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Posting in support of this thread, even though I'm not sure how many CF goons we've got in here.
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Dec 31, 2009 03:58
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compressioncut posted:I'm one. Nice to see you are still alive. Having spent more time with Sonar ops in the past few months than ever before I can say your colleagues are a unique bunch.
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Jan 1, 2010 00:42
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The Amputee House posted:In a little over a week I begin the fun road to becoming a MARS Officer :O Oh you poor bastard.
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Jan 2, 2010 02:59
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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? I was (almost) deployed on 'OP Pontoon' with a chap from your office. Ex-RAF, now CF officer. Think he does the IT here. Good guy.
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Jan 2, 2010 19:54
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Blame the Olympics. The amount of money we've spent vs the amount of extra money the Feds have given us is unreal. Its eaten up a huge amount of the O&M money for this year ( and the next).
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Jan 5, 2010 21:23
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Canadian Forces: Bootchat.
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Jan 7, 2010 23:34
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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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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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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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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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MA-Horus posted:We're sending HMCS Huron Something tells me you mean HMCS Halifax, unless someone went and raised the Huron from the bottom and didn't tell me. Pretty sure they either left this morning or are leaving tonight. Didn't see them in the Dockyard today.
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Jan 14, 2010 22:23
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Ambrose Burnside posted:This is one of those "what the gently caress are you even thinking" questions, but what trade is most likely to get you placement on a sub? How thoroughly terrible is life on a Victoria-class? Sub trades currently very short: Electrician, Stoker, NWT, NET(Any Flavour), Cook, Sonar Op (Very short), NCIop, Nav comm, MARS officer, NCS ENG. Sub Trades currently relatively healthy: MS ENG Electricians can go submariner right after NETP. We had two guys that hadn't even done their 3s yet on my basic sub qual. Some other trades like SonarOp can go after the QL3, but most still require you to be QL5 qualified before you can opt in. As for life on the sub, generally you either really love it or you absolutely hate it. You definitely have to have low requirements for personal space, personal Hygiene (although contrary to popular belief, we do wash on submarines, just not that often), any type of claustrophobia will destroy you and most importantly you've got to have a pretty strong work ethic because there is a lot to know and useless people can get themselves and others killed on subs. Commander Jebus fucked around with this message at 01:33 on Jan 30, 2010 |
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Jan 30, 2010 01:31
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MA-Horus posted:I always thought it would be loving awesome to be a Fire Control officer on a sub. Jebus, do you know if any if our subs have ever live-fired a torpedo? From what I've heard, the ADCAP is a hugely amazing weapons system. To our eternal shame, not yet. We've fired shapes, which are dummy torpedoes, but that's it. The Victoria will be the first boat to be weapons certified. Whenever that is.
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Jan 31, 2010 15:30
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MA-Horus posted:Do they have harpoon-launch capability? They did when we bought them. (Not anymore)
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Jan 31, 2010 17:50
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Drama Llama posted:So when I applied, I put down MARS as my only trade choice. In my 1 year in so far, I've only met one person with a positive thing to say about the trade. My contract is to 2020. Yay! Well, some people like it.
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Feb 1, 2010 01:24
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DefenseSupportParty posted:I'm in the USAF right now, but there is a good chance I'll be moving to Canada in the next four years. Should I be interested in joining the military in your fine socialized nation, will I be able to retain my mediocre rank or some facsimile thereof? Probably not. I know there is a program where Officers (and senior non-commisioned) can move about the commonwealth and keep their rank (Australia in particular are head hunting Sub officers HARD), but I don't think it applies to the good old US of A. If you are doing a job that is directly applicable to a job we have in Canada you can get some credit for your time in the states by joining as "semi-skilled" and you can skip some courses. The only way to know for sure is talk to a recruiter.
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Feb 7, 2010 17:07
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Drama Llama posted:So uh, I guess some Air Force L.Col is looking at a promotion to commander of CFB Trenton... Ouch. Its like something out of NCIS (only, airforce)
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Feb 8, 2010 23:14
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When did we get rid of the Pioneers?
