Over the past couple of years I have received many e mails, and had quite a few discussions with Veterans over the age of 55. There are a great number of qualified people who have retired after many years service. The e-mails and conversations. Coincide with the words of Retired General Lewis Mackenzie. Over the D Day remembrances he was asked about the state of Canada's current military. He said Quote we have people serving who are now on their fourth tour of duty in Afghanistan they come back have a little while with their families, then they are sent of to training areas to teach the next batch of troops going to Afghanistan. My point is this many former soldiers are Ready Willing and able to lend a hand. Why not create a corps or cadre ie.Civilian Training Cadre. these well trained veterans can ease the burden of training in many areas. The only thing holding them back is age. A perfect example is a man who is 61 he was 25 years in the Navy as a weapons instructor. Then he went to the RCMP for 15 years and was retired automatically at age 60. He was the senior weapons instructor for the RCMP. He applied for a civil position after retirement and was told he would have to retake all training again even though he had been the senior man in training weaponry. This is a waste of Knowledge. Many of our former service people are wishing they could do more. I feel that the creation of a cadre like this would ease the training burden somewhat. I also realise that the physical and close contact training requires to be taught by younger fitter personnel. But the fact remains that these volunteers would be qualified to teach many skills. Except for beaurocracy and their age limitations.
Thats my Rant for Today.
Please remeber to show support for our troops and for the Red Rally being held in Charlottetown 26 June at approx 1130 at the DVA building. Let's make this our most successful Rally ever.
Nil Sine Labore
Robby
