Canadian infantry 'full,' general says

Some might see this as a win for recuiting but I see it as a blunder. It tells me that the recuiters and CF are not doing enough to promote the other trades in the CF. That most people dont know that the military has anything but infantry.

I recall a conversation with Bart a while back about soldiers who joined the marines could be assigned to a trade within the marines based on abilities as not everybody becomes a riflemen.

I take it our military does not simply take recruits and assign them to a trade?

Nope, you basically you fill out a form, pick three trades you like and they call you when they have a spot available for you. You could pick, Infantry, Firefighter and Photo Technician, and if they call you because they have a photo tech spot you can say you want to wait until a infantry spot opens up.

I guess they can't accept someone and (trying to find the correct terms) train them as both an infantry man and another trade like taking a double major at university.

Now you have to take aptitude tests and your level of schooling can determine your options. One of the reasons why Infantry probably filled up so fast is because (no offence to the infanteer we have here) of the low requirements for the trade.

Well the marines are a seperate branch of the military, like in the Canadian military you can have a Navy MP, Army MP or an Airforce MP. My understanding is that the Marines are like a combination of all three Air, Land and Sea in one branch.

Well no offence to you trades guys but aren't many of the trades easily ones that you could train people with the minimum level of education required?

CFSEME is basically a mech eng/automotive course and is much more hands on then theory. Not trying to offend anybody from that trade but if the trades are hurting it seems they would be trying to cross-train people.

In my own profession we have 5 core disciplines. Hematology, Chemistry, Microbiology, Transfusion, and Histology.

You used to be able to specialize in a single discipline but they phased that out and now train everybody to be qualified in all areas.

Do the trade programs lock you into the forces longer than basic infantry? It may be that these folks want a short hitch with some excitement and then get out when they can get better paying jobs when the economy picks up again.

Either that, or they believe in the Afghanistan mission and want to help.

Oh most trades are like that, like the Engineers have several disciplines Heavy Equipment, EOD, Field Engineering ect. Not to mention that most trades get cross trained in the aspects of other trades, like those qualified TCCC are basically front line medics who can perform triage.

I dont know too much about infantry but I think sniper is a discipline all to itself.

When I joined my contract was 5 years, they recently dropped it to 4 for those joining.

I think infantry is at 3 years, but I could be wrong.

Does a trade program have a longer duration than basic infantry though.

Depends on how much money it costs to train you, I know that the Sigs trade course is at least 6 months after basic training and Soldier qualification. So they would have a contract.

As a Royal Air Force guy I have a few comments on this but you pongoes would give me shit for it.

What's the current remuster availability like?

It used to seemed like anytime a good troop had enough of a teeth trade and wanted a remuster (instead of just getting out) everything was always closed.