# Ceremonial Guard



## shoebox_stereo (26 Feb 2006)

Hi there, im new to this forum...

i tried the search function, but was not able to come across any testimonials about the ceremonial guard work.

So, i am inquiring if anyone here has experience doing it? whats it like, what i should expect?

Im tossing up between doing the ceremonial guard for the summer as it pays more and i complete my basic training during it, or just join infantry reserves and do my basic training in july-august.

I have not found much details (or any, actually) on the official website, and all i have is a small pamphlet on the "Foot Guards"
if i can get some advice / experience stories before i head down to Cartier Drill Hall in Ottawa on monday/tuesday

thanks for helping,
Kevin


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## TCBF (26 Feb 2006)

Do CG, it is an experience you will never forget.

Tom


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## Haggis (26 Feb 2006)

TCBF said:
			
		

> Do CG, it is an experience you will never forget.
> 
> Tom



I strongly agree with Tom.  What you learn about drill and ceremonial and maintaining your uniform will put you head and shoulders above your Newbie counterparts who spend thier summer in Meaford.

And it's a great way to meet girls! ;D


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## GO!!! (26 Feb 2006)

Haggis said:
			
		

> And it's a great way to meet girls! ;D



I've heard stories dating back to the 70's to the present day about girls tucking phone numbers, addresses and underwear into the red serge uniforms, tourists, locals, a veritable smorgasboard of .........


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## shoebox_stereo (26 Feb 2006)

hahaha

well im sold!

no, but seriously i am highly considering it....

2 questions, that can maybe be answered..1. what do days normally consists of? i know the changing of guards takes place at 10:15am, but what exactly else takes consists in the day? i have never actually witnessed the CG in action before, so its hard to visualize what the daily tasks will be.

and 2. would i be recieving the same type of training if i went to Petewawa for BMQ?

thanks for the quick replys already!


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## geo (26 Feb 2006)

in the past, I would tease members who have served on the Ceremonial guard
(Would call it the "only gov't sponsored freak show" )
I have found that those soldiers who have served on the CG come back with a better 3Ds (Dress, Drill & Discipline) than those sent off to summer camp - and yes, I have seen the little cuties stuffing phone numbers down the barrel of a C1 & C7.... also seen the lengths they have gone to get the "guardsman" to react 
(the little imps sometimes manage)


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## regulator12 (26 Feb 2006)

Hi did CG 5 years ago, it was really fun, the drill you start to take pride in and its lots of fun, Ottawa is a fun city montreal is not far away, good times.


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## Haggis (26 Feb 2006)

shoebox_stereo said:
			
		

> 2 questions, that can maybe be answered..1. what do days normally consists of? i know the changing of guards takes place at 10:15am, but what exactly else takes consists in the day? i have never actually witnessed the CG in action before, so its hard to visualize what the daily tasks will be.
> 
> and 2. would i be recieving the same type of training if i went to Petewawa for BMQ?



Well, it's been 20-odd years since I did the hill (Tom, help me out here...), but the training is essentially the same BMQ/SQ/DP1, with the added advantage that CG usually has better resources than your average summer ARC.  They year I was there was the year Canada hosted the G8 at Montebello.  Lots of guards of honour and other parades for world leaders (Regean, Queen Mum, Mitterand, Kohl et al.).



			
				GO!!! said:
			
		

> I've heard stories dating back to the 70's to the present day about girls tucking phone numbers, addresses and underwear into the red serge uniforms, tourists, locals, a veritable smorgasboard of .........



All true.  BTDT!  ;D


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## TCBF (27 Feb 2006)

1981?


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## Haggis (27 Feb 2006)

TCBF said:
			
		

> 1981?



Damn!  Now shoebox_stereo is gonna discount our input 'cause we did CG with flintlocks... :crybaby:


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## GO!!! (27 Feb 2006)

Haggis said:
			
		

> Damn!  Now shoebox_stereo is gonna discount our input 'cause we did CG with flintlocks... :crybaby:



<snicker> did you have to ensure your puttees were spotless and the powder was dry too? Back when Hammy Gault was a Private and Jesus himself was the Padre?


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## Armymedic (27 Feb 2006)

I do not have first hand knowledge, but I have seen the GGFG training for the Hill.

It is a bag drive. Drill for 6-8 hrs a day 5 days a week during the heat and humitidy of June in Ontario.

They have every reason to be proud, they earn it.

I am envious.


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## shoebox_stereo (28 Feb 2006)

thanks alot everyone for the advice.

im heading down to the recruitment center to ask some final details and maybe check out cartier drill hall on the way

i'll let you know whats happens 

thanks,

kevin


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## deh (28 Feb 2006)

Ahhh CG, how I love to hate you ...

You'll find a lot of people who go back year after year (even some who aren't part of either guard regiment) because it is a lot of fun.  I say give'er and I will see you there.  It is true, it is a bag drive, lots of long hard days, but it is manageable and the city is great (compared to Meaford anyway) and the schedule mellows out.  

