weaponeer

There are Auroras coming here to North Bay next week to do some NORAD training with us. They have slowed down the flying but are still at it. The current high tempo ops in the high arctic are a priority these days for the Air Force. As for subs, there is one avail for ops at all times.....

Jdobb, Do not take my last as personel, I understand full you train of thought.....

Hi Jdobb, The Air Force did NOT ask for the Griffon helos, they had 50 Heuys that were in great shape and could have had another 10 yeras of service. The Air Force was told it was getting 100 helos. The LSVW truck was thrust upon the military, we were ordered to rewrite the requirnments for a new truck to fit the LSVW. Submarines; they are the most lethal and effective wepons system any navy can possess. They are virtually undetectalbe. One of my closest friends is a sub officer, and I have another great friend who flies aurora's. Subs cannot be detected if it is operated properly, they only get detected if the crew screws up and makes a mistake. You have to get your mind out of the cold war mantality, subs are not used for those roles much anymore, they are much more useful today. As for subs not doing anything, I will tell my friend whose at sea 3 - 4 times are year not to worry, he is not being used!! We have a small military, that is good and in some ways bad. As a military officer I see the benifits of a smaller, more agile well trained and equipped military. A small military can be powerful, effective & lethal if it is properly equippped. that is the model our senior leadership is trying to follow. If we can only afford 18 transport planes, we have to get the best in the world, the C130J. If we can only sustain 16 heavy lift helos, get 16 of the best in the world. If you are only operating 18 maritime patrol planes with three coasts, get 18 of the best. Ideas of "sales to the lowest bidder" fit a larger militray that buys in the hundreds & thousands for planes, trucks & boats. We do not!! If we only have 80 fighters defending the second largest landmass on earth, the better be 80 of the best available, not the lowest bidder. It does not work for a small military. As for the libs support to the military, it is and was not there!! I am in the military, 19 years, I was around for the nightmare of the 1990's. Between the Libs & shitty military leadership it is any wonder we are still here. The libs were not interested in spending money on new anything, they would howvere spend loads of cash on upgrading old worn out machines, espescially if the contract could go to bombardier or some other Lib riding. I worked in HQ in the 90's, was involved is some projects, I was there!! I know what the lib policy was. With the Tory gov't the military can be more honest and say that spending billions to upgrade worn out machines is non sense!! If you put a new engine & stereo in a '57 Chev, it is still a '57 Chev!!! With a small military you have to ask the experts what they need, which specific product, and go buy it. The military is not interested is wasting taxpayers money, there is not value in that. We want to spend what we have wisely. If the Air Force general want to spend the monies on a specific item or platform, then he should be trusted as the air expert to do that. It all comes back to the systemic liberal dislike and distrust of anything militray. "we can not be trusted to make sound judgements" "we have hidden agendas" etc..... when in reality we only want the proper equipment to defend our country, where our families also live, we want the equipment that will allow young Canadian sent overseas to dangerous places to do their job and come home safe. We have a small military, there is NO acceptable reason not to have it properly equipped at all times......

Let see, The Libs sole sourced the LSVW trucks in the 1990's to a company in BC. They are crap, we do not have any in Afghanistan. They sole sourcedthe 100 Griffon helicopters the military did not even want, they are not in Afghanistan either. They sole source maint contracts to Bombardier to get votes in Quebec. At least the Troies have sole sourced equipment we can use like C17s, C130J, H47, Leopard tanks etc... Sounds like they actually listen to the military and buy what we need, and do not buy what we do not need. But what would I know, I am only the military guy who uses the equipment, whose life depends on it. Here's a good link... http://www.canada.com/components/print.asp...72-aa93a738a23b

