Contest Series: Why Can’t We All Just Get Along – Guest Blogger Taingamala!

This blog series is called

Why Can’t We All Just Get Along

What
that means, is that sometimes we tend to turn life into a big loser
contest, where we figure we have it harder than everyone else. 
Especially on Military forums and support groups.  We judge the
experiences of different branches, different bases, different families,
and we argue over who has it worse.

Let’s not anymore, okay?

So
in this series, I have some amazing guest bloggers who have written me
what it’s like to walk a mile in their shoes.  The good and the bad. 
Because all our struggles and victories may be different, but that
doesn’t make them any less valid.

And for my readers who are not military, it’s a chance to see how unique each military family is and what their day to day life is like!  

Before
each blogger, I am going to take a moment to answer a question from you
guys about what it’s like to be a Canadian military spouse.  And the
best part is, commenting and asking a question enters you into a draw
for Canadian Maple Syrup candies! When the series is all done, I will
use random.org to pick one of our question-askers as the winner of the candies :).

A Canadian Contest

So today’s question comes from Lauren Cecora (Lauren, please message me your email so I can contact you if you win), she asked 

How different are the uniforms?

Not a whole lot, I don’t think.  Most soldiers (and some sailors and airman day to day) wear Cadpat.  That’s the name of the Canadian Disruptive Pattern.  Uniforms look like this:

Unless of course you are headed to the desert.  In which case, it looks like that except tan. 

Berets (the hat) change colour according to your job.  Most army is dark green.  Airborne is maroon.  Armoured like Dh up there is black, so is the navy.  Military Police are red.  Airforce wear blue.  Etc.  The badge on their beret shows which unit they are with.

A member of the Airforce working on a flight crew wear a blue flightsuit
(jumpsuit coveralls) and a member of the Navy wears black pants with a
blue shirt, but I honestly can’t say I know much about that.  Maybe I’ll have to find a Canadian Airforce or Navy spouse for that question :).

Dress uniforms also
vary very slightly depending on your branch, but look VERY similar accross the board.  The army’s are a dark dary (I insist it just looks black) green, and look like this, with obviously different patches and bling depending on the soldiers unit, rank and deployments.

One
thing I will point out that’s different about Canadian dress uniforms is the medals. 
Canadian receive medals/ribbons for deployments and Service
Commendations and very little else.  There are no medals or ribbons for Courses, Exercises, etc.  Deployment medals are based on where you
go, there is only one medal for each location.  For example, Dh
has 3 deployments, 2 to Kandahar and 1 to Kabul.  But he only has 2
medals because he went to the same place twice.  On his last tour,
during the medal ceremony they gave him a camera to take pictures
because he already had the medal!.  So you don’t see quite as much
‘bling’ on a Canadian soldier than you would on an American.

And
what I see most frequently as a BIG difference – Canadian soldiers
almost never wear their uniform outside of work.  I mean, if they stop
at the store on the way home, or go our for lunch maybe, but they are
only permitted to wear their cadpat or ‘Combats’ to and from work.  They are not allowed to just wear it when they want. Same goes for their Dress Uniform or DEU’s. 
They can wear it to military functions but they need permission to wear
it anywhere else, like a wedding or funeral.  I always found it funny
when you watch ‘the Price is Right’, there are always soldiers in uniform!  That just doesn’t happen here. 


Do you have a question about life as a Canadian Military Spouse? Check out the facebook
page (I know it’s called Worth Missing while I await my blog
transformation by Utterly Chaotic, but it’s me, I promise) and then
leave a comment here with a question (and don’t forget an email address
so I can contact you)!


_______________________________________________________________________________

So today we get to hear from Jane over at Taingamala!  She’s sharing a look into her life as an American Army family! (Who lives in Hawaii!!  How amazing is that!)

Nine3Oh Photography

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