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Feb 12, 2010 18:10
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A message came out today opening up a special VOT program for infanteers, allowing them to essentially get out of infantry "free" and into a number of other trades without any competition on a first come first serve basis. They are really really overmanned. There are a lot of 18-24 year old males out there apparently.
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Mar 9, 2010 05:13
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The Amputee House posted:Why does everyone poo poo on MARS. Its a perfectly fine career if you have thick skin, excellent multitasking abilities and you are willing to put up with a lot of crap to eventually have the chance to command a warship. Frankly its one of the harder officer classifications out there but it really gets a bad rep due to how MARS officers treat their own.
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Mar 13, 2010 23:10
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DerDestroyer posted:You got an example of the kind of crap you have to put up with? How do MARS treat their own? First a disclaimer that I'm NOT a Mars officer (although I have many years in and many many friends who are and first hand experience with how many of them operate). If there are any Mars bars on here with any other insight I'd love to hear it. A good portion of them (but not all by any means) tend to treat the junior officers like poo poo, based on the old "well, I got treated terribly when I was a subbie" routine. Not only are you expected to know a whole bunch of stuff right off the bat (I don't think any other officer classification in the forces expects so much from a fresh officer), but your work days at sea are brutal (Junior Mars officers have the worst schedule rotation on the ship, no exceptions) and you can expect to be at sea a lot. When you gently caress up and make a mistake (and you will) you will consider yourself lucky if you are only yelled at by one person. Some of the worst offenders treated subbies as personal servants and got positively vicious when any of them hosed up. I've seen some COs even reduce watch officers to near tears on the bridge after they did something stupid. MARS officers also have a ton of training and courses to do (I have a good friend who is an Arty Officer currently on the IG course, he makes a big deal that his course is almost a year long - that's par for the course [ha] in Navy terms). A funny thing is that from talking with RAN, RN and USN MARS equivalents, they all pretty much have the same sentiments and hate their jobs too. I guess its all based on the pattern of midshipmen abuse setup by the RN and copied by everyone. Once you get at and past your first Director Level job, the amount of poo poo you get from above lessens greatly (and you might get your own crop of subbies) but now you have to start gunning for command and the competition can be quite fierce. I personally witnessed an ORO gently caress up during WUPS and pretty much lose any shot at command. It was hard to watch, imagine being in a career as demanding as MARS for 14 years and within a span of two weeks watch your goal slip away. What do you do then? In my own world its even worse: A potential Sub commander gets one shot at Perisher (the course that determines command)... Its brutally hard and failure not only means that you will never command a sub but also you are immediately done in the Submarine world - there are no do-overs. You can still go on to command a surface ship, but its not the same. The carrot, of course, is command; I've been told by every CO I've ever had that its by far the most fulfilling job in the Navy. Even compared to Army and Airforce 3&4-ringers, a Ship CO gets far more freedom and latitude to do their job. You just have to determine if its worth it. Simkin posted:It'd be nice if, rather than turning away people from NCM (or officer) infantry positions, the gov't would be willing to fund an expansion. Maybe they could cut back on submarine maintenance. Have fun on CAP there 2LT, I'll have to check and see if I know any of your course officers 
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Mar 14, 2010 05:04
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grover posted:Every time you mention MARS in here, I think you're talking about MARS, which is a hopelessly obsolete military HAM radio program and has a total staff of, like, 4 people, and the branches keep trying to cut it to save money, but US DoD can't quite find the heart to outright kill it. MARS = SWO
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Mar 14, 2010 16:24
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Unless you've been posted and moved from a low tax to a high tax province this year or you run a business/work on the side you shouldn't owe money anyway. 'Course if you are posted from BC to NS late in the year and then get bumped up a tax bracket by all those Brookfield (formerly Royal Lepage Relocation) "benefits" (they count for tax purposes as income... untaxed income) then you end up owing a ton of money.
