Waiting and saying goodbye

So after I got back to Victoria I immediately took 9 days of unauthorized leave. In some units (most notably the Army) I would have almost assuredly went to jail. But after I went back to work no one seemed to notice or care. The Navy is good for some things I guess. And the waiting began. I expected to see a message (if I got one at all) around the end of April. The 3^rd of April (it was a Thursday) I remember walking to see my supervisor and someone said “Hey! Congrats on your message!” I was like “what the fuck are you talking about?” They said “your offer is in”. I almost shit a chicken. I went to see the message myself and then almost did a backflip. I couldn’t believe it, it almost seemed surreal. To have worked so hard for so long and then have it come to fruition is a fantastic feeling.

At the same time Ewa (my girlfriend) was about to deploy to the gulf on the HMCS Protecteur for a 7 month tour. Not cool. Most couples never experience saying goodbye to a loved one while they go off to.... war, essentially for that length of time. I took some leave and she had some post deployment leave so I surprised her with a 3 night stay at a resort on Salt Spring Island. It was a nice relaxing way to spend some time with each other before being separated. Beautiful log chalet, as much hiking as we could handle, fishing, etc…. It was perfect. The highlight was after 3 days of rowing around the lake, Ewa managed to catch a 7 pound Rainbow trout. And like the idiot I sometimes am I forgot to bring a net so I had to wrestle the slippery bugger into the boat and beat him continuously off the seat until he died. Also of course I had never cleaned a fish. I knew the basics but hadn’t actually done it. The look on Ewa’s face as I violently tore the guts out of the fish was priceless.

Click the picture to see more

Salt Spring Island

So as it stands, I’m waiting for a posting message so I can get an idea of the time frame I’m working with here. I probably won’t update this again until I’m actually in Comox.

The Beginning

I'll start at point 1. For the last 4 years I've been committed to becoming a Search and Rescue Technician or SAR Tech. It's a military trade in the air force and possibly the best job in the world. SAR Techs are paramedics who skydive, scuba dive, ice/rock/mountain climb and whatever else it takes to get to a remote rescue scene. Not only that but they are also survival experts since they need to take care of the casualties in the case they can’t be extracted. It's a physically demanding outdoorsy job and as such, was difficult initially for me to decide how to proceed since I was and still currently am in the navy. First and foremost priority was to excel at my trade so my supervisors would have no ammo for denying me the things I really wanted. Then it was a ship's team diver course. A demanding 6 week course which I finished with little difficulty aside from some sore ankles, a written off crotch rocket, and some road rash (note: road rash is NOT cool when you wear a wetsuit all day). After that it was lay low and perform at work both in operations and diving, biding my time until I felt comfortable asking for something else. I had some time since you need at least 4 years of service before you can apply for SAR Tech. Next was a Medical First Response course which costs approximately $1300. But there is a stipulation saying that all military divers are to qualified to that level, so that was my in without paying for it. After that I tried to obtain a time waiver to disregard my lack of time served (I only had 3 years at this point), so that I could apply early. It was rejected and I had to go to Halifax for 4 months on a trades course. I was smart enough to obtain a time waiver for THAT however since the navy binds you to 2 years of obligatory service in that trade on completion of that course. While in Halifax I trained like a madman, emailed people getting letters of recommendation, got the necessary medical and fitness testing out of the way, and basically just tried to learn and do as much as possible to get selected for pre-selection. I soon returned to Victoria, did some civilian parachuting, finished compiling my file and had it sent to Ottawa.

After much waiting I found out via email that I was picked to attend the annual SAR Tech pre-selection held in Jarvis Lake, Alta. Pre-selection is no joke. If you're reading this and are considering becoming a SAR Tech, bring your A-game.

This is a good video to give you an idea of what a SAR Tech is and does;

RESCUE