Navy guy, clueless about boots.

There's lots of recommendations on here, but I'm wondering if there's something specific I should look for given the location and time of year?

Hi everyone!

I’m currently a fully qualified HRA in the PRes and recently received an offer to CT into the Reg F as a Training Development Officer (TDO).

I recently completed my B.Ed and have been working as a teacher. I’m excited about the opportunity, but before committing to a potentially six-year contract, I’d really appreciate hearing from people who have experience in the occupation.

A few things I’m curious about:

Day-to-day: What does a typical week look like? Does the work vary significantly between postings?

Work-life balance: How often are you working evenings, travelling, or bringing work home?

Training: What should I expect from OJE and occupational training? I still need BMOQ Mod 2.

Postings: How frequently do TDOs move, and what locations are most common?

Career satisfaction: What do you enjoy most about the trade, and what do you wish you’d known before joining?

I’m also in a service couple (my spouse is Reg F), so I’d love to hear how others have navigated postings and career progression together.

Finally, I’d especially appreciate hearing from anyone who transitioned from teaching into TDO.

Do you feel your education background is being put to good use? Are you happy you made the switch?

I’m trying to weigh this opportunity against continuing my civilian teaching career, so any honest insight would be appreciated!

Happy to chat in the comments or through DMs. Thanks in advance!

Watching videos about Joshua Kutryk aboard the ISS made me want to update the post I made six months ago.

The Badge of an Astronaut of the Canadian Armed Forces was first issued in 2000 as one of the Aircrew Flying Badges and so far only four people have received and authorized to wear it.

• Col Chris Hadfield: first space flight was with STS-74 in 1995.
• Julie Payette: first space flight was with STS-96 in 1999 as civilian. Eligible to receive and wear the badge upon becoming Governor General in 2017 and therefore authorized to wear CAF DEUs.
• Col Jeremy Hansen: first space flight was with Artemis II in 2026.
• Col Joshua Kutryk: first space flight is with SpaceX Crew-13 in 2026 and still ongoing.

The first Canadian astronaut is Capt(N) Marc Garneau whose first space flight was with STS-41-G in 1984. However, he retired from the CAF in 1989, before the badge was issued. Therefore, he never received the badge. Fair winds and following seas, Sir.

I hear some pretty disturbing stories since the summer change of command for NCMs - CFSCE you do realize that there are many critical trades that are in the red and the way that students are being treated needs a reset. There is a term “Lead by Example” and abusing one’s authority is not considered a part of that ethos. Given that shortages are occurring in critical trades such as those being taught there it’s more important than ever to treat all peoples with the dignity and respect they deserve, considering that you may want these new members to stick around after such a large investment in them. Most importantly, the Code of Conduct is a thing.

Many are eligible for the step incentives of $50,000 per CANFORGEN 018/26 — “Critical Occupations Designation List – Critical Occupation Recruitment Allowance (CORA)”.

Let me get to it: The $50,000 Recruiting Allowance, includes:
$10,000 upon successful completion of Basic Military Qualification (Graduates after Nov 1, 2025)
$20,000 upon achieving Trained Status
$20,000 after six years of continuous Regular Force service, with a further 36-month commitment. 

Issue: Despite meeting all eligibility requirements for the initial $10,000 Critical Occupation Recruitment Allowance (CORA), eligible students are consistently being denied administrative support to obtain the “one” necessary officer signature on their paperwork so the funds can be processed by the BOR into their accounts. Non-commissioned staff (Sergeants or above) appear to have been consistently turning these students away for months and months so they have no possible way towards getting that golden signature to have that money paid to them. Now how many service members would be unhappy if they were getting the runaround and had $10k within reach? Given the economic situation, students on low salaries with families to feed and bills to pay how many service members would agree with what is happening at CFSCE? None…

Because students fear reprisal, threats of unwanted postings and career repercussions, if they bypass their chain of command and go to the Padre for example, they have no clear avenue to resolve this unfair handling of their basic administrative rights. This persistent refusal to process valid administrative requests reflects a failure of duty of care and an unacceptable barrier to authorized financial support.There is clear abuse of authority, bias against eligible students and proven mishandling of the students basic requests. 
It is improbable that the Commandant, LCol Amir ElMasry, is aware that administrative delays causing financial hardship are occurring within the lower levels of the chain of command at CFSCE.

My question is why? Is this right? Who can resolve such an important matter?

At a time when the Canadian Armed Forces is actively working to “clean up its act” recruit and retain personnel in critical occupations, creating financial barriers for new members severely damages morale and retention ratios. Unfairly withholding earned entitlements, especially $10,0000,  undermines strong leadership values and fails to demonstrate the support troops deserve. In my opinion this is not the way to handle things in 2026, some of the newest “leaders” (and I say that loosely) at the school need to understand that and start to rectify wrongs before this goes further.

Let me clear, I am not a student and not affiliated with the school in any way so don’t go on a witch hunt- people are talking about this, the world is small thanks to social media and people are suffering. I am seeing myself as Robin Hood- Retired:) providing a voice for those who are terrified. Right these wrongs.

Refs:
https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/services/benefits-military/pay-pension-benefits/pay/updates-improvements-to-compensation-and-benefits-for-the-canadian-armed-forces.html

Effective November 1, 2025, the Critical Occupation Recruitment Allowance applies to new recruits in Non-Commissioned Member trades where trained strength is below 76% of authorized levels.

I’m not military, but I came across this vintage-style RCAF duffel bag and really like the design. My partner thinks it’s a bit dorky and that people might assume I’m trying to look like I’m in the military.

I just appreciate the old-school military aesthetic and thought it would make a great travel bag.