CG is usually done in two phases, Intensive drill and the parade season with all the BMQ courses done before hand.  During intensive drill your day will start around 5:30-ish with wake up PT.  After your food shave weapons inspections and all other regular admin it's off to the Parade Square / Parking Lot #6.  For around three weeks or so you are taught in 40 minute drill lessons how to perform and perfect the drill movements you will need on the hill and on the way as well as at the house, you will grow to love forms on the march, they are as fun as they are impressive.  Yes it is hot and disgustingly humid, but the medics there are fantastic and don't let us get too carried away in the heat as well as keeping our feet and knees (and hilarious bayonet stab wounds) all in working order.  There are times when we go to 15 on 30 off.  

The parades start and you go onto a four days on four days off schedule.  For three of those days you will be doing the changing of the guard on Parliament Hill.  Wake up and admin is the same, even the trip to lot six but instead of drill lessons, you basically do a drill practice and company review.  Then its on the bus to CSDH and juice until you step off.  The afternoons are filled with all kinds of fun.  Courses and army knowledge skill lessons go off. Everything from SATS operater to Recce Patrols and section attacks.  Our new CO ( a Patricia by the way) is huge on the army side of things.  We are riflemen first and sexy chick magnets second.  The leadership there is excellent, I have never seen such a huge emphasis placed on ethics and professionalism anywhere else.  

The one day where you aren't on the hill you will be at the GG's house.  Typically you can expect to pull two or three shifts on sentry at either the front door or the front gate. Here my friend is where you get to "interact" with the people and the beautiful (wo)men brought in by the busload.  Again military skill or knowledge lectures are given when you aren't on shift.  Last year I taught a lot of weapons lectures (and lost plenty of dummy grenade parts ...) but mixed in were call for fire and radio procedure type things.  

If you are still up in the air about it just think to yourself what other job in the army ends with up to 2000 people clapping for you?  If that doesn't float your boat, then comes your four days off, which are really just that, lots to be done and then night rolls around for all the drunk with none of the Pet.  They pay me like a maniac and cover the cost of my R&Q as well.  Ahhh, living the dream.

Plus you never know who you are going to meet, I'm on the far left behind the RSM in 3B's.






Duty with honour!


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## shoebox_stereo (2 Mar 2006)

Deh,

I greatly appreciate the full details of CG, that is exactly what i have been looking for.

thanks for the guidance, im off to submit my forms and knock on alot of wood.

thanks again,

kevin


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## Rice0031 (21 Mar 2006)

Shoebox,
thanks for starting this thread! Answered some things I would like to know myself . I'm already in the enrollment procedure for the GGFG.
If all goes well, I'll be seeing you in BMQ and the CG's on duty!
I look forward to it : 


As for Deh, thanks for the info  Sounds great 

Modified: typo correction.
Modified: made more relevant to topic


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## Rice0031 (22 Mar 2006)

Do any of you who are in the GGFG or CG have blogs? I wouldn't mind reading what its all about from a blog-type perspective.
(Wouldn't let me modify my first post... so here's a new one)


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## begbie (22 Mar 2006)

I'd suggest that you go the CG route instead of going through ARC to get some of trg done.  What everyone has said so far is true... it's a tonne of work and you'll be feeling it when the end of August comes around cause it's pretty much non-stop (except for the lull in mid-summer when they make you burn off all the leave you accumulate).

Things have changed slightly over the years in that you no longer can join and get all your trg done while doing public duties.  The month of May and part of June we'd do the QL 2, then the last three weeks of June we would do what's generally called "intensive drill" and then July and August would be a combination of public duties and inf trg.  Somewhere along the way they decided that CG wouldn't offer up all the trg they used to.  When I joined, I got my QL2 and QL3 Inf done in one summer.  Under that system, we'd work in 10 day cycles.  5 days of public duties in the morning and infantry trg in the afternoon.  Almost immediately after we'd do our last parade, we'd be on the bus to Petawawa for three days to do field work and then the last two days would be time off.  And for those who were already trained, you'd be able to get QL 4 and even leadership courses on the side.

These days though, you'd do your BMQ in May, do intensive drill in June, and only public duties after that.  However, I just learned that an SQ course has been authorized for this summer (July & August).  So, you'd be able to get that done too.  So the big difference now for you would be 4 months of work, get to stay in Ottawa where as at ARC, you'd go to any of these possible places for only 2 months: Petawawa, Meaford, Kingston, or even Sudbury.  I can't comment on the quality of training that you'd get at ARC as I've never been a candidate or an instructor there.  However I can say that those who arrive at the unit in the fall who went through the CG system are typically more well rounded than those who went through ARC.  I don't know why but my suspicion has always been that it was simply a function of more time on the job... and more comfortable with it.

