Recruit training with a twist
Jessica Gillies
Lookout
July 31, 2006
Jessica Gillies
Lookout
WO Tom Woodrow helps OS Greg Moore bandage OS Stan Stewart during a first aid lesson July 25. The two youth are part of this year's Raven program.
For the past three weeks, Work Point barracks have been home to 36 aboriginal youth. Decked out in army green uniforms and military-issue haircuts, the teens spend their days learning military ethos, drill, weapons handling, first aid and field training.
They are the latest recruits for Raven, an employment program that connects aboriginal youth with the military.
The youth are hired as Class B reservists and paid about $500 a week.
OS Charlie Thompson, 18, heard about Raven from his brother, who attended the program in its first year.
“He said, ‘If you don’t want to get up early, don’t go,’” says OS Thompson, from the Ditidaht First Nation in Victoria.
But OS Thompson was determined to come to Raven, which runs for seven weeks in the summer and gives aboriginal youth aged 16 to 29 the full basic recruit training experience. He sees opportunities for a job in the navy.
“I talked to my mother, and she said, ‘This is something you can pursue.’” He knows finishing high school is a must before becoming a boatswain.
There is no obligation for Raven students to continue in the military after the program ends. But on graduation day they’ll walk away with partial Basic Military Qualifications, making it easier to join the naval reserve force in the future.
Raven has all the content of basic training with a slightly different delivery.
“We’re tough on them; we still expect things from them,” says PO2 Allan MacRae, Raven Program Coordinator and Platoon Commander. “But we are a little less strict, and that has to happen because we know how we were when we were 16 or 17. We still have the same expectations; however, we might have to go about it in a different way.”
The average age in regular basic recruit training is 25; PO2 MacRae estimates the average age of Raven participants to be17.5.
Instead of barking instructions at recruits, he says, instructors have discussions with them.
The best thing for OS Thompson has been learning self-discipline and listening. “You have to stand there and listen, and if you don’t listen, you do push-ups.”
The hardest challenge for most recruits is being away from home for the first time and dealing with a rigorous routine, says PO2 MacRae.
“Not many 16- and 17-year-olds in the middle of summer are waking up at five,&rdquo he says.
But the youth get through it with support from family and their peers, with whom they form friendships.
“The biggest change we see in the kids is a change in attitude, a change in desire,” he says. “Some get here thinking, ‘this isn’t for me.’ That changes to: ‘I can do this and no one can stop me.’”
For OS Thompson, the hardest adjustment, as his brother warned, was getting up at 5 a.m. But he’s sure his family will notice a difference in him, because he’s now used to the routine, which includes making his bed in the morning and shining his shoes to perfection.
“The parents, grandparents, uncles and aunties see changes in their youth, which is probably the greatest reward we could ask for. One of the best comments we get is, ‘I wish I had something like this when I was a kid,’ which is huge in support of the program to continue,” says PO2 MacRae.
