Canada's top soldier talks up the troops
Alisha Morrissey The Telegram Friday, November 16, 2007
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ST. JOHN'S, N.L. -- Always a soldier's soldier, Gen. Rick Hillier talked up the troops in a speech in St. John's, N.L., Thursday.
Hillier talked mostly about the future of the Canadian forces and what he called "the pillars" of the future military, when he spoke to hundreds of delegates and invited guests, including the Military Family Resource Centre.
He outlined the new Canadian forces framework, talking about uniting the army, navy and air force, building up special forces, the renewed focus on physical fitness and training and recruitment.
"We're hearing around the world that, 'You guys are great. We need more of you,' " Hillier said, before asking the audience how many had seen the new recruitment advertising.
Most had seen the military's new ad campaign, which Hillier described as true-to-life advertising.
He said the ad that was playing when he joined was a soldier in dress uniform climbing down from a plane with a brief case in his hand. Hillier said when lying in trenches, muddied and tired during training he realized that the ad's slogan - "There's no life like it" - was true, but not much else.
Hillier also talked about Afghanistan, the problems there, the entrepreneurial people and culture and what Canada is doing to help.
He talked about how children attend schools in three shifts a day, because they want to be educated.
"A well changes your life," Hillier said, when showing how soldiers help dig wells for communities, "if your well is five kilometres away and you're the little boy or little girl who has to go get (water)."
He encouraged the women in the audience to click their heels proudly on the sidewalk, explaining that in Afghanistan women are whipped for the same act. There was a collective gasp, when he showed photos taken of a woman who was about to be executed because she'd been seen in public with a man who wasn't in her immediate family.
Hillier showed slides of food and supply drops, soldiers meeting with district leaders; photos taken while the country's first census was being taken and inoculation and education for Afghan children.
But not every soldier is serving in Afghanistan, he pointed out, saying that the military's "no-fail mission," is responding to needs at home in capacities like search and rescue.
It was then that he introduced two real soldiers, Vicky Stamp and Derrick Curtis, who serve respectively as a supply technician and search and rescue technician.
Stamp, he says, worked on the Swiss Air disaster and on 9/11 relief. Curtis rode a bike across the country to raise money to fight violence against women and parachuted into a blizzard in Canada's north in a search and rescue operation.
Hillier later introduced Sgt. Sheldon Herritt, who has served in Afghanistan and who was injured earlier this year when trying to disable an improvised explosive device.
Hillier said that when Canadians support their troops - with red rallies, magnetic yellow ribbons on their cars, renaming highways after lost soldiers, and even sending Tim Hortons gift certificates to a war zone - it encourages the troops and reminds them why they do their jobs.
"When you're 10,000 miles from home and somebody out there perhaps is trying to kill you, you can be forgiven for thinking you're in this by yourself," he said. "So when you're back here in Canada or here in Newfoundland and Labrador these things inspire us."
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