(Part 2) Top products from r/CanadianForces

Edit: I'll keep adding things as I remember them. I'm not adding the usual stuff like laptops, ipads, gym gear, etc, because those seem...common sense?

Updated: 24 Nov 1252 hrs AST

• Cold meds with pseudoephedrine
  
• Magnets (for lockers if you get one)
  
• 3M command hooks of varying weight limits
  
• Strong plastic coat hangars
  
• 550 cord (I'd say no more than 30' of it)
  
• Headlamp with red and white light (find one that you don't have to go "through" the white to get to the red!)
  
• 2-3 good quality plastic clothes pins to hold curtains closed or some other task (the ones linked are identical to the ones at the Dollar Store for, I think, $4 for 12)
  
• Knife sharpener
  
• Pocket knife
  
• Suction cup hook for the shower (if you use a bath scrubby)
  
• Nail clippers and nail file
  
• Small FA kit (bandaids, etc)
  
• Small sewing kit with the right colours of thread
  
• GoToobs for stuff like shampoo and body wash (and aloe gel if you burn)
  
• Bose noise cancelling headphones (with a spare battery)
  
• Camera (don't be the guy that brings a DSLR with 5 lenses)
  
• Couple of power adapters if power is different
  
• Water bottle (and denture cleaning tablets to clean it if there's no bottle brush)
  
• Couple of locks (combo or keyed-alike, varying sizes)
  
• Travel blanket
  
• Inflatable neck pillow (the best one I've ever used)
  
• Anker USB battery bank (love Anker products!)
  
• Anker PowerPort
  
• Depending on living accommodations, I also have a "travel kitchen" that I take with me that has a good Santoku knife, cutting board, pepper grinder and garlic press.
  
• 2-3 tide pods because it could be a few days or a week before you get to the PX
  
• If you know your sleeping arrangements, buy a "bed in a bag" for that bed size. Nothing like having your own good sheets to slide into after a rough day. Make sure you wash everything before heading over, so they're soft and ready to go when you get there.
  
• A collapsable shoe organizer that you can use to store gitch, socks, t-shirts, etc, or even a collapsable sweater organizer (or two) if you want more horizontal space and less vertical.
  
• If you're coming home or going somewhere on HLTA, don't forget to pack a civvie-pattern backpack. Don't be the guy wandering around a foreign airport wearing your day pack and combat boots in jeans.
  
• Birthday/Anniversary/special event cards that you can mail from your location (shows you were thinking of them well in advance of your departure and before the event). Bonus points if it's a mushy anniversary card to a significant other, ensuring that your return is "extra special".

I'm going to apply this week or next week (after I get my references sorted out and study up for the CFAT) and was wondering if I could have some advice.

I'm a 19 year old who hasn't done too much with his life aiming for nothing but NCM Regular Infantry and want know what my chances might be at getting in for next year's January BMQ course since I really doubt I'd make it for September this year. I figured if I hand in my application before the very end of this month I should be able to make it for January selection at least. Looking on the army.ca forums I saw that a few people who have applied earlier this year have gotten the September BMQ course for Infantry, so I'm thinking my application should have enough time if things goes well on their end. I've lived in Canada all my life and my parents have resided here for a long time, so I think I should have no problems. The references I'm going to use are my supervisor from work, a supervisor from my old job as a writer for articles on the Internet, a senior from my old job (both old job references are from America, but I read that references from different countries are okay), and a best friend/tutor that has helped me in highschool with graphic design work. I feel like I'll be ready for the interview since I'm always reading about military stuff everyday.

I'm currently following the workout guides from The Complete Guide To Navy SEAL Fitness to get in shape and I'm also taking Adult 1 swimming classes. I'm not too good with the water yet, but I hope to be able to swim decently at least by the time the lessons are over so I'm prepared for basic's swimming portion. As for preparing for the CFAT, I'm using Khan Academy to help me brush up on some much needed mathematical skills.

I pretty much just want to know if I'm on the right path towards preparing and getting everything done for the application and the Canadian Forces. I think about joining the military everyday and want to make sure I don't screw up anything.

The Casio F-91W was the top recommendation the last time this question was posted, it can be had for $10 on ebay. I use the AE1200, which is a mildly cooler version that is also cheap and works well.

I also have a G-Shock DW6900, which is a great watch, but it's big and digs into the back of your hand when doing pushups if you wear your watch below your ulna. Some guys in my unit have the rangeman, which is cool but pricey; I've yet to hear back about the reliability of its compass for land nav. I've also seen this behemoth out in the wild, which would be cool if it weren't obscenely large (not "big for guys with 6" wrists" large, just plain large) and had the same features as every Garmin and Suunto.

I like the Garmins and Suuntos from a training perspective (for tracking runs and hikes, etc.), but most of the Suunto models don't seem to have seconds readouts, which I think is pretty critical for a military application. The Garmins are pretty good and there's a store where you can download different watch faces to suit your needs. It's a shame smartwatches are so often overpriced, because there's a ton of untapped functionality there.

