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Description
Mr. Chaisson speaks of how the level of discipline in the military today is nowhere near what it was when he entered the service, and the negative impact he thinks it's had on the readiness of the military.
Transcription
Interviewer: Mr. Chaisson, during your time as a training officer in Gagetown, in the final years of your career with the Canadian Army, how would you assess the recruits that were coming in to the Canadian military at that time?
Very good. They were better, better educated than what we were, ‘cause when I joined the army, anybody that had grade 8, boy, was college, college people. Now, I seen young fellows, I tell ‘em your gonna do a bit of mopping for me today. "Oh, hey I got grade 12. I shouldn't be mopping floors." Well, I said, "What are you gonna... What did you join the army for? " Y'know?
Interviewer: Did you notice a change in the level of discipline from the time you began your service to the end?
Oh, yes. We were very, very strict, at inspection every morning, stand by your beds around 7:30, and they, they threw a quarter on the bed and if it didn't bounce, you were in trouble. If your pillow wasn't right, you were in trouble. You had your wash basin shiny, on top of your pillow. And with the recruits now, they practically gotta ask permission to go inspect them. They're... it's just like a normal job, as far as I'm concerned.
Interviewer: What do you think is going to happen as a result of that change in discipline.
In combat, I'd, some of the recruits that I seen, I don't think would last very long in combat, because you, you gotta train for what your gonna expect. Now if you, if anything broke out up north, with the Russians and that, which we, we were up in Eureka and Resolute Bay, we used to take off and go for walks there picking up muskox horns, and you'd find the odd panel of a ration box in Russian. So, that meant that the Russians were coming in up north, travelling back and forth. And so, being up there, we knew if a war ever, anything ever broke up there, we know what to expect. And ya gotta, ya gotta go through everything... Winter, winter, ya gotta know how to put up with it in the snow and everything, and if you don't do it, and something happens, you're gonna lose half your men before you start. And a lot, a lot of them couldn't hack in the wintertime, sleeping outside in the snow, and everything and that...