Questions????

[stacy mogan]

Just a couple of questions...

My son has his swearing in ceremony in a couple of weeks, we (his family) plan to attend. Is this a formal event and roughly how long is it? (The location is about 6 hours from home.)

Do any of you know of an online "support" group for mothers of Canadian Forces personnel? There are several for U.S. Forces moms but haven‘t found any for us.
Thanks!

 

[combat_medic]

My swearing in took about 2 minutes. In an office, said a few words, shook hands with some Colonel, walked out. Sometimes they‘ll make it more formal, but it would be best to contact the unit themselves and see how long the ceremony will be.

 

[Pikache]

My ceremony had all the guests inside the Officer‘s Mess. Every recruit got sworn in, the DCO said some words, a little reception afterwards. I think it was maximum an hour.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

Mine was thirty seconds, in an office in the local battle school. Just me, an officer, and the picture of the Queen. A handshake (my officer was only a Lt and not a colonel) and "welcome to the Calgary Highlanders" and that was it.

I can‘t even remember the oath I swore, come to think of it.

 

[Korus]

Ditto, for the reserve I had a really brief swearing in.. Most of the night was spent doing paperwork (emergency contacts, ID Disc forms, pay forms, etc etc etc)

A 2LT swore me in.. (It was in the summer, and my unit was stood down, so I was sworn in by the recruiters)

 

[JJ Man]

If you live far away, it is not worth the effort. If you were going to go to anything, I would recommend that you go to his graduation, from basic training. There will be more of a ceromony there with a parade and stand up lunch. Certainly not a milestone to miss. There are no mother support groups that I know of and I don‘t know if your son has joined the regs or reserves but, before he goes anywhere, get this information from him. Where is he going i.e. what base, what unit he is in, is he armoured, artillery or infantry or other. And, get him to call you with a contact number of the unit. The reason for this is to save yourself stress. You would be surprised to know how many parents have no idea what their son or daughter has signed up to do. Then they hear their is an accident on the base and they call the duty officer for information and have no idea what unit there child is in an the duty officer has a hard time getting them any information.

I hope this helps

 

[stacy mogan]

Thank you all for your answers! He is going in regular forces, army. And yes, I wouldn‘t miss his graduation for anything. Already looking for flights. Do you mean to get information for where he is at Basic Training or is that obvious. Also can we take him to his training place after Basic training or will he have a break to come home? When would he know this information? Sorry...my head is full of questions.

 

[Korus]

Hmm.. If he‘s going regs, swearing in may be different than for the reseves, though I‘m not sure.. So you can ignore my above post, since it‘s for the reseves, and doesn‘t quite relate..

 

[Ian]

When I swore into the Reg Force, I filled out paperwork for a few hours before being sworn in. It was a short ceremony (around an hour or so). There was a band, and we were sworn in by a Vice-Admiral.

Even with all that ‘fanfare‘ it was still only an hour, with a short reception afterwards. It was nice, although 6 hours away from home is a big trip for you.

It was a pretty formal event, not necessarily suit-and-tie (although that was the norm) but people were dressed well.

After our basic, we had various options on how to get to our next duty station. One of them was to get driven by family at a per-km travel rate. I‘d ask the recruiting centre to make sure that holds true for your son though.

 

[stacy mogan]

Thanks for the input. I do think its worth the 6 hours to go to the swearing in ceremony anyway. I really want to be supportive, its the least we as families can do when our kids decide to persue this choice of career.
Does information flow very easily when you are deployed? Or are families left hanging? I feel like I can handle most anything as long as I know what is happening.
Thanks again!

 

[Jungle]

Mom,
Your son is very lucky to have such a supportive family, and I would like to congratulate you for it. If your son is going Army, he will likely deploy overseas early in his carreer. Depending on location and conditions, it can take up to 2 weeks to get contact with the deployed person, but general information is always available on the mission information line. You are not left hanging in any case...
Good luck to your son...

 

[stacy mogan]

Gulp...overseas? Deep breath! His training is supposed to take about 1 1/2 years, he would not be sent before training is complete would he? Is the mission information number is given out to family when they leave? I wish there was a book about all this stuff!

Thanks again for taking the time to answer!

 

[Dacier]

1 and a half years in training? Is he becoming an officer?

 

[stacy mogan]

Umm, we were told he would be training at two separate locations in Ontario both for 30 some weeks each after basic training. Its not officer training. Is this wrong?

 

[Jungle]

Mom, relax...
Only trained troops are deployed. The mission information line is a 1-800 number, and everybody about to deploy gets briefed about it, and are issued bumper stickers, fridge magnets, bookmarkers etc... with the number on it !!!
The most important thing is: keep supporting him as you have been doing. All the short term questions you have will be answered in the first few weeks of your son‘s basic training... as for the rest, I have been in the Army (Infantry) 19 years and am still wondering about a number of things; this is the kind of job where the "one day at a time" thing works great !!!

 

[Spr.Earl]

Hey Mom,
Don‘t fret if after his training and he does go over sea‘s i.e.Bosnia we are allowed phone call‘s home every week ,we have T.V.,Gym‘s set up,.
As over there we have established camp‘s.

If you have any question‘s you can alway‘s come here and I bet there will be some one who know‘s some one who can help.

Hey don‘t worry we are one big family
As all our family‘s have gone through the same thing,yet you are lucky now you have the internet.

Let us know how your son get‘s on.