Putting Our Training to Work

All the training that you’ve done over the years, the preparation was always for being placed in an area where you were either going to lend aid or you were going to, going to be a peacekeeper or a peacemaker in other cases. You learn all your field craft, you go on exercise and you think, what am I doing this for? It’s just, it becomes redundant after a while or so it feels it’s almost boring at times. But when you finally do end up going to a place like Israel, like in the Golan Heights, you, you realize that there was a reason for all this training, that your Sergeant Major was telling you the right things to do when you... you should’ve, There were certain things you should’ve been listening very closely to when the Sergeant Major was talking to, talking, but you, you learn to do your job. It’s, I put it as an example if you were, you practiced being a, being a doctor for 20 years and never had a patient, it’s like practicing as in being in the military. You practice to be a soldier and then when something like this comes up you become a soldier. You know what a soldier has to go through.

Mr. Campbell explains the concept of military training in relation to the purpose, intensity and effective results exercised during active deployments.

Robert Campbell

Mr. Campbell was born in May of 1956 in Elmsdale, Prince Edward Island. At age 10, his father decided to move their family to the farming community of Alberton. With the desire for something better to do in life, Mr. Campbell left the farm life and joined the military. In April 1975 he joined the Canadian Forces and trained in Cornwallis, Nova Scotia. He then travelled to Borden, Ontario to complete his technician training which resulted in a military career as a mechanic. In 1992, Mr. Campbell joined the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery Regiment and stayed with that unit for four years. During this time, he served in Germany and Holland. Mr. Campbell was later posted to Petawawa and became a member of the Canadian Airborne Regiment, with deployments in the Golan Heights and Somalia. During his mission in Somalia, Mr. Campbell was promoted to the rank of Sergeant. In 1997, he returned to Petawawa, Ontario and was medically discharged from the Canadian Forces. Mr. Campbell and his family moved back to Prince Edward Island where he worked with Veterans Affairs Canada.