"Not your father's military"

A Canadian soldier reflects on his many years of service (links added, via Spotlight on Military News and International Affairs):

A soldier's story
Russell D. Storring
10 years of change in the Canadian Armed Forces

In 2000, I was stationed at Camp Shilo, Man., with the 1st Regiment Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, one of the most storied units of the Canadian Armed Forces.

We had just undergone the Forces-wide changeover of our olive drab combat uniforms for the new ones with the digital camouflage pattern known as CADPAT.

It was similar to many European and U.S. designs. But we all joked that it looked like it was patterned after a jar of relish.

Apparently it was designed on a computer program so as to greatly reduce the enemy's ability to view us, particularly with night-vision goggles.

Today, as my almost second decade of being a soldier winds down, I look back on the last 10 years of rapid change in the Canadian military, much of which had a positive impact on me personally.

These changes ranged from the new relish-jar uniforms, as well as new communications equipment and vehicles, to fitness, pay, military culture and even the civilian perceptions of soldiering itself...

From where I sit, Canada's involvement in Afghanistan has been about much more than new equipment or personnel.

Change has affected training, military culture, pay and promotions as well as a slew of other issues that simply evolved or fell into place because of the pressures of modern combat.

Although I joined in 1991 as a soldier, Canada's military was perceived as an army of peacekeepers and much of the training was focused around this concept.

Today, with constant rotations in and out of Afghanistan, our training, fitness and mindset have evolved away from the peacekeeper mentality back to soldiering and war fighting.

Concepts such as the three-block war — fighting, peacekeeping and rebuilding all in the same theatre — which had been discussed for years, are now an everyday reality and put into successful action by Canada and its coalition partners.

Another change has been that the deployment tempo for almost every soldier seemed to increase as a result of Canada's involvement in Afghanistan.

I only had one (UN) tour in the 1990s, in Rwanda. But between 2003 and the end of 2008, I completed three six-month-plus tours in Afghanistan...

Russell Storring overlooks Kabul in 2005 on his second tour in Afghanistan. (Russell Storring/CBC)

In the early 1990s, I wore my uniform to work and to Remembrance Day, and tried not to stop anywhere else along the way.

I remember most Canadians seemed indifferent to the Canadian Forces and, on occasion, I remember getting yelled at, or even being given the middle finger salute by not only adults but young children as well.

It was disheartening at times, but I was never one to let it get to me.

Today, it is the complete opposite. I am almost always stopped when I am in uniform by both old and young Canadians, and thanked for my service and what I do...

This is definitely not the military it was when I joined in 1991. The changes to the way the Canadian Forces does business, both at home and abroad, even right down to the culture of being military has changed, I believe, for the better...