CAP CHRONICLES
12 Feb 2007 - I have been returned to my home unit for medical reasons. Mixed feelings on that. I was looking forward to the challenge of CAP, but I was also frustrated with the need to start my military training pretty much all over again.
In
terms of the short experience that I DID get to enjoy, there were parts of it
that were great. Once again I was privileged to train with some very
bright, capable and dedicated young people from across Canada. I most
definitely did NOT enjoy being treated like a raw recruit again, but I believe
that I can understand the intent. As an infantry platoon leader it is
important to experience and thereby understand the need for both tight team work
and immediate compliance with commands and directives. There is also a
critical need to have a system, a means of communicating information that leaves
no room for doubt, confusion or uncertainty. If you do not fully
understand and exercise these principles, you cannot effectively lead a platoon
that has come to live and breath by them. As a logistics officer I can
also understand the principle that I must be able to take over a platoon, or any
collection of personnel, in the event that a situation comes up where I am the
only officer available. I suppose some of the frustration is that the
traditional approach, of breaking you down to build you up, after you have been
in for several years, is both insulting and counter productive. I went to
CAP to learn the principles of combat, to build up my physical strength and to
become comfortable, even adept with the weaponry, the strategy and the tactics
of combat. Chasing dust bunnies and scrubbing a wastepaper basket all too
often felt like a waste of time that might be better spent in study. Of
course the absence of desks, lamps, book shelves or even room in the barracks to
study did not really lend themselves much to learning either. The plan
right now is to track down what I must learn when I return in September so that
I have the study part done and am free to focus on the game that they call
attention to detail and uniformity. Our divisional training team, for the
most part, was excellent and truly committed to seeing us succeed in the course.
