It was a dream that took twenty three years to complete.  A childhood dream first inspired by playing with soldiers in a sandpit that the local cats often used to shit in.

Getting British army uniform for my tenth birthday cemented it (even though my beret was fucked up).

I have just come back from nearly a week in the field putting into practice what I’ve spent nearly a month learning.

One thing I’ve noticed is the stark difference between instructor teaching methods in each of the gun detachments.  I’m happy to say 15B was consistently the first in and out of action until the last day when our sight was all fucked up.   It got to the point where the Safety Officer would come and wait by our gun because he knew we would be first recorded.

I was ordered to record the gun one morning and I was very pleased with my performance.   Considering I’m new on the C3 I think I did it brilliantly.   One morning I did the check bearing drill and traversed twice instead of just once after applying the bearing but I fixed it.

I’m finally a trained soldier. I’m proud to be a Canadian Artillery Gunner.

The French have the French Foreign Legion.  The British have the Gurkha Regiment.  Both of these foreign components to their respective armies are well known and renowned the world over for being hard as a coffin nail.

The Gurkha Regiment in the British Army dates back to the fighting between 1814–1816 when the Nepalese Gurkha army fought against the British East India Company army.  Fighting them to a stalemate, the British made a deal with the Nepalese to recruit from them and it all carried on from there.

As is evident by three Gurkha’s receiving the Military Cross from the Queen, and numerous times throughout history – these foreign soldiers who still are not regarded highly enough by the British Army are a valuable asset.

The French Foreign Legion are the tough nuts of the French military.  Granted they were used rather ruthlessly in Algeria, but now anytime France needs to flex its military might or get its citizens out of harms way they don’t send Pierre or Olivier from the Parisien suburbs.  It’s the dudes who wear the white hats.

Check the Related Links for an interesting news article about two identical twin brothers.  One joined the British Army; the other was refused and joined the French Foreign Legion where his acts of bravery and gallantry earned him France’s highest award for valour – the ‘Legion D’honneur’.

I am a perfect example of the point I am making.  I am a foreigner in the Canadian military and would at any point not hesitate to bear arms and defend Canada and its interests with my life, but yet there are huge amounts of Canadians who would not and are not bearing arms for Canada.

Foreigners searching for a meaningful and useful way to give back are an extremely valuable and untapped resource.  It would be nice seeing other nations across the globe taking advantage of that.

I am of the opinion that the BBC employee, Justin Webb, is an idiot.  Not once did I ever like any of his blog posts.

Having left plenty of comments on Justin’s blogs, only to have them not published, I am quite happy he got what was coming to him.  Being demoted back to England.  For me personally that would be a wonderful thing, but for Justin – according to the theme of many of his blog posts it isn’t so great.

In the biography on his old blog on BBC News website it says:

There is nowhere in the world I would rather be than Washington DC. Sexier cities do exist of course, and less socially-divided places as well, but nowhere is as powerful, as full of news, and as vitally important to the lives and futures of us all. I have been here for six years and intend to stay for 600. My youngest child is American and my older ones sound American. And that’s fine by me.

Many a time I got very angry with Justin as it seemed he had lost sight of where he came from.  Frequently expressing anti-British sentiment and constantly poking fun at all things British it seemed like he was trying too hard to be something he never would be – American.  If his biography and blogs was anything to go by, I’d say that he finally got what he didn’t want and when push came to shove, his whole ‘America is the greatest’ idea theory went straight down the toilet.  Instead of sticking by his desire to stay in America he meekly got demoted back to England.

What bothers me more is he acts like a British authority on America; as if British people don’t know a damn thing about life in America.  The thing that puts the icing on the cake is that in an interview with the U.K’s Independent newspaper, he acts like he’s glad to be back in England, when most people know the wannabe Yank is probably plotting a paint bomb attack in Wood Lane.

I hope it causes him to have a nervous breakdown moving back to Britain.  Too bad he didn’t get treated like Hugh Laurie who found it impossible to find work in England after selling out and moving to the States to film ‘House’.

If both of them had gone to America and stayed proud of being British, with Webb leaving out the constant digs at British life and sensibilities, and Laurie either not using that horrendous American accent or perfecting it – then my loathing for both of the ‘wannabe’ Americans wouldn’t exist.