An update before the holidays...

Good day folks,

Another chapter is finished, Phase IV is all done. I am officially done the training system and will be joining the 2nd Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment here in Fredericton, New Brunswick tomorrow morning. It feels like forever ago (just under 5 years ago to be exact) that I started my BBA, with all things leading to this beauty of a cap badge.

The cap badge is one of the most sacred symbols of the regiment. All members wear it on their beret with pride and it identifies you as not just a member of the Canadian Forces, but a member of your regiment. I am lucky enough to be joining The Royal Canadian Regiment, the oldest regular force regiment with the most battle honours to boot.

Phase IV was a lot of fun. I thought I would post some pics with a little bit of commentary to show some of the highlights from the course. Unfortunately, the pics of the 17 tonne LAV we flipped upside down on its turret will not be posted as that is still under investigation.

Here's me all prettied up for the Remembrance Day ceremony, one of the things in your career that's most worth polishing your boots for...

Here's the Top Candidate giving a thumbs up after we destroyed some Tartans during Hasty Attacks

A couple of characters dressed up for Halloween as single dad's before heading out to Dolan's Pub in Fredericton...

Here's me and a good buddy who is also joining 2RCR, enjoying some downtime in the field.

Myself, also just after destroying some Tartans, showing off the M203 grenade launcher...

It became a nightly ritual in the field for me to read bedtime stories to the boys... Here I am reciting some Edgar Allen Poe - as officers we must be well-cultured gentleman and all...

Here is the first LAV we managed to roll... At the time we thought it was pretty cool, little did we know how small of an incident this was... we certainly learned what a real "roll-over" was by the end of course haha.

Here's me and another course mate dressed up before the graduate's Mess Dinner... 11 people got promoted so there was $1800 put down on the bar and we never paid for a thing all night... The handsome young chap who has his arm around me, who hated the cold more than anyone on the platoon, found out that he'll be flying to the Arctic and driving 4 hours north on snowmobile to meet his platoon very shortly!

All in all, it was a fun course and we are all very happy to be headed to battalion and then on Xmas leave. I'll be flying to Fort McMurray on Saturday, before heading to Cincinnati Jan 2-5 to train some jiu jitsu, and then back here on the 6th. Work starts on the 7th, but I've secured an apartment so I will likely be moving my stuff into that as soon as we get back. I'll keep you all updated!

Cheers