Either way you went, you'd be employable in most circumstances at the unit during the year (so far the only thing we won't let only SQ qualified soldiers do is live fire training... there might be other limitations that I am not aware of though).  Then next summer you'd do your BIQ.  However, CG normally runs BIQ's now to accommodate the current trg system.  

Now, for the daily routine at CG, you can expect muster sometime around 5:20 Am for PT and that lasts for about an hour, then showers, breakfast, and then inspection sometime around 7:30.  Next, we'd be formed up on the parade square for warm up drill at 8:00 Am.  Warm up drill for about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes, and then on the bus to get to Cartier Square Drill Hall.  At CSDH, get some fluids into us, relax for a few minutes, and then form up and step off about 9:45 or so and march up to the Hill for 10 Am.  Do parade (last about half an hour) and the march back to CSDH and then on the bus to the shacks by about 11:30Am.  Showers, then lunch and any trg scheduled for the afternoon starts up at 1300 and goes till about 1600.  Then you're typically free for the day after that.  You'd typically do that for three - four days and you'd spend one day at the Governor General's residence doing sentry duty.  That in a nut shell, is the routine of a typical day at CG.

By the way, the camaraderie is typically excellent.  It's an experience like nonother and everyone gels pretty quickly.  I still keep in touch with guys who I joined with who are no longer reservists.

If you have any more questions about CG and life at the unit afterwards, PM and I'd be happy to tell you all about it.


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## begbie (22 Mar 2006)

deh, 

Nice pic... I heard that he had spent the day there cause he wanted to know what was like.  I hoped nobody barfed on parade that day


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## Kendrick (20 Apr 2006)

Or bandies passing out  ;D


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## youravatar (24 Apr 2006)

*sniker* Bandies


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## spr. mackinnon (24 Apr 2006)

After reading about the CG it sounds quite interesting, I was wondering if someone could get a tasking from a different unit in ontario to serve with the CQ for a summer?


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## davidk (25 Apr 2006)

spr. mackinnon said:
			
		

> After reading about the CG it sounds quite interesting, I was wondering if someone could get a tasking from a different unit in ontario to serve with the CQ for a summer?



It's certainly possible, there was a call for a driver to be attached to CQ passed around my unit. But it's probably too late for you this summer, to my knowledge all the CG taskings have been handed out already.


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## Nfld Sapper (25 Apr 2006)

spr. mackinnon said:
			
		

> After reading about the CG it sounds quite interesting, I was wondering if someone could get a tasking from a different unit in ontario to serve with the CQ for a summer?



What don't want to go back to RETS?  ;D


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## dapaterson (25 Apr 2006)

Usually, the GGFG and CGG are initially tasked to fill the CG brique; those spots left vacant (including those performing public duties) are then passed on to other units in 33 and 34 Brigades, and finally any remaining no-fills go out to the rest of the Army.


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## spr. mackinnon (25 Apr 2006)

oh how I love RETS, im actually thiinking about future summers, I have already been loaded on my 2ic course, so that should be a good go.


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## geo (27 Apr 2006)

dapaterson said:
			
		

> Usually, the GGFG and CGG are initially tasked to fill the CG brique; those spots left vacant (including those performing public duties) are then passed on to other units in 33 and 34 Brigades, and finally any remaining no-fills go out to the rest of the Army.


Last year, LFCA was a little tight with positions offered to units in LFQA for the CG. For a while, LFCA had a stated policy that; unless the Reservist came out of the CGG, only LFCA pers would be allowed to fill. Understand that position was softened up some after they had trouble filling positions - but, it is often a "chore" to fill all positions.

At present 35 Bde (with assist from 34 Bde) conducts it's own CG @ La Citadelle....


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## dapaterson (28 Apr 2006)

geo said:
			
		

> At present 35 Bde (with assist from 34 Bde) conducts it's own CG @ La Citadelle....



Strictly speaking, that's "La Garde en Rouge" and is an Army level task; the CG is a National task.  That is, the CG task came with money, while the Army pays for the Garde en Rouge out of its own pockets.  Of course, why, with 3 bns worth of VanDoos in the Quebec City / Valcartier area we can't scrape together a guard fro mthe Regular Force for the VanDoo's home is a mystery...


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## davidk (28 Apr 2006)

dapaterson said:
			
		

> Of course, why, with 3 bns worth of VanDoos in the Quebec City / Valcartier area we can't scrape together a guard fro mthe Regular Force for the VanDoo's home is a mystery...



I actually spoke to some guys from 2 R22eR, the ones officially based at the Citadelle. The general feeling I got was that they just couldn't be bothered to do it, and they're happy leaving the tasking to members of the PRes. Just passing along what I heard...


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## geo (28 Apr 2006)

Pert much summs it up.


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## elecgitarguy (13 Sep 2006)

How does one go about doin a stint with the CG?

What steps should I take?


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## George Wallace (13 Sep 2006)

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