And now for something completely different

CDS Gen. Walt Natynczyk was in Halifax yesterday and had this amusing little anecdote to share about a sailor he recently met:

He got another chuckle when he described meeting a sailor guarding the front gate to Kandahar Airfield.

"I said, ‘Well, how did you end up here?’ " Gen. Natynczyk recounted.

"He said, ‘Sir, I’m from HMCS Preserver and I went up to the coxswain of my ship and I asked to do something different and here I am.’

Also well received was his commitment to building new ships for the Navy:

"We have not built a warship in Canada since 1996," General Natynczyk said.

"This is my No. 1 challenge in terms of acquisitions for the Canadian Forces."

The military can buy aircraft and tanks, he said.

"But I need to build ships. And our best record for building a ship from the conception through the commissioning is eight years. And I’ve got to get on with business, folks, because our ships are old."