to this thread, so here it goes... I'm interested in enrolling at RMC under the ROTP program. From what it looks like on the website, it seems like I enroll in an undergrad program that leads to a specific stream/career path, but there aren't very many details on how exactly this works, and a bunch of links on the forces sites are dead. Would I be able to follow a medical officer stream straight through, or do I need to do an undergrad in some general program, apply for medical school, and reapply through the army program? Has anyone here gone through the RMC or did everyone join the forces outside of that? What's life like as a RMC cadet? As a girl, will life be poo poo(tier) for me? How do vacations/holidays, summers, training, and pay work? What about if I decide part way into my program that it really isn't for me? As far as my manditory service in exchange for education; where are Canadian troops being deployed? If I do manage to get into the medical stream, I'd like to specialize (probably in anaesthesiology, psychiatry or radiology), so I guess this tacks on a couple more years to my service, but does it effect where I get deployed? What's life in the Canadian army like? Overseas or on home land base? I am a little more interested in the second part of this post, because most of the enrollment stuff can probably be answered by the registrar/recruiters if I ever manage to get a hold of them, but I don't know anyone who has gone through the program or is in the army to ask them about what it's actually like to live on the campus as a cadet, or to be deployed overseas.
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Jan 10, 2010 02:05
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Arty goon checking inswagger like us posted:mo-litia infantry represent. I want some CADPAT loving raingear, sick of this rubber poo poo and stealth suits arent good enough. you can keep the new rucksacks tho, and ill keep my '64. Just to rub it in, the cad pat rain gear breathes and is awesome in the summer. Also the new rucksacks are way better than the '64 patterns. You proably just sucked at bending the back supports
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Jan 10, 2010 02:59
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v-unit posted:Someone in A/T suggested I cross-post this to this thread, so here it goes... Check your PMs for some answers to your questions about Charm School.
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Jan 10, 2010 03:17
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Science posted:Would you mind posting about BMOQ a bit? What was your daily routine like? What did you do to prepare? I'm considering joining the CF dream as an officer so I'd love to read about what you just went though. BMOQ at St-Jean Quebec (the whiskey-tango rear end in a top hat of the province, with more brothels per square kilometre than anywhere else in canada ) was my first brush with the military, since nobody in my family has served.The first week (week zero) won't give you any read at all on the program. You'll have weird timings, like no fixed bed time, a 6am wake up, etc. and you'll still have your goofy civvie hair and clothes, so you'll stand the gently caress out from the crowd. You will long for CADPAT, if only so that it's harder for staff to single you out (don't worry, if you gently caress up, they'll still remember your name/face). Anyhoooo.... week zero just involves paperwork. Remember all that crap that you thought you'd filled out for the recruiting center? Well, they're all loving retarded, and you'll be lucky if they bothered to pass on to your platoon staff that you even exist (it does happen). Once you finally get issued your kit, then things start warming up, and you start getting into a routine. Up at 0500, morning PT at 0510-05?? (every other day, usually), followed by breakfast, then classwork/drill, lunch, classwork/drill, dinner, figuring out how the gently caress you set up your locker for inspection, and stressing over labeling everything (you will forget something, and the staff will pick that one particular sock to check, don't worry). Other things do get thrown into the mix, of course, like tests, visits to the doctor/optometrist/Exacta centre, etc. The hardest part that I found in the beginning, was adjusting to the retardedly short meal timings some literally required that we just skip the meal, in order to make the timing. If this happens, make sure that you are not the only one to skip the meal. If your pl staff sees that the whole platoon (or even just a full section) missed a meal, they will try to work it so that you have at least a minimal amount of time to eat. There are a thousand other parts that I could go on about, but I think you can actually find the course outline somewhere online, so I won't bother going over that. Suffice it to say that I enjoyed the poo poo out of all my time in the field (even the rifle range, where it was absolutely pouring, and then snowing for our night shoot). LPAC is good fun, pre-Vimy was even better, and Vimy was 3 days of non-sleeping awesome. Actually, I probably caught 2hrs between Monday 0400 and Wednesday 2200, so no hallucinations.  As far as prep goes, I was in pretty decent shape before I joined up, so the physical aspect was a doddle. If you're not in great shape, look into doing interval training (sprint-jog-sprint-jog) to get your V02 max up, and work your way up to at least 20 push ups. My degree is in a field that the CF doesn't specifically have a need for (Linguisitics), so I joined up as a DEO (direct entry officer) in the Infantry. There's also the CEOTP (I can't remember what this acronym meant) route, which a bunch of people on pl were under, and basically it boils down to joining up with the promise that you will finish (even if you have yet to start) your program at University, and the CF will pay your way. On a more personal note, the platoon staff that I had were all fantastic (well, other than our CO, he was Navy, so....  ), and they made the training as enjoyable and beneficial as it was. To put it into perspective, I'm much, much prouder of my comissioning scroll, than I am of my sheet of paper from UVic, even though one took about 8 times longer to earn.If you have any more specific questions on BMOQ, I'll try to answer, or even just on St-jean in general. Beyond that, though, and I'm out of my depth. Also, thanks WOFOC for the intel, that's good to know. I loved all the field ex (ppt can go die in a ditch), and I'm a pretty avid climber, so chin ups are not usually a problem. Simkin fucked around with this message at 12:43 on Jan 10, 2010 |
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Jan 10, 2010 12:39
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Yeah that sounds like St. Jean alright. I forgot about the people that show up and don't exist in the system - I wonder if you could just walk in off the street and into the Mega and join up. It would probably take someone with a personality disorder to pull it off, but there are a lot of those in the CF anyway. Get used to filling out the same form multiple times, it's one of the CF's signatures. CEOTP means Continuing Education Officer Training plan, and you don't need a degree or even need to have started one. You basically promise to finish one on your own time (more or less) before your period of service expires. It's mostly for operator MOCs, like infantry and pilot, where the degree you get or hold doesn't need to have any particular relevance to the job. It's used when they are having problems making recruiting targets, so it opens and closes periodically. It's not very good if you actually want to get a degree, if my conversations with people in the program are anything to go by. Between training and operations, it's difficult to find the time.
