A 19 Year Olds Application to the Military

So, starting in mid Febuary I decided that it would be an interesting experience to join the army!! Now you might be thinking something like, "Aren't your afraid your going to get killed" or maybe "wow, I never would have thought of that if you hadn't of said anything, good for you" Now those of you who don't know me, aren't aware of the fact that I was in Air Cadets for a good five years of my life. I admit that it was an experiance that I won't soon forget and that it ifluenced this decision greatly. Well i'll give you some backgroud on myself and what made me apply.

At the end of October 2006 I left home and went to stay with a roomate, I had just recently quit my job becasue of extenuating circumstances. So I was sitting there, doing nothing all day and paying my rent monthly. I finally got a job a couple months later and that occupied some of my time, but I was still feeling that I wasn't really doing anything with myself and it was bothering me. Finally in Febuary I talked to one of my old gaming buddies that I still have contact to. He's a military man himself and he told me about all the things that he gets to do and what he already has done while being an Infantryman in our proud Canadian Forces. I have to admit that his stories were interesting and really appealed to me.

I was sitting there one night playing Battlefield 2 (which is ever so popular with the military types) and I got fed up knowing that I wasn't doing anything to reach my full potential. I closed the game and logged onto the Canadian Forces online recruiting site, I then procceded to fill out the online application. Soon after that I found myself sitting there and grinning devishly to myself. Now most people that know me didn't even know that the Military would be an avenue that I was thinking of taking and even more surprisingly that I would apply without consulting some of them. I did it anyways! Can you imagine the shock that these people got the next time that they talked to me when I informed them that I had applied to the army! Now sitting there thinking about all of this, a thought popped into my head. "I wonder how soon they will contact me?" To my surprise no less then 2 days later I get a call from the Calgary recruting center asking me to come in for an aptitude test and that I would need to fill out some paperwork. Two days! Now this got me thinking of how much our military really does need people. So I get the date for my test and it turns out to be Febuary 21st at 9am.

On that day I get the paperwork together that they asked for and head downtown to the Harry Hays building. Now I'm expecting to be the only one to take the test this day, so you can imagine that I was a little surprised to find 3 other guys there all ready to take the test. There's a lieutenant already there ready to take us to the 8th floor where the testing room is held. I would tell you about the test but according to the Canadian Military, discussing anything that was in that room would be a threat to National Security. Overall the test takes about 1.5 hours and we are soon all finished. We then proceed back downstairs to recive compensation. For what!! you may ask. Well they figure that we had guts to do this so they pay for our transpertation to and from the testing center, for me it was a grand total of $4.50 (bus fare) That would be the end of that partition of the application. Again I'm not really aware of the Militaries need of people because, I believe that the time it will take for them to contact me for the interview and medical exam will be a couple of weeks! Wrong, oh it was so wrong. It was again under 2 days. So I get the date for my interview and medical. Now the realization is starting to sink in. I've formally applied for the military! Up to now the whole application was out there but nothing was coming from it... Now it's sinking in and the fact that I will be shipped out to basic training in maybe as soon as a month is real! So now it be time to prepare for the interview. The guys at the recruting center had given me some questions that the interviewer might ask so I reviewed those, but they were the same questions that any review might ask about a specific job that you havve applied for. Now comes the date of the interview. Nervous. Check. Excited. Check. I get downtown about 15 min before the time that I was schedualed in for and my interviewer is already waiting for me! Now the interview goes smoothly and I'm expecting him to say that I would be a good infantryman and that I would do my civic dutey... blah blah blah. To my surprise he says to me that I will be an extrodinary soldier, but he asks why I didn't apply for officer training. Now remember that I was in cadets for 5 years so all of the officers that I know are between the ages of 28 and well... older. So I tell him that I had never thought of it and to my utter surprise he notifys me that he's putting a reccomendation on my file for Officer training if I ever decide to go that way! Now that's exciting. After the interview I go back up to the 8th floor for my medical. Apparently I have excellent hearing. So that's finally done. The personel in Calgary send all medical forms out of province so all that's left is to hear back from that.

Needless to say I'm very excited and just can't wait to get out there. Training as I was told will be 13 weeks in St. Jeans, Quebec and then another 10 weeks in Gagetown, New Brunswick. Almost 6 months away from home, family and friends... It's gonna be awsome. I am hoping that I will get garrisoned in Edmonton though, I do find that it will be easier if I'm close to people and places that I know. From what I have heard the garrison life is pretty much a 9 - 5 job. I have also heard that because of the fact that the goverment pays for alot of what a person needs, you tend to save quite alot of money fairly quickly. So it's all there and planned out for the next 10 years... Hopefully I will be leaving 3rd week of April.

Military life here I come.