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Apr 30, 2010 19:57
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I suppose that's when you know you really want to shoot people when you'd sign up with a foreign countries' military just to do it. That said, the RAN headhunts Canadian Naval Officers (Submariners extra hard), and some of the benefits are appealing. I'd don't think I'd ever actually leave though. Feels too mercenary. I wish I could bottle whatever it is about the Infantry that makes it so appealing to 18-28 year old Joe-on-the-street (Kicking down doors? The High speed haircuts? Plenty of other trades get to carry weapons...) and spread it around to other trades that desperately need people. Like any type of Tech trade. Or anything Hard-Sea for that matter.
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May 10, 2010 23:34
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Officers don't sign Variable/Basic engagements (VE/BE's). Well, they didn't unless something changed. Your first contract should be a SSE at 9 years + any schooling you need to do (Mine was 4 years of RMC plus 9 years after for a total length of 13 years). At the end of your SSE you have the choice of being offered a IE25, which is the "25 year contract", however as previously stated its only a 25 year guarantee of employment, you can technically get out at any time with a Voluntary Release [VR] (typical time frame will be about 3-6 months for such a release), barring any wars. If you choose to leave at the end of your SSE (after 9 years service + Schooling time if applicable) without signing a IE25, then you get whats called a Return of Contribution, basically the military gives back all the money it took from you for pension reasons. You get a payout (At least you did, it might have changed to some other benefit) but you will not get a military pension at any time. Should you sign the IE25 and chose to leave early, you forfeit any Return of Contribution and any immediate annuity, having to wait till you are at CRA (compulsory Retirement Age) before collecting whatever pension you have accumulated. At 25 years service you can sign another contract (Continuing Engagement, or CE) to keep working till you are 55 or 65 years old, depending on what CRA you've elected to take. At this point you can get out within 30 days and will keep your annuity, if you so choose to leave before you hit retirement age. Its 2% a year, so at 25 that would be 50% of the average of your best five years base bay, for life. You 'Max out' your annuity at 35 years service (or 70% of your best 5), which is why if you see some senior CPO or CWO that's been in forever people will say he's only "working for 30%" because if he quit he'd still be making 70%. Thats why RRSP's are a terrible idea for reg force "lifers" (We will never be in a low enough tax bracket for them to be really useful). "Signing bonuses", which are offered to specialized officer trades, Doctor, Dentist, Laywer, and certain flavours of Engineers, vary greatly year to year based on CF demand. You must be fully qualified in whatever profession you are in to qualify. You'd have to ask your recruiter. Typically you'd get half up front and I believe half on completion of your basic training. It is taxable income and it incurs obligatory service (typically 5 years - in which you cannot release without paying back some portion of the signing bonus) Ask your recruiter.
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May 11, 2010 21:34
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Basic Training was was better when it was done at CFB Chilliwack. It was a sad day when they closed the base and moved training to St Jean.
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May 13, 2010 03:13
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Mantle posted:arty = artillery? Signals. AKA Communications.
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May 15, 2010 15:16
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I assume you are ignoring Esquimalt, Halifax\Shearwater and Comox when you say " Best Base in the CF" Or maybe best army base. 
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May 28, 2010 20:21
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Although, Shads do have the best looking women of any branch of the CF. So... There is that. And I don't just mean "Military-cute" either. Some ligit hotties there.
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May 30, 2010 17:17
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MA-Horus posted:WHO CHANGED MY GODDAMN THREAD TAG It's called CBRN training now and there is a new MOPP suit out there, but I'm not sure how far into the system it is.
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May 31, 2010 19:40
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HammerOfHope posted:Well, I got slip-ons with executive curls today. I think they kind of make me look like a fancy man, maybe not in a good way. Issued or did you buy them yourself? I was thinking about picking up a set of shoulder boards now that we are allowed to wear them, but the tailors here want a ton of cash.
