• Thanks for stopping by. Logging in to a registered account will remove all generic ads. Please reach out with any questions or concerns.

Officer Cadet needing advice

alib711

Guest
Inactive
Reaction score
0
Points
10
I'm an officer cadet in the artillery officer trade currently attending a civilian university.  I need advice on whether I should think about requesting an OT.  I know from reading the posts on this board that this is extremly difficult, even more so as it seems the CF is in need of artillery officers.  I chose infantry and armoured ahead of artillery on my application form when I first applied, not really expecting to be picked for artillery and I was admittedly naive and ill-informed as to the extent of the technical nature of the job, and yet that is what they chose me for.  The problem is that I dropped math after grade 11, and don't have a background in either science or physics.  While I was at St. Jean in the summer, most of the artillery officer cadets were in math related subjects, while those in the infantry were more likely to be in the social sciences.  My question is how vital is Grade 12 math and calculas?  Is it possible to be a competent Arty officer without a background in math?  Can anyone give me a few examples of specific applications of math and physics to artillery?
 
I'm an English major at RMC and I'm in the artillery... No real big deal I don't think.
 
You will do fine with the level of math you have, the majority of your first training and then duties in a unit will be Recce and the gun line. There is a bit of math for understanding gunnery too, but no more than the recce and command post techs have to do, and most of them will not have an inkling of calculus. Later as a FOO there is a need for some math, but again nothing too complicated, and nobody is going to expect you to pull a quadratic equation out of your a** while in the middle of a contact with enemy. Math will become more important if you go on the instructor of gunnery course, and that would be some time yet.
So hang in there, we need every damned one of y'as.
 
I don't know anything about arty so I couldn't give any real advice, but why not take a couple math courses as electives?
 
"I don't know anything about arty so I couldn't give any real advice, but why not take a couple math courses as electives?"

That's exactly what I'm doing, well sort of.  I'm unable to take any elective math courses as you need grade 12 math to be able to even take an elective in math at U of T.  However, I am taking a computer science course(I seem to be catching on quickly in this class) and plan to do so next year as well as take an introductory to physics for social science students (which is basically a dumbed down version of an introductory course for real students of physics).  Thanks to everyone for the advice, and if anyone wants to throw their 2 cents in I'll be more than happy to read your feedback.


 
Pay heed to what Petard has written and carry on. Concentrate on doing well in university.  Out.
 
Petard has some great advise.

I was a gunner O and did not have a very good grasp of math when I joined, I had the same concerns as you do now. Dont worry you will be fine, shooting is an art, the math will come when you need it. When it is time to do the extra math part guys like Petard will be their to lend a hand and point you in the right direction, you will be taught and you wil learn all you need once your in the family. Nice to see the guns are recruiting some non geeks these days. Always good to see.
 
alib711... I minored in Mathematics at U of T... trust me, that stuff is useless unless you're planning to be a Math academic or work as a scientist. Most of the top students in the faculty are very brainy, but they're also unsociable and physically unfit. Hardly what the CF is looking for.

If you study math at U of T, you'll learn about stuff like like Gaussian elimination, R^n, Taylor's theorem, combinatorial structures, and solution to the Dirichlet problem by conformal mapping and the Poisson kernel. I don't know much about artillery, but I'm pretty sure academic math has little to do with preforming well in the field. 
 
Whew, I was seriously worried for a second there.  Thanks for all the advice guys. 
 
Although I was not Artillary I spent 25 years in the military.  Doesen't matter what trade you go they will teach you what you need to know.  A word of advice is when you go to a unit as a new officer pay heed to what the Sr NCO's have to say.  As with anything there is good and bad but they are your best source of information and will be able to guide you.  A WO's job is to help guide young officers so that as they progress they will remember lessons learned.
 
I recently completed dp1.1 ARTY (PH. 3) last summer. and have a good understanding of what will be covered on DP 1.2 (PH.4).  The only math I needed was simple addition and subtraction.  I dropped grade 12 precalculus in order to take an easier course and didn't take any math in University.  I've found that my time as a pizza boy and having to make change has benefitted me the most. Being able to quickly add/subtract mag variations, c/a's, etc. in your head using pizza boy math speeds things up.  I'm not sure how much math is needed for my future courses, but I'm thinking it will be very little.  So with that said, you should stop thinking of OT'ing and stay in the artillery since it is the greatest job in the world.
 
riggermade said:
Although I was not Artillary I spent 25 years in the military.  Doesen't matter what trade you go they will teach you what you need to know. A word of advice is when you go to a unit as a new officer pay heed to what the Sr NCO's have to say.  As with anything there is good and bad but they are your best source of information and will be able to guide you.  A WO's job is to help guide young officers so that as they progress they will remember lessons learned.
I've started reading more and more about military life, the information gathered on this forum and from books seems to indicate that listening/learning to what an NCO says is always crucial. As though military life is an exam and they're the prof giving hints on a final.
 
AlphaQup said:
I've started reading more and more about military life, the information gathered on this forum and from books seems to indicate that listening/learning to what an NCO says is always crucial. As though military life is an exam and they're the prof giving hints on a final.

So's a quick time appreciation.  Read the posting date of your quote box.
 
Nothing wrong with alpha's quip IMHO.

A good NCO will look after and bring along his young officer... quite often at the "request" of his CO
 
Shamrock said:
So's a quick time appreciation.  Read the posting date of your quote box.
Sorry about that. Post # 3 in the topic 'Do YOU wonder why we have 117 plus pages here' topic states:
4.  Rather than UPDATE an EXISTING TOPIC, someone (see point #3) decides to START a NEW TOPIC on the SAME subject;
http://forums.army.ca/forums/threads/60876.0.html


 
Back
Top