Description
Mr. Rutherford describes the pride felt for his regiment and the strong sense of camaraderie shared amongst the Canadian Forces soldiers.
Mark Rutherford
Mr. Rutherford was born in St. Laurent, Quebec, on March 1, 1962. After making the decision to join the Canadian Forces, Mr. Rutherford became a member of the Royal Canadian Infantry Regiment. He received training in London, Ontario, and participated in theatres of service in Somalia and Cyprus. After retiring from his military career, Mr. Rutherford trained to become an addiction counsellor and became employed with the Department of National Defence in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He used his knowledge and military experience to assist fellow soldiers in coping with the emotional effects resulting from their deployments.
Transcript
Unless you’ve ever experienced that bond, you wouldn’t understand that bond, but it’s an amazing thing. It’s more than just a sense of family. It’s a sense of belonging, it’s a sense of togetherness, it’s a sense of shared experience, it’s a sense of wholeness, it’s just . . . and it’s all directed towards the same pride of being in the regiment. I mean, back then at 17, 18 year old, you get 90 of us on the parade square and we were indestructible because we were that cohesive as a unit and as watching everybody’s back and doing things together. It was just an amazing thing to be part of. To just, that togetherness, that wholeness of it all was just amazing. There’s nothing, when you’re on in your full CF outfit all spic and spanky and shiny and clean, being there on a parade, say with a hundred or two hundred other people, and you’re given an order of attention and everybody snaps their feet at the right moment, and you can hear that one click and it’s just amazing to have such togetherness. To catch that feeling is an amazing thing, that you can carry that feeling with you all your life and I was part of that.