You can leave basic trainig anytime. That is the point of it, to show peopel what they are getting into. I do not know why someone would join for a paid education, you would have to be very stupid. Joining not to fight, or go in harms way, that would be like joining the fire department just to get yourself a Dalmatian dog, brain dead!! After basic training you go to your specific occupation training, pilot, infantry, mechanic etc.. After that is completed you will have obligatory service. The time varies according to your rank, occupation etc... These a tough times for our military. We are recovering for 13 years of Lib rule, not to mention some of the worst military leadership (the 1990's) we have ever had. We are in combat and proud to say holding our own. We neglected our military and it needs to be rebuilt, and this will take years. Some of the issues we have are at a personel level. One problem is that fewer people are willing to move around anymore, as is required by military service. For example if you are posted to Trenton ON for a few years, your spouse get a good job in the area, then the Air Force says you are going to move to Moosejaw SK, this causes problems, and many choose to release and to not move. Many are fed up with outdated equipment. The #1 reason people leave is low job satisfaction. We have an Air Force that hardly flies, a Navy that sends one ship per coast to sea at a time, the Army has little to no $$ for trainig here in Canada, the Militia, almost no $$. The $$ is being spent on training & equipment for Afghanistan which is great, we need it, but we need considerably more $$ to sustain the CF. The budget needs to get to the $30 - 40 Billion mark before we see improvement. The best model in the world for what our CF should be is Australia. Like Canada, they have a small population, large coast line and a lot of territory to protect. They have come up with new ideas, including dropping non-military services and missions. Our biggest obstacle is our procurment process, it is killing the CF. We are more interested in what Canadian company will get the contract, how much will Quebec get etc... Our buy Canadian policy is outdated as canada has no defence industry. If we were smart we would single source our equipment, buy what we need from who we need, and if canadian companies could not provide it, too bad. We could purchase off the shelf, already designed and tested navy ships from the Americans at considerably lower cost (especially with our dollar theses days), as well as aircraft and other items. We made a great purchase of surplus tanks from the Dutch for example. This coukld be a great time to buy another few C17's, soem additional helos, and we need to start the project to replace the CF18 as their days are numbered. There is lots to do, and the CF need more $$ to do it. We need to be competative in the job market with good salaries, good equipment and new ideas to retain those we have..

sorry, that was supposed to say "a usable payload". It is late:)

The Grifs cannot carry belly mounted guns, the armour required & a usable. The Grif is a cilivl pattern helo we bought & painted green. What we could do is take 4 Cormorants, armour them up and send them, but it is politics. Gov't cannnot announce more units going to afghanistan without causing a meltdown in Ottawa. I have to try to get some sleep, have a good night all. Nice to be home!!

although I favor the DP, I think life no parole would work better. People seem to get sentences here like life, no parole for 10 years, or 20 or 25. That's crap, we are too weak. Life needs top mean forever!! As well, this garbage about treating child rapist, life no parole, that's your treatment. As I have stated before, have some balls Canada!!

No, I do not want to be like them. They are child killing shits, the scum of the earth. Frankly, I miss calling in air and wasting them. I have seen things you can not imagine, seen things you can not believe one human could do to another. I hope it is something none of you ever see. What I am trying to say is stop worrying about them, worry about your military, Canadians. Worry about how we do not have any helos over there to transport our troops, we can't even evac our wounded or dead off the battlefield without asking someone to do it for us. We can't provide air cover for our troops, Holland can, Denmark can, we can not!! I understand your point, we are supposed to be the good guys. When you have seen what I have seen, you have no pity for them. If these were SS officers would we feel the same??

I seriously doubt any Canadians are hanging around the sports bar, drinking a beer, watching the Leafs game and worrying about taliban prisoners, be serious. There are not 100K people marching through the streets demanding we be nice to talib prisoners, get real. Yes, dirty, smelly hippies and freaks in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal care, because they don't have jobs and have nothing better to do but oppose everything their country does. I just came home after 6 months there. If you actually saw them, and what they do up close, you would not give a rats ass what happens to them. You care because they are the enemy, you are opposed to us being there, want them to win and bloddy our noses. Any sane person who met a talib, and saw their handy work up close would not give a damm about them once captured.

