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Military 'Might' not 'Right' for Schoolyard, father says

I guess the same question goes to ask the parent, what happens when they bring doctors, nurses, and police officers/ other professions to school. Why didn't he complain then? See... you can almost tell that this guy's got no one that served... idiot...
 
Any one else see this?

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. -- A parent is raising concern after a soldier visiting his child's elementary school to promote Canadian Forces Day showed the girl how to fire his machine gun.

Jean Dandenault says the visit earlier this week by a team of soldiers from the Canadian Forces Station in St. John's smacked of a recruitment effort, and his daughter should not have been shown how to fire the weapon.

"For the military to have the army come to the school and show this, without any consent from parents, seems really off the wall," said Dandenault.

The military denies its soldiers gave children weapons, and it says recruitment had nothing to do with the visit.

Capt. Mark Gough, a military public affairs officer, said one of the soldiers had a disabled C-9 machine gun with him when they visited the school in Holyrood, near St. John's.

When a child asked to feel how heavy it was, he held it in his hands and let the child get a feel for what it was like. "At no time was the student given the machine gun by himself," he said.

"By allowing a child or somebody to feel the weight of a C-9 machine gun, it will give them an idea of what some poor soldier is doing slogging it out in the heat over in Kandahar," Gough said.

The school denies Gough's claim that the soldier had permission to show off the weapon.

I found it here.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=81bff1da-f91d-4b6b-a3cc-5ff680229d39

Funny how it's a big deal on the left coast eh?

Bern

 
Huff, Puff, permission to recover Ma'am!  ;D

Reminds me of the oddest email I saw from Cold Lake recently.  The Wing Chief had to send out a reminder that the address of "Sir" was in-appropriate for female Snr NCO's and Officers.  Damndedest thing.  Must be a story behind that one.

Cheers Bern
 
BernDawg said:
Huff, Puff, permission to recover Ma'am!  ;D

Reminds me of the oddest email I saw from Cold Lake recently.  The Wing Chief had to send out a reminder that the address of "Sir" was in-appropriate for female Snr NCO's and Officers.  Damndedest thing.  Must be a story behind that one.

Cheers Bern

Yes there is quite a story. I'm not a ma'am either!!  ;D
 
ArmyVern said:
Yes there is quite a story.

You write either to much or not enough... What is the rest of it  ;D ?
I would have called every soldier I saw a "sir", now I know better  :D !


I'm not a ma'am either!!  ;D

Please, improve my english, what are you ?

/puzzled



 
I know.  But seeing as I work for the Airforce now I just don't think Dudette would cut it.  ;D
 
BernDawg said:
I know.  But seeing as I work for the Airforce now I just don't think Dudette would cut it.  ;D

Ahhh, I see; then more properly, you should call me Vern!!  >:D
 
Roger that Vern.  ;)

And as for the Email I am on course in borden at the moment so I am not privy to the local Cold Lake gossip.  I just check my DWAN mail from time to time.
 
Right know I have a list of fifteen schools in the Calgary area, plus another 12 in the Columbia river valley that would love to have the following in their school parking lot:
1) LAV III
2) G Wagon
3) any military vehicle.
4) A real live mil member for the day.
5) If members and vehicle available there are no funds.

After talking to several unit CO's (both reg and res cbt arms)it seems that there are not enough 1-4 available. A couple of the teachers involved, like myself remember doing our share of 'dog and pony' shows. Bring back the "War Bond Tours". I seem to recall last year for Remembrance Week that in Calgary there were 285 requests for speakers in area schools. Oh well, "and here we have students a Mark 1 Male Tank, you will notice it's tortoise like shape, Yes, it is known as a Male tank as it has cannons sticking out of the side sponsons, a Female tank only has machine guns.........................."

Interesting aside:

"Interestingly, in the year 2003 the American Army happened upon two World War One Renault tanks rusting away in an Afghan junk yard; they were quickly wisked away for restoration and exhibition at the Fort Knox Tank Museum in Kentucky.
"http://oldmagazinearticles.com/articles.php?cid=92
 
This is highly indicative of the attitude of Calgarians support for thier military. When I was in High School (Central Memorial) Kitty corner to both the Museum of the Regiments and Base Calgary it was common for the carreer fair to be attended by all of the following

LdSH, 1 VP, 1 Svc, 1 Fd Amb, all the militia units, Navy Reserve, Comm Res you name it, and we were all happy for them to come (half of my graduation class wore uniforms to the ceremony, we joked it was an all arms graduation coy. It's now greater than a decade sinse the base closure and the populace still supports us.
 
A Holyrood father said the Canadian military crossed a line by bringing an army tank to a schoolyard, and allowing children there to touch weaponry.
The Canadian Forces have been bringing a tank to schools in the St. John's area this week.
(CBC) "I'm kind of amazed," said Jean Dandenault, whose nine-year-old daughter and her class at Holy Cross Elementary school were given a first-hand show-and-tell session with a tank and related gear.