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Jan 10, 2010 17:05
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WOFOC posted:Now for the the GG. She can wear any uniform she wants. (and looks good in it too!) Am I the only one here who thinks Michaelle Jean is really sexy? And I've never met her, but she often has a really big a genuine-seeming smile going on, so she's probably a very nice person, too.
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Jan 10, 2010 17:37
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Simkin posted:Fresh out of BMOQ infantry 2lt checking in. I've only seen about 48 hrs of Gagetown, and that was on Thursday-Saturday when the base was officially closed, so I have no idea what to expect when I return from my Christmas leave. Gagetown? Oh you poor bastard. If you dont already have a car, buy one (almost anything will do) or become good friends with someone who has a car as fast as you can. This will save you a minimum of 2 hours a day just walking from place to place. Also, dont expect to see your lighter ever again if you lend it to someone, the Canex is far away so lighters are always in short supply. Oh yeah, one last thing: If you go to Jungle Jim's (a restaurant nearby with cheap wings) DO NOT get the insanity wings. No matter how much people dare you to or call you a pussy. Its really not that bad when you eat them (I'm pretty big on spicy food) but your anus will literally be on fire the next morning when you have to take repeated shits. Its just not worth it man.
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Jan 10, 2010 18:28
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Mr.48 posted:Stuff about Gagetown Thanks for the info. I've been rocking two wheels (bike and motorcycle only) in Victoria for the past 3 years or so, and plan to continue that in NB - so I bought studded bicycle tyres.  I'm staying in H1, so it's not really that far from the Canex, only about a 10min walk, and it's nice and close to the cafeteria and the Inf school. I don't smoke, so the lighter thing won't be too much of a problem, although I did see quite a few people take up (or resume the habit) smoking when they were on BMOQ.I will, however, steer clear of the wings. There were a bunch of MARS officers that were CEOTP in my pl, but then again, half the loving platoon was Maaaaaarrrrrrs. 
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Jan 10, 2010 20:29
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CEOTP is pretty much the forces waiving their "officers must have a degree" policy without actually waiving it. I've only ever seen it open for MARS/INF/ART/ARMD, classifications which have a difficult training process, have a hard time keeping people and have no real connection with any particular degree. Its where most of the (Academic) RMC Washouts end up. We used to say if you hosed up so bad that they wouldn't even offer you CEOTP then you really had no place in the organization. Also Simkin I did my basic training about 12 years ago now (and then again 11 years ago, thanks Ecoli poisoning)and its funny how similar your experience sounded to my first go (except all the names have changed, my training was still called BOTC I & II). St Jean... St Jean never changes.
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Jan 10, 2010 21:02
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Yeah, I certainly won't miss St-Jean, that's for sure. Montreal was really, really great, though, and made the weekends worthwhile.
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Jan 10, 2010 21:28
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My Spirit Otter posted:Arty goon checking in nah its not about the comfort (they are more comfy), its about the useability. Try strapping a water jerry or SF tripod to the back of the new rucksack. '64 will always reign supreme for the infantry just cause of the ability to carry awkward poo poo.
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Jan 10, 2010 22:12
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Simkin posted:Yeah, I certainly won't miss St-Jean, that's for sure. I dont get why people say this. I loved St Jean and missed it even more when I got to Meaford. Life was easy, deal with dumb poo poo during the week and drink your face off on weekends.
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Jan 10, 2010 22:32
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The logistics of meal lines at St-Jean left much to be desired, as did the dust bunnies (yeah, don't bother ever cleaning the HVAC, ktnx). I wasn't into getting blottoed/hitting up the prostitutes on the weekend, so maybe I missed out on the essential Quebecois charm.
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Jan 10, 2010 22:36
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My Spirit Otter posted:Arty goon checking in Ubique, gunner. Only rain gear I ever got was that rubberized poo poo.