Whatever you do, get a digital readout, preferably a 24 hour one. Don't be the guy with an analog watch; I understand the aesthetic appeal and normally wear one all the time, so I can tell the time pretty quickly on them, but it's so much easier to use digital at night or on course.

It would help to know what trade you are applying for.
I've taken both the CFAT and the British Psychometric test for the Royal Marines and scored highly on both.

After re-learning all the basic math skills, the math part became my strongest area, I'm not going to say dont worry about that area because I don't know what you might be applying for, but it is a lot easier than you think it might be.

Surprisingly I though I scored the lowest in the spacial area, even though I always though of myself as being particular skilled in that area the test showed otherwise. It might be worth a brush up in that section for you regardless of how strong you might think you are.
To be honest the first part with the words was probably the hardest, but you can typically guess fairly easily. (I probably only recognized 1 word in the whole section =P, but still scored fairly well).


I used this book as a study guide. It might be to late for you to give it a read, but for any other redditors that come across this it is the only book you will need to ace the test. One part in it really breaks down the English language, which would have made the first part of the CFAT lot easier if I had bothered studying it.

I'm a Bio and the only person in a family of various NCM trades to go the officer route. I started as Res infantry, went DEO after ten years, and am fully capable of using fuck as a noun, adverb, adjective, interjection, and the super-rare adnoun, which I totally didn't just make up.

Leadership, to a certain extent, can be taught just like any other skill. Some people are naturals at it, some are shit. Just hope that you don't end up working for one of the shit ones, and if you do, take it as an opportunity to learn what not to do later in your career when you're the boss.

As this time, there are no command positions for Bios, and many don't even have subordinates due to the tasks they perform. However, there are a few positions where you work in a small team environment, mostly in the Deployable Health Hazard Assessment Teams.

Take note: Bioscience is one of the most ridiculously difficult trades to enter. There are only around 35 of us, and we normally take between zero and three applicants per year.

If you have any Bio questions, feel free to ask me here. And if you're looking for etiquette, I highly recommend the US Army's Wife Handbook, which is hilarious toilet reading.

I would say weight plays the most important factor in practicing for the Force test. In my experience I've seen a variety of sandbags used, some similar to this. https://www.amazon.ca/Pellor-Fitness-Sandbag-Adjustable-Exercise/dp/B07BSYQWTQ/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1541596392&sr=8-3&keywords=Exercise+sandbags. Whereas others were basically your stereotypical military sandbag with a handle attached. Technique plays a massive part in any portion of the test, basically if you have something that's generally the same weight and size as the sandbags used in the test you should be good to go. Alternatively, perhaps you could swing back a base and use the sandbags at the gym for practice or to get an idea of what you should buy.

The Taliban Don't Wave by Robert Semrau was an excellent book, and I would highly recommend it.

https://www.amazon.ca/Sharp-End-Canadian-Soldiers-Story/dp/1553657535

I enjoyed reading this book, he speaks on his time in Bosnia and Rwanda.

Ghostkeepers is written by a soldier who served in Sarajevo, offers a good point of view from the pointy end.

https://www.amazon.ca/Uprising-Novel-Douglas-L-Bland/dp/1926577000

I'm not gonna claim it's good, but it exists.

Oh hey, that's me! A friend linked me this and said I'm famous now. Didn't realize this was going to be online as well; figured it was just the paper.

For those chiding me on my dress, I just want to add we'd been de-storing ship to go into the ditch for the last 3 months. I'd been hauling gross cave couches for a couple hours before this photo, and continued afterward. Woulda been kind of stupid to show up inspection-ready.

For any who might be interested, here's a couple amazon links. Witches Be Crazy and Astro-Nuts

You can buy these at most sporting goods places:

https://www.amazon.ca/Gripmaster-Exerciser-Tension-5-Pounds-Finger/dp/B0006GBDZY?th=1&psc=1&source=googleshopping&locale=en-CA&tag=googcana-20&ref=pd_sl_8tm9av05mk_e

You can also buy these hard rubber balls that you squeeze.

No jokes please...

> People on opiates don’t shit

i have a good book for you, friend

I have a petzel (I think). It has a red filter shutter that goes over the white light. There is no red setting. Every white light setting can be used as red by simply putting the shutter over it.