Dandenault said he and his wife were shocked when their daughter described her day on Wednesday.

"She said, 'We had soldiers with an armed vehicle and they showed us how to use rifles.' They pulled the trigger," said Dandenault.

"It's almost unbelievable that they're showing this to Grade 4, 5, 6 [students]," he said. "I don't feel it is the place. The school is a learning place, not a place to show military [equipment].… This is basically recruitment."

The Canadian Forces have been touring schools in the St. John's area this week, as part of an outreach program.


Jean Dandenault says he was 'amazed' that his nine-year-old daughter's class was shown an army tank.
(CBC) Master Cpl. Mike Dawe said children have never been put at risk.

"They just got to hold it — that was pretty much it," said Master Cpl. Mike Dawe, who said demonstrations of a rifle are conducted safely.

"It was under supervision. I had it [and] I didn't let go of it," said Dawe. "They got to put it on their shoulder and just kind of see what it was like."

Parent Elizabeth Kenny was not bothered by a demonstration on Thursday at a school in Topsail.

"They all have questions about the army and the truck and what are they doing here, and it's great for them to take the time out and come and share this with them," Kenny said.

Meanwhile, Dandenault said he was told by the school that there was not enough time to send notices home to parents about the military visit.

He said he does not object to the Canadian Forces participating in job fairs organized for high school students.

This is just sad. Last year some guys from LER and SALH came to my highschool to promote the PRes. When me and some of the kids in my school discovered they had brought a G-Wagon with them, we were all over it. They didn't have any light weapons on display though.

Edit to add: Then again I live in Edmonton, and we not only more conservative (read: more tolerant of the CF), but we also have a large military community.
 
This same sort of thing goes on here in the states too. You will always find a small but vocal group who complain about anything they deem as "too militaristic" or whatever. They comlain if the SWAT team brings some weapons to a public display, if the military recruiters go to high schools, if the flag flies from the hill in a public park, etc etc. All this has happened here in Eugene, which is also known as the PRE. (Peoples' Republic of Eugene).
 
Red 6 said:
This same sort of thing goes on here in the states too. You will always find a small but vocal group who complain about anything they deem as "too militaristic" or whatever. They comlain if the SWAT team brings some weapons to a public display, if the military recruiters go to high schools, if the flag flies from the hill in a public park, etc etc. All this has happened here in Eugene, which is also known as the PRE. (Peoples' Republic of Eugene).

The key is going to be how the education professionals respond. In the recent past the PC faction has been winning the day...eg. If one parent complains about a Christmas concert because they are not religious or of a different faith then they ban Christmas concerts.
Will the PC faction win the day and ban all military "dog and pony shows" because of one complaint, thus penalizing the majority for the sake of the one dissenter, or will someone in the School Board thank the person kindly for their point of view and carry on with the program? ???
 
cheeky_monkey said:
This is just sad. Last year some guys from LER and SALH came to my highschool to promote the PRes. When me and some of the kids in my school discovered they had brought a G-Wagon with them, we were all over it. They didn't have any light weapons on display though.

Edit to add: Then again I live in Edmonton, and we not only more conservative (read: more tolerant of the CF), but we also have a large military community.


Yes, Yes we Did.

#rdHerd RE your having a list of schools that want demos, theres a pool of fit, motivated, knowadgeable troops in the PRes Units in Edmonton and Calgary that are more than willing to work some Class A days, to come out and show some Kit, I mean we lack LAV's and such, but we have Gwagons and a few other nifty toys.
 
I cannot believe people these days.  I read last week the the City of Toronto is ordering paramedics and firefighters to remove "Support the Troops" magnets from all vehicles owned by the city because they "get complains because not everyone supports our troops."

To those confused people, this is your country...these are our troops.  Who defends our interests and resources, people etc.  We do!  So sit down, shut it, because one day you will be begging for the guys in green when your house freezes, floods, or gets blown up.

For my own disbelief little story.  I was doing a presence patrol in a small town, we had gone by a large group of kids playing hockey.  We stopped and they took pictures, and cordened off the area and talked with them for a few minutes.  Parents even offered us beer, water, chips etc, cause they were having like a bbq bash on their street.  We get going and like 2 blocks away we pass by a lady in a stroller walking towards the hockey game (where we just came from) and she stops and lectures us about guns.  All I hear was "blah blah blah stay away from those kids because you have real guns."  I couldn't believe her, we had just come from there and there was like 20 parents taking pictures of us.

People these days have no sense of reality.  Quick fact, 1/3 of the world lacks fresh water right?  Well guess who has 33% of the fresh water.  That's 2 billion people wanting what 30 million hogs.  ;D
 
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