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Jun 12, 2010 17:24
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HammerOfHope posted:These were issued at clothing stores. I'm on ship and I intend to make Lt(N) asap, so I wouldn't spend $90 on shoulder boards that are going to be issued relatively soon anyway. Considering I'm going to be a Lt(N) for another two to three years I'll probably buy a set, but I'll check out clothing stores to see if they have any slip ons.
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Jun 13, 2010 02:06
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It was some senators pet project for a while, and he managed to get it pushed through with the 100th anniversary of the Navy. It was funny because a few years ago the Navy itself looked at bringing back the curl but it was killed internally. Anyway, it's an official change to the navy uniform, so its here to stay.
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Jun 13, 2010 18:03
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CanadianSuperKing posted:Getting my things together in preparation for BMOQ starting on Saturday! I'm flying to Quebec City for a few days vacation before starting at St-Jean. I'm hoping there is more focus on PT and getting my rear end kicked into shape rather than powerpoint and first aid training. I'm in the MOTP so I'm doing a shortened 7 week health service branch BMOQ, and we do the other half another summer. Any tips on what to expect? I did my basic with some doctors and dentists ( they didn't have a separate course back then). They could have shot all our entire course DS staff and still passed because we desperately needed them. So enjoy yourself.
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Jun 13, 2010 20:48
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LemonAIDS posted:One recruiter tried to convince me to sign up as a sonar operator because "It's just like the hunt for red October! Well, its kinda close if you go Subs. Minus the Scottish Russians.
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Jun 22, 2010 21:04
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MA-Horus posted:I know everyone is sick of hearing about G20 No. Having the military do law enforcement in that situation is a nightmare scenario for most commanders, and I agree with them. It's not our job to deploy against the Canadian people, even if they are kids with bricks. However crappy you think the cops did it's better that they did it than us.
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Jul 1, 2010 19:58
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Mr.48 posted:I think that because I've seen it happen. My buddy did it because officer salary climbs faster in the long run, but for the first year and a half he was making less than before until he got his 1Lt courses completed. Bringing this over from the other thread because I think its more appropriate here. I don't know the specifics with your buddy, but he either got out completely and then came back in as an officer (in which case you probably would start at basic 2LT-DEO pay), or got majorly hosed over. That is NOT the way its supposed to work. All of the UTPNCM's I went to RMC with were getting payed at their old pay rates (MCpl, MS, Cpl etc), despite being Officer Cadets. It just makes sense, as you cannot support a family on Officer Cadet pay. The same applies if you are going directly to 2LT. I'm not sure how the reserves handles all this as they tend to do things a little weird, but it should be the same as the reg force. e: The internet does provide! CBI 204.04(3): quote:
source: http://www.cmp-cpm.forces.gc.ca/dgcb-dgras/pub/cbi-dra/204-eng.asp Commander Jebus fucked around with this message at 23:26 on Jul 8, 2010 |
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Jul 8, 2010 23:19
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Simkin posted:The point still needs to be made, though. If you're thinking about becoming an Infantry officer, don't. You will hate your life. So why do you still do it?
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Aug 10, 2010 22:18
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tuyop posted:What's wrong with Halifax? Well it's a paradise compared to places like Gagetown or Shilo, but it loving sucks compared to Victoria. Unless you are big into the "East Coast Lifestyle", which near as I can tell involves drinking yourself into an early grave and loving lots of chubby chicks until you knock one up and have to marry her. On the plus side you can afford a house on this coast, but they tax you to death for the privilege.
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Oct 26, 2010 23:35
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MA-Horus posted:Funny, I've got family on the east coast (Annapolis Valley) and they never really seemed the trashy type. Yeah, like anywhere else there are some genuinely nice, educated, non-trash types around here, I'm just referring to the common stereotype. Also I'm also very biased against this coast since this has been one of the worst years of my life (personally anyway, I had a great year professionally) so take my bitching with a grain of salt. Except the super high taxes (Sales, Provincial Income and Property), that poo poo is a fact and its no wonder everyone here is so poor.
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Oct 30, 2010 19:51
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