D Coy News

My Canadian Experience

Last summer, I was selected to attend the Canadian Cadet Exchange to Whitehorse, in the Yukon, which is a province in the northwest of Canada. My experience began with a lengthy selection process – an essay on why I wanted to attend and several interviews, the final one with the Commandant. Convinced I had done badly in my final interview, the phone call from my Company Commander, telling me I wouldn’t be able to go to annual camp that year was unexpected, to say the least. After the initial euphoria, came the months of filling in forms and buying three of everything on the kit list. During that entire period I still couldn’t really believe that I would be spending 7 weeks in Canada!
	On July 1st I left the house, with two large suitcases containing my worldly belongings for that summer and headed to Frimley Park for three days “meet-and-greet” with the other 11 “Brits,” as we called ourselves.
Instant bonds of friendship were made and after two days I felt like I was with people I’d known most of my life.We flew out to Canada on the 3rd, and the 9-hour time difference, along with a full day of travelling and a sleepless night on the 2nd made for an extremely tired group arriving at the camp.More paperwork, which took several hours to sort, but at 1am, when we finally got to the barracks, it was still light. For the first few weeks the sun just didn’t set. The following day the experience went dramatically uphill.
At first, so much was strange to the twelve of us, from being taken everywhere in American school buses, to having mountains surrounding the camps, sleeping in log cabins that housed between 22 and 36 cadets, having to stand to attention every morning and evening when the flags were raised and lowered, and of course the eternal daylight. We were a novelty to the Canadians as well; they loved our accents and uniform, but were as shy of us as we were of them.We were split into three platoons with four Brits in each, and then split down again into three sections for each platoon

At first, the separation was difficult for us, we were in a strange country with new people and only each other as links to home, However, after just a couple of days we were bonding with the Canadian cadets in much the same way as we had at Frimley.

After three days of preparation, the activities began in earnest. My platoon did watermanship first and we spent three days at a lake learning how to canoe and picking up other skills in preparation for the five-day, 300km paddle down the river Yukon, which would undertake later on in the summer.I was the only Brit in my platoon, but sleeping in tents with just the Canadians was a great way of integrating us and it wasn’t long before I made some best friends.
	Unfortunately, I was also introduced to the mosquitoes; over a centimetre in size, it became something of a game to see how many you could kill. It became perfectly acceptable for us to slap each other without warning as long as you swatted a mosquito in the process - I still have the scars from their bites.....Our next activity was abseiling, but not like I’d ever done it in England. We spent three days in the bush, sleeping in a forest and abseiling all day, every day, down an enormous rock face which was 125ft at its lowest and over 300ft at its highest. As someone who was not totally happy with heights, I amazed myself by being the first cadet to brave the longest trail “aussie-style,” or forwards, walking down the cliff looking at the floor. It was incredible, and I have thoroughly overcome my fear of heights!

In late July the Brits took a day trip to Alaska, a rare chance for us to spend time together. On the journey we saw some of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen; lakes as blue as the Mediterranean Sea surrounded by snow-capped mountains, massive valleys of pine trees and even a waterfall.
Alaska itself was a bit damp, but the people were so friendly, especially when they realised we were British. During the fourth week my platoon was supposed to go on a five-day canoe trip downriver but a forest fire en-route and 6-foot waves on the lake caused by high winds meant it was put off, day after day, until finally the weather returned to its usual sunny 25 degrees
It left us with only one day left in which to canoe so, as we missed out, they decided to give us a more exciting route for one day than the other platoons would have for their five. We went over rapids and through canyons, whilst over our heads three platoon were rope bridging.
I love water sports, and I didn’t mind that we missed the long trip, as one exciting day in my view is better than 5 mediocre days of plain paddling.
	A couple of events, “Christmas in July,” a concept which I didn’t really understand but enjoyed nonetheless, and a Freedom of the City parade, took place that week. The parade was our first chance to wear our No2 dress uniform, a new experience for most of us and one we all loved as we looked as well as felt extremely smart.
As the course I was on was the Cadet Leader Instructor Course, we did have to do some teaching, which meant a week of making lesson plans and learning about what Canadian cadets have to do.
Trouble with the media there means they can’t do all the military things we do in Britain, but we Brits were allowed to introduce them to things like battle drills, and camouflage and concealment. It made the week much more interesting knowing that they really wanted to learn what we had to offer.
	On July 30th (I remember the date because of how good the day was), we went white-water rafting.The other platoons had already been and said it was fantastic, but none of us were prepared for how intensely awesome the whole day was. The safety briefing was three minutes long, and our instructors were all young and lively and up for pretty much anything. In a boat with five other cadets and one instructor, the aim of the day was pretty much to throw other people out of their boats, get thrown out yourself, tip the boat over if possible and have more fun than I think I have ever had in my life before. Everybody came away bumped and bruised, but nobody was complaining! As well as the rafting, we under took many other activities.

These included shooting the C7, a Canadian weapon that is totally different to our GP, but quite good to fire, rope bridging over the ravine we had canoed through, which meant setting up the ropes ourselves and then hurling ourselves out into thin air, relying on harnesses that we also put on ourselves; it was certainly a test of trust!
	We enjoyed a couple of shopping trips to Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon.It only has a population of 20,000,so is sparsely populated despite being the capital of the province!
A further day of mountain biking and zip wiring, also over a ravine.It was a summer of experiences I have never had before, most of which are simply not available for people here in England.
	Our final activity on camp was the long march. This was a five-day expedition through the hills, “bush-whacking” a lot of the way, which meant we had no actual path to follow, only a bearing, map and destination. Oh, and a reg-force soldier with a shotgun following behind, should we gain any unwanted attention from grizzly bears.
It was actually a magical trip - on one occasion, we crested a hill after an hour and a half of tough ground, to find a blue lake with mountains behind, and on the shore was our campsite in possibly the most perfect location I’ve ever seen. It was now mid-August and the sun had actually started to set so as it got dark, we saw the northern lights. They were like green curtains of fire in the sky, and something I’ve always wanted to see. The final few days of camp were a preparation for the leaving ceremony, the final battalion parade, which we had been practising each Sunday morning.

Through the whole summer, cadets had been given parade positions to see who would be given them in the final parade – cadets issue all commands and take on the roles of officers. I was selected for the tryouts, and was actually awarded the top position – that of Parade Commander!
	I had to stand in front of the entire camp of around 250 cadets and issue the orders for the large majority of the parade. It was the greatest honour of the summer, and meant I had a meal with the Canadian Chief of Defence Staff, the equivalent of our Minister of Defence, and two days later another with a Brigadier General who was overseeing our final parade.
It was unbelievable to receive all that recognition for my drill voice, which I had never known was so good! My entire summer was spent learning such things about myself, making lasting friendships and overcoming fears.
Leaving the camp was painful; we were all aware that only one of us would be returning and that most of us would probably never see the Canadians, who we had come to know as family, ever again. Despite that, I’m still intensely grateful that I was given the opportunity to meet them.
I know that there is no organisation other than cadets that would give me that experience, and I wouldn’t have missed it for anything. It was the best seven weeks of my life, and has helped me develop confidence and leadership skills which will benefit me both as a cadet and as a person. Thank you. Cpl Charlotte Petersen-Buckley D Company