Edit: I thinking it's a Princeton

Read 'Shake Hands with the Devil', Peacekeeping can be a messy, nasty, expensive [not only in terms of money but morale and blood] business. I am not looking forward to a pivot back to being called a "Peacekeeping" force.
https://www.amazon.ca/Shake-Hands-Devil-Failure-Humanity/dp/0679311726/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485302682&sr=8-1&keywords=shaking+hands+with+the+devil

Since Reddit wants to be difficult, I've provided the link here:

https://www.amazon.ca/Shadow-Vimy-Thomas-Kirby-Battle/dp/1537537938/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1478531241&sr=8-2&keywords=shadow+of+vimy

The PKK has totally different leadership from the KRG (the Kurdistan Regional Government), but some of their Peshmerga have fought for both. To say they are part of a larger organization is very misleading, but they certainly play by their own rules. The PKK has allied with Iran as have both the PUK and KDP, the KDP has struck deals with Bashar al-Assad and even Saddam Hussein in the past, and the PUK and KDP were at war with each other for decades. They are now, however, working together in a rather stable government. If you want to learn more, I recommend [Invisible Nation] (http://www.amazon.ca/Invisible-Nation-Quil-Lawrence/dp/0802717438).

For World War 1:

At the Sharp End By Tim Cook, well written and very interesting https://www.amazon.ca/Sharp-End-One-Canadians-1914-1916/dp/0670067342

(At the Sharp End is 1914-1916, and his second book Shock Troops is 1917-1918)

If you want an Afghanistan based novel read Wounded by Eric Walters, more of a teen novel (it's relatively short) but it's about a JTF2 sniper who comes home to his family and suffers from PTSD.

I can think of a couple reasons. Firstly, up until right about now, the military has been very much about your sexuality. If you are not straight, you are not welcome in this career. In fact, this is still a reasonably commonly held belief one comes across. The courts forced the policy change in 1992 after it was challenged. And by a fucking courageous member at that. But, through the 50s up and until the late-1990s, the apparatus of the state was focused on finding and interrogating suspected gays in the public service, military and RCMP as they were threats to national security. The 1950s and 1960s it was worse, at the time of McCarthyism, As being homosexual was lawfully a criminal mental illness and was deemed such a threat to national security a whole apparatus was concocted to surveil and interrogate anyone suspected of being gay. The RCMP had a database of thousands of public servants and CF/RCMP members suspected of being gay- at least 9,000- and thousands lost their jobs. These people are still alive. This era gave rise to the Fruit machine. Can you imagine being accompanied by an MP to some interrogating room, strapped to a dentist chair to watch porn to pass that test?! I can imagine the stress of that making my heart rate go up; Oh hey, this guys a fag. This was ended in the late 1960s, after being used for over 20 years, but then after, CFAO 19-20 became the policy of both the military and the public service (to lesser degree):

> The investigation of the suspect's private live will start with a complete search of his apartment or quarters without any warrant. Then the Military Police will visit the schools attended, discuss with friends, co-workers, etc. asking direct and embarrassing questions. At the end of the investigation, the suspect was interrogated without any legal assistance. The job of the MP interrogators (all NCO's) was to extract a confession and the names of other military suspects. A confession was the crucial proof needed to issue a discharge from the Canadian Armed Forces. On his confession, the gay military had to sign that he was "not under duress" or "I was not coerced". Before being released, he was given a two-weeks medical counselling on how to cure his "illness". If a gay, or wrongfully suspected straight member would persist denying during the humiliating MP interrogations, he could not be released from the C.A.F. as they would have been unable to prove anything. However a letter was sent to his Commanding officer with a copy in his file, stating that he was "suspected" of homosexuality (not "accused"). That "suspicion" will follow the member from base to base throughout his career. Source: The Canadian War on Queers: National Security as Sexual Regulation

How one can claim the military isn’t about sexuality is beyond me. Up and until now, it has very much been. Rules, code, investigations, interrogations, and people employed for this very reason- to move the wheels of this apparatus of state. From the 1950s-2000 essentially, for over 50 years, a career in the military was officially about your sexuality. Being straight was a requirement of employment.

Another reason I can think of is recruitment. Do you know how often I tell people I’ve always wanted to join the CAF, and young people should consider it to, I get a negative response along the lines of they're gonna get raped, beat up or hazed. It’s disgustingly common. Again, not most of the time. But it’s reasonably commonly held response among young people. That and the CAF is for backwater fuckup hicks who can’t get a job anywhere else.

It's wrong. But then again, the most up voted belief in this thread is this is done just to 'cover your ass' from allegations of being.. what.. backwater hicks? Being accused of what it was 15 years ago? Being accused of what it still is in hushed voices and not so hushed in some?


Now I'm gonna go listen to some Cherry Beach Express- you know that great Canadian punk song chronically the days when the TPS would take gays and other people out and beat them up in the dark, you know, less 20 years ago. Till a guy died in 52 division, someone sued and people started asking questions. Seriously this was a common non-secret in the 80s it became a hit radio song in Toronto lol!

>That's why you're riding on the Cherry Beach Express
Your ribs are broken and your face is in a mess
And we strongly suggest you confess, I confess
I confess, I am mystified by the way you're occupied
I confess, I am horrified, why are you so terrified?
Does the pain get any less if I confess?