Description
Mr. McCue speaks about the changes in training practices, weapon use and transitions made to improve the way Canadian Forces prepared their troops.
Robert McCue
Mr. Robert McCue was born August 22, 1972 in the city of Edmonton, Alberta. During his youth, he joined the air cadets and contributes this as a turning point towards a military career. Joining the Reserves, Mr. McCue became a part of the South Alberta Lighthorse Unit formerly known as the South Alberta Regiment. He accepted a deployment to Bosnia in 2003 as an infantry section commander, holding rank of sergeant. Later, he accepted a position with a newly developed unit, PSYOPS and deployed to Afghanistan in 2006. During this time Mr. McCue worked for Canada Post. Having a strong interest in military history and respecting the contributions made by his grandfather during WWI, Mr. McCue had the opportunity to travel as part of the delegation to Vimy in celebration of the 100th anniversary, an honour he will cherish for a lifetime. Mr. McCue presently resides in Edmonton, Alberta with his family.
Transcript
Training was interesting. When I first joined we were issued the FN
rifle and the SMG (sub machine gun), the Sterling and within that first year it changed from those weapons to the new C7 which was our M16. So we were going through, the forces were going through a modernization phase when we joined and it slowly continued throughout my career. There was much more advancements in technology, equipment, uniforms, it was quite fascinating. You are learning the very best, the very cutting edge training. When we deployed to
Afghanistan we had a new drill come into the Canadian Forces called the gun fighter drill which was a new way of shooting instinctively and it was something that would horrify any of the old sergeant majors that had trained us the traditional way. This was something much different but it was effective lessons learned from the American Army that was brought up to us and it became effective in our own use so it was a fascinating transition over the years.