I was once in the CF. I don't know if my "time in" counts as time in but that's irrelevant. When I was 16 I applied to and was accepted to RMC as an Armoured Officer. I went off to IAP, was going okay and then decided to VR out just before my final assessment exercise. Can never really say why. There were a lot of things I liked about the CF but it was a deep-down gut thing. Something between missing my girlfriend, overwhelmed by being committed to something at barely 17 and my dissatisfaction with the discipline I saw in my training platoon, largely a product of my drunken abusive WO running the show, keeping us up wasted in his boxers at 1 AM to hang out and chat/chase the girls in our platoon before switching back to hangover mode and making up all sorts of phoney conducts to hide his shame. Whatever the reason, I decided to leave, went to a civilian university, lived my life, boxed, acted, planted trees and went on with life.
After my first year or so away I got in my head that I wanted back in. That I'd had some time and experience and wanted to pursue it again. I tried everything. I applied for ROTP. Delays on my file meant that I finally got called in for medical testing nearly half a year after my application and just before I was set to go away for my summer job. I applied to the reserves and after calling and not getting responses on my application I discovered that it had spent seven months forgotten in a drawer in the unit office. Figured it wasn't meant to be and again, got on with life.
Since university I've continued and intensified my physical and martial arts training, spent years living in Asia, learned to speak, read and write Chinese and Japanese, written an MA on Chinese energy policy, American Intelligence operations and all things International Relations/Defence Policy. I've hiked across dangerous countries alone and done information collection and research independently in China. After seven years post-university, of which five were spent overseas learning Asian languages and martial arts and two were spent writing an MA on China and doing full-time martial arts study, I am back in my home town of Toronto. I was accepted to paramedic school and thought I was finally turning a new leaf and finding a new direction. Then I got contracted to write a few chapters for a defence policy book. And I got bitten again. I'm writing this partly out of frustration, partly to see if anyone has some magic insight. I used to want to join the CF because I had illusions about it and myself when I was 17. Then those illusions were shattered and I left. Now I just feel that I'd be useful, damned useful. But the same problems crop up again and again. The CF seems incapable of recruiting me or helping me get in. I mean on a basic level. I've contacted recruiting centres and reserve units trying to get info, an application package, a conversation, a meeting. Nothing. Nobody returns calls, nobody sends paperwork, nobody seems interested in doing anything. I'm 28 and on my way to finding a career that's going to give me the flexibility to perform in the ways I know I can. I feel like I need to move on from this but I can't shake the feeling that it's just something I gotta see through but I can't seem to find a way in. Its like a bloody curse. I am frustrated because all the stuff Hillier talks about and all the reports I study and what I know about future force needs and what my CF colleagues from grad school tell me about my stuitability, I should at least be encouraged and helped in applying. But instead its like I keep trying to get info and nobody seems interested. I speak six languages, two of which are Asian, have been studying martial arts for 15 years, train daily, have published articles on China's internal situation that were years ahead of the mainstream media and proven resilience and responsiveness in dangerous/emergency situations. And all I want is someone in the CF to help me decide if I should go ahead with applying to be an Intel Officer....how long it would take for my security clearance given my time overseas etc. etc. What's going on? I don't know if there's an answer to be had but I just kinda laugh at myself because I keep ending up doing this military/security related research and my skill set keeps trending more towards that kind of profession but I just can't seem to connect with the CF in any way. Just thought I'd throw this out there to see if someone had some insight. I keep thinking "forget it, that part of your life is over" but it just keeps cropping up and I make efforts to get information through recruiting centres or reserve units to put in an application and nothing happens.
After my first year or so away I got in my head that I wanted back in. That I'd had some time and experience and wanted to pursue it again. I tried everything. I applied for ROTP. Delays on my file meant that I finally got called in for medical testing nearly half a year after my application and just before I was set to go away for my summer job. I applied to the reserves and after calling and not getting responses on my application I discovered that it had spent seven months forgotten in a drawer in the unit office. Figured it wasn't meant to be and again, got on with life.
Since university I've continued and intensified my physical and martial arts training, spent years living in Asia, learned to speak, read and write Chinese and Japanese, written an MA on Chinese energy policy, American Intelligence operations and all things International Relations/Defence Policy. I've hiked across dangerous countries alone and done information collection and research independently in China. After seven years post-university, of which five were spent overseas learning Asian languages and martial arts and two were spent writing an MA on China and doing full-time martial arts study, I am back in my home town of Toronto. I was accepted to paramedic school and thought I was finally turning a new leaf and finding a new direction. Then I got contracted to write a few chapters for a defence policy book. And I got bitten again. I'm writing this partly out of frustration, partly to see if anyone has some magic insight. I used to want to join the CF because I had illusions about it and myself when I was 17. Then those illusions were shattered and I left. Now I just feel that I'd be useful, damned useful. But the same problems crop up again and again. The CF seems incapable of recruiting me or helping me get in. I mean on a basic level. I've contacted recruiting centres and reserve units trying to get info, an application package, a conversation, a meeting. Nothing. Nobody returns calls, nobody sends paperwork, nobody seems interested in doing anything. I'm 28 and on my way to finding a career that's going to give me the flexibility to perform in the ways I know I can. I feel like I need to move on from this but I can't shake the feeling that it's just something I gotta see through but I can't seem to find a way in. Its like a bloody curse. I am frustrated because all the stuff Hillier talks about and all the reports I study and what I know about future force needs and what my CF colleagues from grad school tell me about my stuitability, I should at least be encouraged and helped in applying. But instead its like I keep trying to get info and nobody seems interested. I speak six languages, two of which are Asian, have been studying martial arts for 15 years, train daily, have published articles on China's internal situation that were years ahead of the mainstream media and proven resilience and responsiveness in dangerous/emergency situations. And all I want is someone in the CF to help me decide if I should go ahead with applying to be an Intel Officer....how long it would take for my security clearance given my time overseas etc. etc. What's going on? I don't know if there's an answer to be had but I just kinda laugh at myself because I keep ending up doing this military/security related research and my skill set keeps trending more towards that kind of profession but I just can't seem to connect with the CF in any way. Just thought I'd throw this out there to see if someone had some insight. I keep thinking "forget it, that part of your life is over" but it just keeps cropping up and I make efforts to get information through recruiting centres or reserve units to put in an application and nothing happens.