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Jan 10, 2010 23:45
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Simkin posted:The logistics of meal lines at St-Jean left much to be desired, as did the dust bunnies (yeah, don't bother ever cleaning the HVAC, ktnx). I wasn't into getting blottoed/hitting up the prostitutes on the weekend, so maybe I missed out on the essential Quebecois charm. What people on my course did was unscrew it and put a dryer sheet behind it covering it. Looks normal and keeps the dust out.
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Jan 11, 2010 01:10
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Not a bad idea. We just hoarded swiffers like they were crack, and then got our balls busted on inspection when a stray bunny would wander into our cubicle while we were standing waiting on staff. How serious are the inspections at CAP?
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Jan 11, 2010 02:03
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Simkin posted:Not a bad idea. We just hoarded swiffers like they were crack, and then got our balls busted on inspection when a stray bunny would wander into our cubicle while we were standing waiting on staff. lol ever heard the story about the guy who had a dust bunny and had to take care of it. He had to give it, it's own service number, it had to write tests, and be with it 24/7. Ahhh the mind games...
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Jan 11, 2010 03:45
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Hi CF goons. I am heading to St. Jean Feb. 27th for BMQ, official start date is March 1st. Going for SIGOP. Think I saw one other person going for SigOp in this thread and a couple undecided, but the army.ca forum is full of people going into the same trade. anyone else heading to Basic early '10? St. Jean specifically... I heard they were sending a lot of people to Borden too, but I could be talking out of my rear end. The Corporal handling my file mentioned something about it but I may have misinterpreted.
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Jan 11, 2010 03:48
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swagger like us posted:nah its not about the comfort (they are more comfy), its about the useability. Try strapping a water jerry or SF tripod to the back of the new rucksack. '64 will always reign supreme for the infantry just cause of the ability to carry awkward poo poo. I cant say Ive strapped a water jerry or an SF tripod to it, but I've strapped parts of the 81mm mortar to both and the new ruck is a million times better for it
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Jan 11, 2010 04:00
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I applied to join the Army 4 months ago, then the day before my interview at the recruitment center, my trade(Combat Engineer) closes. So now I`m in a bit of a limbo where I have to wait until at least April before getting to actually swear in. I have been merit listed, so that`s good, but I didn`t anticipate having to wait so long. Can anyone tell me anything about Combat Engineer as a trade or what to expect at BMQ (St.Jean).
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Jan 11, 2010 05:26
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4 months isnt that long. The military lost my medical documents (which stopped my recruitment) for 4 months. What to expect at St. Jean, please read above there is some information that could be helpful. Also go on you tube and check out Basic up and Basic up Reloaded. Either go to the Canadian army site or you tube that.
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Jan 11, 2010 06:59
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Fraser CDN posted:4 months isnt that long. The military lost my medical documents (which stopped my recruitment) for 4 months. What to expect at St. Jean, please read above there is some information that could be helpful. Also go on you tube and check out Basic up and Basic up Reloaded. Either go to the Canadian army site or you tube that. Well, it will be at least 8 months before I can even (in theory)swear in. I've seen basic up, but I'll definitely check out reloaded (new season or something?). If any Combat Engineers can weigh in on whether or not I've made a horrible decision I'd appreciate that.
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Jan 11, 2010 07:25
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Simkin posted:Thanks for the info. I've been rocking two wheels (bike and motorcycle only) in Victoria for the past 3 years or so, and plan to continue that in NB - so I bought studded bicycle tyres. If you're on a bicycle make sure you wear a helmet, the MP's in Gagetown are loving maniacs and I've seen them give people tickets for that poo poo.
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Jan 11, 2010 18:10
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Yeah, I always do, especially in lovely conditions. Thanks for the warning, though.
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Jan 11, 2010 18:37
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Mr.48 posted:If you're on a bicycle make sure you wear a helmet, the MP's in Gagetown are loving maniacs and I've seen them give people tickets for that poo poo. Ah yes, the only place in Canada I've ever been pulled over for doing 3 over the limit. I suppose I was lucky to have gotten away with a warning.
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Jan 11, 2010 19:23
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I was thinking of making an a/t thread, but I really don't think it's important enough. I'm thinking of joining the reserves, I have absolutely no idea what I'd be getting into. Any sort of information/words of warning would be great.
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Jan 13, 2010 03:12
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Nubile Hillock posted:I was thinking of making an a/t thread, but I really don't think it's important enough. I'm thinking of joining the reserves, I have absolutely no idea what I'd be getting into. Any sort of information/words of warning would be great. Depends hiiiiiighly on the regiment I imagine. But, I've had a really awesome time being a reservist. Made a lot of good friends, did poo poo I'd never have done otherwise, got paid to go sleep in the bush with a gun... honestly, I wish I'd have heard about it when I was 17 or whatever.
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Jan 13, 2010 03:35
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What can I expect as far as pay and hours? I'm going down to a recruitment center this week, are they usually good as far as giving me an accurate idea of how it's going to be or do they basically say anything to get me to join?
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Jan 13, 2010 04:43
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