He murdered 2 people for nothing, should have fried him years ago, to hell with him!!! If we had a few more balls in this country, and sorted these creeps out, we might not have the problems we do. Why do murderers get out of jail in the first place?? Life should mean life. Why are child rapists let out at all. How do you treat them, you lock them up for life, have some balls Canada!!! Great job PM Harper, good call!!!

With all these arms we are selling, how come our own military is not better equipped????

No, Soliders with honour, intergrety and a sense of duty would not leave their comrades behind. You never figured that out, thats why you quit!! You took a paycheck, took the taxpayers $$, but retreated at the first site of danger.....

http://www.sfu.ca/casr/ft-ana-scond-1.htm Here's a good website with some info. I came home last week after 6 month in Afghanistan, I mean no disrespect to anyone here, but you do not and cannot understand what is going on unless you are there. No media, book or blog can express what is going on. If you do not walk the streets, talk to the people, chew on the dust & dirt you cannot relate to it, no matter your opinion, education etc... When people start tellinmg me their opinions or thoughts about Afghanistan, I stop them, ask if they have ever been there?? If the answer is NO, then keep walking............

Or kilts:).....

I read some interesting articles recently that indicated European ice age peoples may have been the first humans in N America. They have found spead heads dating back 17000+ years in Virginia. They think they came across on the ice sheet that covered the Atlantic in those days. The article even indicated that some Indian tribes in N America have European DNA. Someone told me there was a program on Discovery about it, I have not seen it. Perhaps the Indians were not the first humans here, perhaps we Euros were:)

That's because most of these folks on here do not understand the difference between a brigade, army, regiment etc....

I seriously doubt you were in 2 RCHA, or any RCHA or combat arms unit. If you were you would know that we were not primarily peacekeepers, you would know what the role of 2 RCHA was. You would know the role and value of armoured units, you would know what they bring to the fight, and you would have more pride in your service than to call soldiers little boys. Perhaps you were in as a lazy assed milingerer cry baby, but not a soldier, please!!! I am not in a Regt, I am in the Airforce, 19.5 years. I have been stationed in Europe for 3 years, Somalia, Yugo twice, Afghanistan twice, and countless exercises and operations. You don't know the first thing about the military of Afghanistan. You should get in line at the welfare office with Andrewl & tbud......

Yes, I do thank God the British colonized the world. They created the modern western culture, the country I live in. It was not perfect, but I choose to look at the positive. Slavery was a terrible thing and has been abolished. There are no people alive today that were slaves of the British Empire in N America, just people who live off the self pity of the legacy. If you go back far enough in time, my ancestors were enslaved, killed, brutalized, should I sit around and feel sorry for myself, demand compensation??? My ancestors were actually the victims of an Indian raid, should I demand compensation. The Indian tribes of N America were tripping over themselves to sell each other out to the French & British, slaughtering homesteaders etc.... They are not innocent victims, they fought back and lost, the same as the Saxons & Normans defeated the English. We are here AndrewL, we are not leaving, get used to it!!! Humans colonize, that's what we do, since we first left Africa a million or so years ago. The Cro-Magnons invaded the Neanderthal territory, Homo sapiens invaded territories etc etc...... Welcome to human history!!! The USA is not an empire, they only buy & sell to the world. There are plenty of nations out there that benefit, including Canada. The USA has the power to take if they wanted too, they do not, and they buy. There are those out there that have nothing to offer the free market world, either because of lack of resources or lack of initiative. They are jealous of the power & wealth of the US and the countries the USA trades with. They are jealous of the wealth of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Qatar etc... Even Iraq was a very wealth country courtesy of the USA. Saddam chose to spend his cash on palaces & tanks instead of for his people, not the USA's fault. Are the Americans supposed to tell the world how to spend the money they get for selling to the USA? Do you tell someone you buy a car from how to spend the $$ you gave them?? As for Saudi, sounds like you have never been there. There are very few poor people there. The only people I saw there, in the many times I have been, that could be considered poor is perhaps the Bedouins, but I think it is not poverty, just their lifestyle. They are I will agree very hard on third party nationals, the Pakistani & oriental people they bring over to do their domestic and lower end work. Saudis do not shovel shit, flip burgers or clean toilets, you’d' know that if you were ever there!! Corporations, WE ARE THE CORPORATIONS, US!!! We buy their products, we work for them. Corporations employ millions, billions of people throughout the world. Government cannot ignore the jobs or tax revenue they bring in. People who bitch about corporations most likely don't have a job, are not living the life of the rest of us and want to whollow in self pity, and cry about society instead of getting off their asses and getting to work. I choose to look at the positive of my culture and society. I know it is not all perfect, but I have seen may other societies and we have it very good. Whether you are a winner of failure in our society depends on YOU!! Your choices, your ambition, your goals. I have noticed that only our society’s failures, the lame & lazy seem to want to bitch & whine. Myself, I have a new car, a new house, hot wife and my kids are doing great. My bills are paid, and life is good, because of choices I made.

