Medics Go Where Needed

Heroes Remember

Medics Go Where Needed

Transcript

The military chose me to be army. When you join at the time they were doing the three different elements; air force, navy, army. In basic training they came out and told me, you’re army! I tried to say well my dad’s air force and I wanted to go air force too but in our trade it doesn’t really matter, we call ourselves a purple trade because no matter what, we go everywhere so even here in Halifax in the navy, you’ve got army medics or air force medics serving on the ship. We're support trade so we go wherever we are needed. Well the support trade is actually either medics, clerks, supply, they’re all support trade because we support the mission whether they be a soldier or navy or air men. So the different bases that we go to are all support, but just. When you put an army uniform on and you’ve done enough time in the army, you are considered an army medic. If you just wear the uniform and you’ve never served in the army base or nothing, you’re not really an army medic; you’re just wearing the uniform of it. Well you do your basic in Borden, Ontario, as a TQ3 and they give you the basic indoctrination of what’s it’s like to be a medic, what you need to know medical wise, what you need to know about the history of the medics, and everything like that. You do your basic there and from there I went to Halifax and did my phase two of that and actually worked in a fully functional hospital in Halifax and learned what it was like to be a hospital medic. You do some more postings and you go back again for your 5’s trainings and that’s again in Borden It’s a five month course at the time when I did it and it was again, more anatomy, physiology and learning that kind of stuff. And they teach you more field craft and from there you go out and do independent duty once you’re a corporal and your 5's qualified. And then like after that many years later I did my 6A course again, you go back to Borden because that’s where our medical school is and you get really in depth training on your 6A’s at the time and then they unleash you after that onto another unit. But you keep going back to Borden for training and every time you are trained, at the time, you’d go to another base to learn a new experience, a new way of doing things. So whether it be a training base, an air force base, or army base everything is a little bit different in our trade. Sick parade is a little bit different so you get to learn all the different aspects.

Description

Mr. Williams tells of how he was chosen as an army medic although it was not his first preference and of the training involved.

Andy Williams

Mr. Williams was born June 24, 1964 in Trenton, Ontario. His father being in the Air Force, Mr. Williams had the strong desire to join, however, when his time came, the decision for service would be army and began his training career as an army medic. In 1985 he joined as a reservist and spent 25 years with the Regular Force. In 1997, Mr. Williams was deployed to Bosnia with the Lord Strathcona’s Horse Royal Canadians holding rank of master corporal. Another opportunity for a posting was exercised in 1998 when he deployed to Kosovo, this time with the 1 Service Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment. Mr. William’s army career as a medic took him to many In-Canada posting serving with the Canadian military and upon retirement resides in Berwick, Nova Scotia with his wife and family.

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