Shocking Abuse in the Cdn Forces!!

[Darrell Zinck]

Hi

Got this in an email from a Friend:

Worst of the Three Services

A recent report by the Auditor General has found that allegations of "a culture of widespread bullying and brutality" within the Canadian Forces are, in the most part, unfounded. The audit team, which traveled to every Defence establishment across Canada and abroad and interviewed staff from all three services, found surprisingly few cases of unfair treatment and bullying within the Army and Navy.

When it came to the Air Force, however, the report told a different story. Complaints to the OAG came from a total of 3,555 Air Force members, compared with three from Navy and just one from Army.

While this statistic is alarming in its own right, it becomes horrific when one considers that each complaint represents a sad story of abuse, mistreatment and neglect. As one senior Air Force officer put it, "Each story is, in itself, a sad indictment on the Canadian Forces. When taken as a whole, however, they demonstrate a reprehensible lack of regard for personnel on the part of managers at all levels."

One young pilot told of having to spend two nights in tented accommodation, despite the fact that there was an empty five-star hotel just 1 kilometer away.

Another said that he had been forced to endure a grueling fitness test every year since he joined in 1997.

One airwoman alleged that she had been overlooked for promotion on numerous occasions, simply because she was fat, lazy and stupid.

An aircraftman stated he had been refused permission to wear civilian attire to work, despite the fact that his uniform clashed with his eye colour.

Another had been forced to wear uncomfortable safety boots for periods of up to eight hours straight.

A clerk could not understand why she had been sent to work in a Joint military headquarters, "I have been forced to work for horrid Army people who just don't understand what the military is all about. I feel the Air Force has victimized me by forcing me to do this...I will be seeking compensation..."

Shockingly, Air Force senior ranks are also subject to mistreatment. One SNCO stated, "I was deeply upset when I was addressed as 'Sergeant' by an officer. He knew my name was Robert. It was just horrible - I have never been more humiliated in my life." In response a senior officer stated, "the officer in question has been moved on...".

A number of personnel complained of having to attend courses that were not relevant to their jobs, such as rigorous ground combat courses and drawn-out lectures on occupational health and safety. To add insult to injury, a young corporal was even ordered to pack up chairs in the classroom after one such course.

The huge backlash against treatment of Air Force personnel should provide senior officers with a vital clue with regard to the massive retention problems experienced by the CF in recent times. Over the past two years, National Defence has spent millions looking into the issue.

Not all of the Air Force's hierarchy, however, were upset by the revelations. Said the outgoing Chief of the Air Staff, "I'm delighted with the result. I am very happy that our retention problems are due, in the most part at least, to something as harmless as bullying. I thought everyone was leaving because of me."

Shocking!!!.................Well, maybe not so much so!!

regards
Darrell

[Alex Blair (RIP)]

Originally posted by Darrell Zinck
Hi

Got this in an email from a Friend:



Shocking!!!.................Well, maybe not so much so!!

regards
Darrell

Darrell...
Not much has changed since I got out in '77....
Starting as an AC2 in '63 I was led a stray by "Others" in viscious nightly rituals in the consumption of vast quantities of that evil implement of liquid torture...warm beer..!!
It wasn't untill after my Trades training in the Refrigeration field that I was forced to cure all the refrigeration woes on various bases and Stations,culminating in the most hidious posting of all ..A three year stint on the Island of Sardinia,Italy...
I landed there in August of '69,which conflicted with my planned attendance at a "training" course in NY at a little place called "Woodstock" and can remember vividly flying over the site ,which was obscured with "Smoke" on my way to Europe,aboard another Air Force Implement of torture,the Yukon...The noise was brutal..and thundered in my throbbing brain....
Mercifully we landed in Lahr and was again forced to wait over night for my Flip to Sardinia...
While again forced to attend the mess ,many double rums were consummed at the outrageous price of .10 a shot....
I awakened the following morning in the flower bed outside the mess and was fortunate to find my gear and get to the flight line only to be packed into a jump seat of another instrument of torture,the Buffalo....
The most exciting aircraft ride of my life then occurred as we flew through a thunderstorm over Corsica....That Buffalo was aptly named as it bucked and kicked and was in every position of the compass before we came out of the storm over the runway at 10000 feet over our Sardinian Airbase,Deccimanno and the pilot did a combat landing....
There wasn't a clean pair of knickers on the flight...
I could go on with the horror stories of abuse that I suffered in my military career...all self inflicted and I wouldn't have missed it for any other life ....I have stories to tell that need telling and I should write a book..but no one would believe half of them except the people that were there...Gallant troopers all...
Per Ardua Ad Astra...
"Through Adversity to the stars"....

[Tony Smith]

Reminds me of a night around the campfire one night on one of our MV Club trips. One guy, who could talk the legs off a billiard table, had eveyone spellbound with his reminisces of Vietnam. The sights he would rather forget, the memories he would best repress, the hardships. We were rapt with every person taking in every word he said, until he got to the worst experience he endured, one that he had only recently confided to his PSTD counsellor. During his time in Vietnam, he coped fairly well except for a period of two gruelling weeks, 14 days of sheer hell when there was NO NEAPOLITAN ICE CREAM ( !), only Vanilla.

Of course, we all fell about laughing! Bloody Air Force!

[Alex Blair (RIP)]

Originally posted by Tony Smith
Reminds me of a night around the campfire one night on one of our MV Club trips. One guy, who could talk the legs off a billiard table, had eveyone spellbound with his reminisces of Vietnam. The sights he would rather forget, the memories he would best repress, the hardships. We were rapt with every person taking in every word he said, until he got to the worst experience he endured, one that he had only recently confided to his PSTD counsellor. During his time in Vietnam, he coped fairly well except for a period of two gruelling weeks, 14 days of sheer hell when there was NO NEAPOLITAN ICE CREAM ( !), only Vanilla.

Of course, we all fell about laughing! Bloody Air Force!

Tony..
I feel your friends pain...
It must have been brutal for the poor chap..

After a shortened tour of Sardinia,due to base closure(Another abuse by our Liberal polititions in Ottawa)...I was posted to Northern Quebec..just in time for the FLQ crisis in October of '70...
That was a great time..powers of search..seizure and arrest without cause or warrant(WE were under the War Measures Act at the time...)
And it wasn't all Quebeccers....only a handful...much as today...the few drive the truck...
THe Quebecers had at least a civilized ritual at Winter carnival in Feb.
Great loads of "Carr-ee-boo" was consumed out of hollow plastic walking canes.....an unholy mixture of 50/50 red wine and "Alcool",the legally purchaced 97% by volume grain alcohol....and again I suffered many a self inflicted wound in my pursuit of glory defending my country from terrorists in the wilds of Quebec...
Only caught one that was shooting at our radomes....especially because I happened to be inside the radome at the time...
I wasn't a happy camper..
Didn't know what it was at first until we notices little holes appearing in the fiberglaas radome..
Never hit the antenna ,but not from lack of trying..Another war story for my book...
The pain....