Reserves Get Overdue Respect... Up North

By Lt Col P

A big tip of the toque to The Torch for pointing us to a great article on Canada's reserve forces, and the battles they've had to fight just in order to be able to fight a few battles.

Reservists and Guardsmen here in the States have some significant challenges, but at least we have laws and widespread company policies that look after us (for the most part) while we're gone.

And reservists pay a separate price that by definition cannot be asked of the career soldier: They routinely put either job, professional development or schooling on hold in order to take part in the lengthy "work-up" training which, when combined with the six-month tour, means a commitment of a year.
Corporal Joaquim (Jake) David, for instance, is one of 11 members, part of the current rotation, from the 48th Highlanders in downtown Toronto.

The 29-year-old Filipino native, who considers his service a way of giving back to his adopted country, had to quit his well-paying job as a co-leader on the assembly line at car-part manufacturer Magna International; the company, like many, has no "military leave" policy.

He quit in May last year, so he could prepare for the extensive predeployment training.

Good on them, and good luck to them. Read the whole article.

October 28, 2008 04:06 PM One Team One Fight

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Comments

The quote at the end of that article is priceless.

Spade · October 29, 2008 08:17 AM

As a former Section Commander in the CF Reserves, that's Squad Leader to you folks down here, I'd add one other point not mentioned in the article - there is no employment protection like there is for US military. That means you must use vacation time to attend regular training/exercises or it's treated as an unauthorized absence and your employer will fire you. This is just to meet minimum training requirements, much less deployment prep. The government argument has always been that if they force employers to guarantee jobs for reservists, then no one will hire one. The sad part is that's not entirely untrue either.

The Canadian Forces are a world class military only because of the professionalism, tradition, and skill of the NCOs and men. There's a reason we were taught to operate an night without NVGs, navigate without GPS, and fight without support - because we always new we would never have any. The worst part was we also knew no one cared.

That said, other than being a good husband and father, there's nothing I'm more proud of than my time leading men as a soldier of the Queen. And it warms the heart to see the boys showing the Taliban, and our allies, why we still deserve our rep.

John Smith · October 29, 2008 04:33 PM