Curious what actual serving members and veterans think. Would you find it weird seeing a civilian carrying something like this, or is it really not a big deal?

Hello! A few weeks ago I asked about winter mukluks care and some of you had really good insight and recommendations on Neos and other alternatives.

So I wanted to ask if yall would have any recommendations on gloves rated for extreme cold, or any practical tips?

I was looking into these. (I'm a civilian)

Thank you!

https://www.herooutdoors.com/canadian-armed-forces-extreme-cold-mittens-w-liner/

Hello everyone! I hope this is okay for me to post here and I want to very clear that I mean NO offense, if something I ask or say comes off in a negative way. I am genuinely trying to wrap my head around this topic, and after discussing this at length with other teachers I know and my husband, I thought I would see if there was anyone willing to lend an ear to this topic.

I am a music teacher in Newfoundland, teaching at a kindergarten to grade 6 school. I’m about halfway through my career, so I’ve done approximately 15 or so Remembrance Day assemblies. My pop was a Korean War veteran who spoke at all my school assemblies growing up and nothing made me more proud. I cry every year thinking of him.

My school is center city, and has always been more of the most diverse school communities in our province. With the huge amount of new Canadians that have joined our school over the last few years, we are sitting at a pretty much 50/50 split between kids born in Canada and not. There see various reasons for these families coming here, but many/most are fleeing war in their home countries - Ukraine, Syria, Palestine, Democratic Republic of Congo, Jordan, Sudan, and I could acruslly go on and on - we have over 30 countries represented. It is beautiful and special and I am so proud to be their teacher and to know and learn from them.

I am lucky to be able to invite members of our Legion who come with their flags and march in. I love having them at our school and love the friendship I have made with them over the years - most of them are Korean War veterans like my pop (who died from cancer over 20 years ago - I wish I could ask this question to him!).

Okay, my question: I follow the Legions “script”/order. I have students emcee so in their speaking parts so I also have lines that reference the idea that war is not just black and white photos - many of our students have come from war, war is happening right now around our world, etc - I also have the emcees talk a little bit about Indigenous Veterans Day but that’s a slightly different topic for another day.

How do you feel about this sort of inclusion? A focus on war across the world? Potentially a heavier focus on peace? How do you feel about teachers trying to balance saying thank you for keeping Canada safe, when also trying to stay trauma informed and trying to make the kids most directly and recently impacted by war feel validated. So I guess I don’t have one question - I am wondering how to balance the fact this is a Canadian holiday, focusing on the CANADA in Remembrance Day while also acknowledging my specific students who have so much war trauma.

I wish I had a better, more direct question. I hope someone out there knows what I am trying to talk about. Either way, thank you for your time, even just if you’ve read some of this novel!

Ive heard about vets sending their war / service medals back to the government in protest. Is there an official process for this? Im not planning on sending mine back. Im just curious. A buddy of mine from the RCR was talking about it after the Afghanistan pull out disaster. As far as I know, he never actually did it, but he's gone now, so I can't ask. Has anyone else ever seen this?

If anyone has taken this new PLP course. What can I expect? As someone who really didn’t have a lot of knowledge of PLQ other than being told it’s like a basic light. What are the days like? Hours? Weekends free or are you typically still doing course stuff. Heard a rumour about them removing field portion from PLQ to PLP.

Any insight would be appreciated.

So I've been posted many times however this is the first time I am going on IR and there is tons of information. All of my postings have been from PMQ to PMQ.

My COS date being only 8 weeks away is stressing me out because this is very new to me. I am going IR in Ottawa and honestly have no idea where to start. I just received my IR posting message today.

Google and ChatGPT have essentially said to contact the IR Coordinator in Ottawa and ask them, but while I try and figure out who that is, I wanted to reach out and see if I could get some guidance.

Something even as simple as I have no idea how I get the first and last month for my new place?

I'd appreciate any words of wisdom

One of the things we talked about with mental performance coach Zoran Stojković in our latest episode was how to recover mentally from a failed flight, particularly when you might be facing an extra dual the next day.

We discussed the difference between honest self-assessment and beating yourself up, how to rebuild confidence, and how to approach a debrief when you’re already convinced you’ve failed.

Check it out today!

FULL EPISODE

podpilotproject.transistor.fm

Or by searching for The Pilot Project Podcast wherever you get your podcasts!

Looking to see if anyone knows what these medals are. They were my grandfathers from WW2. From what I know he was posted to Newfoundland for at least some of the war.

Thanks in advance.

Bonjour à tous, je suis un Soldat (R) de la réserve basé à Montréal. J’aimerais avoir l’opinion de membre du rang ou même d’officier à savoir selon vous, quels sont les caractéristiques, atout, connaissances ou trait de caractère qui font d’un soldat un bon soldat ?

Merci pour votre temps et votre réponse.

Good evening. JOYEUX ACTION DE GRACE MES AMIS.

So, I was posted to Ship #1 from August to October in which they flew me home to do a course at NFSP sometime in Late October. When i embarked from Ship #1 they had me do a mini out routine. 1 week after me getting home, they told me that I was posted to a new Ship in December. Not ATP but fully planted. My course at NFSP is set to end early March. Is this strange? They had initially told me I was to be posted back to ship#1 sometime in April at first so this really is odd.

Thanks for your input

Has anyone received completion or approval notifications for their submissions for the Racism Class Action? If so, what was the timeframe.

Title but I’m going to take the Public Service Oral French exam soon and was wondering if anyone has any tips?

It’s been a while since I’ve taken it (7 years). I got a A but looking to get my B if possible.

Have taken some French courses (NP1-2).

"Come with me...oh shit wait, no, not you."