Former e-Veritas “staffer” promoted to Captain
Just three years ago, OCdt Dan Fleming (centre) was working with us in e-Veritas prior to moving on to his military career as a young officer.
Dan did some great work for us piecing together articles and being our backup photographer. All along, we were confident in the knowledge that he had the potential to do well as an officer in the Canadian Forces.
His first posting was to CFB Petawawa – 2 Service Battalion. He has done a lot over the past couple of years; quickly adopting to military life as a platoon commander in a couple of big exercises and leading troops on a day-to-day basis. Every once, in awhile, we would hear about many of the positive things he was doing on a regular basis. Which was good news but not surprising.
Dan was recently promoted to Captain and will be taking on the role of EA for the incoming 4 CDSG Commander, Colonel J.R.M. Gagne, and will be starting this new venture in July. In the meantime, he is off to Wainwright as a participant in Ex Maple Resolve.
We wish Captain Fleming continued success as he moves forward in his promising career.
***
Prolific Paladin
“I told my dad I was thinking of leaving and that I had other options,” he recounted the father-son chat. “He asked me, ‘Do you like it, do you like that life?’ I told him I did, and I truly did, and he said, ‘Go back to university.’
16009 Steve Molaski Article
***
RCAF improves testing for “the right stuff”
***
M0472 Major(ret) Barbara Maisonneuve – former (UTPNCM) recently sent this self-explanatory letter to the editors at Macleans magazine; we feel it is important and with her approval have recopied here.
Dear Editor,
This week like thousands of other Canadians, I read the articles in Maclean’s and L’actualité magazines about the sexual abuse, harassment and assaults that allegedly take place everyday within our military units. And like most readers I was shocked and saddened by what I read. I would never imply that the statistics presented are not true – I am certain that incidents such as those reported do take place within our military world because they happen everywhere else – in every city and town and institution and organization, everywhere in Canada. They are a sad fact of life.
As the CF embarks on this investigation and review of events, I feel nothing but sympathy for the victims whose lives have been forever changed because of this. As I read their stories it broke my heart, and astounded me at the same time, that they felt they had no one to turn to. The Canadian Forces is the most regulated organization in the country. Whatever has happened to you, there is a regulation that will tell you what to do next. We have the chain of command and the Military Police, it’s true, but there are so many other avenues open to serving members. There is the unofficial chain of command; you can go to your Regimental Sergeant Major or to the Senior Non-Commissioned Officers, there are your co-workers – both military and civilian. Unofficially, we have padres, coaches and medical staff. Failing that you could always rely on a favourite instructor you had on a course, or even your Recruit School roommate. We always say that the military is a small world, and from the day you join, you become part of this huge family. It is truly beyond comprehension that these victims felt they had no one to turn to for help. I am confident that the Military Police and CF leadership will do whatever is necessary to investigate these incidents, punish those guilty and restore faith in our culture and our uniform.
But, today I feel compelled to speak out for the other tens of thousands of men in the Canadian Forces whose behaviour has always been a credit to the uniform they wear. I want to be clear when I say that the soldiers and sailors and airmen, officers and other ranks, that make up the vast majority of our Canadian Armed Forces are truly gentlemen. They are professional, honest and hardworking; they degrade no one and treat all of their colleagues, subordinates and superiors – of either sex – with respect. I think it is important that this point is made today.
I also want to lend credibility to my comments by saying that I served alongside these men in the CF for almost 22 years; I joined the Canadian Forces at 18 years of age in 1981. I joined the military police trade, which had begun to accept women only a few years before. Back then we were just learning how to deal with women in uniform; the ceiling was lifted on our numbers, trades that had long been male-only were opening to women, the Combat Related Employment of Women (CREW) trials were still 6 years away, and locker rooms were very much male dominated. And yet, I never felt threatened, demeaned or harassed by any of the men I worked with because I was a woman. I spent 5 years in that environment and then the next four within the Military College system. True, there had been some push back from senior serving and retired military officers when women were admitted into the hallowed halls of the military colleges, but I never felt it. On the contrary, the idea of “an Officer and a Gentleman” was alive and well at Royal Roads Military College and at the Royal Military College in Kingston. Truth, duty and valour are more than just words to the Officer Cadets who served and are serving there. After graduation I served 12 more years as a Logistics Officer in the RCAF. During those years I literally travelled the world, often alone, visiting our 18 or so small missions and 20 plus Military Police Security Service units and military attaché posts in some of the most inhospitable and dangerous countries in the world. At every stop, I was welcomed and treated with respect, courtesy and kindness by our troops. On some of the more harrowing journeys I can honestly say that nothing gave me more happiness and relief than seeing that soldier with the Canadian flag on his shoulder waiting by the jeep to pick me up.
So I just want to say thank you to the hundreds – thousands – of Canadian servicemen, senior and junior to me, whose paths I crossed during my career and beyond. I want to say that whether I met you in the performance of my duties, in training, in line at the dining hall; or perhaps sitting beside you on the long haul flight to Inuvik, having a beer at the Jr Ranks Mess, or playing a game of crud in the Officers’ mess – you always behaved impeccably, and it was truly an honour to have served with you.
Major (ret) Barbara Maisonneuve
Montréal, QC