I have been in exile over here for almost 6 months, coming home next weekend!!!

Empires, such as the Roman, Turk Ottoman, British, etc... The Romans conquered their known world, they invaded and subjugated people. They used "local talent" at times to rule, but Rome called the shots. The wealth and riches of these lands were used to increase Rome’s wealth. Same with the British, they colonized the world, thank God, and exported the wealth of their colonies to England. It was not right then, it is not right now, but what is done is done. No, there are no empires today, sorry!! The Americans, because that is the example that everybody likes to use is not an empire, they are not imperialist. They have a free market economy, they are interested in buying from and selling too the world. They do not exploit people in the Middle East. They spend BILLIONS of dollars on oil from countries such as Saudi, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait etc... These are extremely rich nations. Nations such as Yemen, Syria etc have nothing to offer the free market world, so they are undeveloped. That's not the USA's or anyone else's fault. The US has the most powerful military in the world; if they chose to unleash it nobody could stop them. They do not NATO or the UN. That being said, if they were imperialist as the British/Romans were they could just take the oil, and not pay for it and destroy anyone who opposes them. Saudi, Qatar etc would not be rich nations. In short, imperialists do not pay for resources & products, they take them!!! The Americans are not exploiting Afghanistan, this place does not really have anything to offer the free market world at this time, and we are here to help them. I choose to look at the positives, not live my life in the negative, feeling sorry for myself and pointing out every fault with my country, society and way of life. I like western society & culture, so does most of the world. Nobody is lined up to immigrate to Iran or Venezuela, and the socialist utopia needed a wall to keep people in!!!

I'll go into exile for only $1 million.....

Tbud, We are in the 21st century... There are no such things as empires, do you even know what an empire is??? They do no exist, they are a thing of the past, like communisum!! Pulling out the references to "Empires & Imperialists" is a bunch of old hack, worn out old leftard nonsense. Rational people don't buy it!!!

I agree, fit in or get out. I am not racist, I do not hate anyone based on skin colour, religion or any other criteria, but this is CANADA. Canada is for Canadians, there is nothing wrong with saying that. There is nothing wrong with our culture. We seem to be changing everything to accomidate people. If they want to come here they should adapt to our way of doing things. That's not racism, however if you say it, your labeled a racist by these self hating liberals that have done everything they can to turn Canada into something we no longer recognize. There is no need for the RCMP to wear turbins, baseball caps, spiked kiaser helmets or any other head dress other than their stetsons. Fit in, or do not apply. It is NOT wrong, every other country does it. People have been immigrating for thousands of years, fit into your new home.

Actually the Germans developed a rather lethal assualt rifle, the SG44. After the war the Russians modified it and it became the AK47.......