I served just over 22 years in the Canadian military. My home regiment was the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, I served with all the regiments three battalions and the battle school. I also served two times with The 2nd Commando of the Canadian Airborne Regiment (which, in the late seventies through to disbandment was fed by the PPCLI). I had a good career but my last two postings were kind of unique. I was a rifle Platoon Warrant for a platoon with the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada (while simultaneously being a member of 3 PPCLI 10/90) and after this my final stint was with Canadian Forces Northern Area (Rangers), which in my last year became The new 1st Canadian Ranger Patrol Group where I served as its Operations Officer.
Why do I state my military history in a statement about Christians? Well, in all of those postings, tours of duty in and out of the country, High Arctic trips, United Nation, NATO deployments, I only remember meeting two... two... avowed Born Again Christians (though I don't think with my Catholic background I had any understanding of what that meant). Yes there were numerous non-practising Catholics, various types of Protestants, a ton-load of agnostics and a few avowed atheists in the Canadian infantry. But as a Platoon Warrant and earlier as an instructor in the PPCLI battle school (in the nominal role book) it was easy to see that most put down any convenient 'religion', somebodies got to bury you: or NRE (no Religion Expressed). And outside of baptisms, recruit school Sundays (catch a nap), I don't think Padre's had a lot of work outside of deployment (I only saw them as a conduit to deal with interesting personnel problems while teaching recruits or while on deployment), nice guys,absolutely not in your face about anything but a kind of loop hole that allowed you to step aside strictly the chain of command to achieve a solution to issues in a platoon or recruit section during military service.
I did notice that while on our first tour in the former Republic of Yugoslavia that by the end of the tour there were no soldiers in my platoon who still had NRE (or didn't smoke, excepting myself, it was so hard to quit I didn't want to start, chewing tobacco covered off in a pinch...LOL) as their stated 'religion'. After my last UN tour I was posted to Vancouver.
I was very busy teaching recruits the short time I was with the Seaforths, and the pace tripled when we were posted to Yellowknife with the Rangers.
There had been nothing that I could not do or figure out a way to succeed at while in the service (I am convinced that this is the purpose for the pace, who else would you get the jump out of planes etc...LOL). Adapt and overcome. My personal motto.
The first half of my career I was single, lots of potential, but the military always seemed to send me away, seems most girls are not into a 'letter writing relationship' (either that or I'm just not that motivating...LOL). My second part of my career I met and married Barb, we had two children. Barb and the kids were important to me. My family though important was always relegated to second place to my career. I know that that is a harsh statement, I would have denied it vehemently at the time, but it was true. The kids grew, family events happened, our little family developed its own culture and traditions. Of which I was not really a part of. Not my proudest actions. (I was very quick to tell young recruits that the army wouldn't be beside you on that rocking chair when you were old, but I definitely didn't act like I believed it...).
The winter of 1997 I was in Clyde River NT/NU and met a fellow completely unlike anyone I had ever met. David Hayes. He was friendly, professional, kind, knowledgeable in his craft (advanced accounting?), understanding and a complete freak.... what do I mean by freak? He openly read his Bible, he wasn't ashamed to be reliant on an invisible 'sky person'... He didn't push it, but didn't hide it, and (otherwise) he was normal. It left a large impression on me. Later around Christmas, the internet was new, I tripped upon a site that explained Dr. Henry Morris' book on the flood. I remember saying to Barb "this makes sense, I've been lied to"... Another startling shock to my world view.
In the summer of 1998 my step father-in-law and my mother-in-law were coming to Yellowknife to visit. I was to take Les out fishing for a week with James. The initial plan was to bounce between some of the lakes on the Ingraham Trail, camp the nights, fish the days. However there was a large forest fire that smoked out the majority of the area to the east of YK and the north shore of Great Slave Lake. So, the plan shifted to loading up a 16 ft Lund (with 15 & 25 horse motors set up in tandem, one locked one tiller-ed) and visited the East Arm (where some of the most awesome fishing in the world - reportedly - is). A friend of ours with his buddy were to come along in their boat. They had some engine problems about an hour out and turned back, we travelled on alone.
It was a great week. The trip back down the east arm was uneventful. We stopped for lunch a Gros Cap and then ventured out to the outside markers (no GPS, didn't know the inside passage). The sky didn't look good, but it was only a hour plus run...
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