Hello,
Three years ago this month, I went down to the Guelph reserve armoury to speak with a recruiter. I was a first year university student, and I thought joining the reserves would be a great way to earn supplemental income, and to see if I would enjoy the full time force. The first question I asked the recruiter, was whether my vision (20/30 in the better eye, but non-correctable) would be an issue. He said no. At this point I submitted my application, hoping to gain entry as a reserve artillery officer.
I called about once a month to check up on the progress of my application, but was consistently told that no officer spots had become available. After about a year of this, I wizened up, and switched my application to NCM, since he did not think there would be any officer spots in the near future. This seemingly got the ball rolling, and that summer I was invited to take part of physical and mental aptitude testing.
Of course, during the medical test, they were interested in my vision. I submitted full medical documentation of the genetic condition I have, and why glasses could not correct it. They submitted this documentation to Ottawa for approval. At this point there were 10 spots available, and 20 applicants. I asked the chief medical officer if this would remove me from the process, since they might just skip me and hire the 10 guys before Ottawa approved me. He told me "that's not how we do things". One month later, I was approved by Ottawa with a V2 vision class, however the 10 spots at the reserve unit had been filled.
At this point I had grown somewhat despondent, but I resolved to persevere, as this was something I really wanted to do. Another year passed, and I continued to call to check if the unit had openings, but I was told that it was full.
At this point my file had been moved to the Hamilton recruiting centre, and they requested I come down for another medical and interview since it had been so long since my last one. I came down, and took the medical again, except this time, despite the fact that my vision was the exact same, they classified my vision as V4, and told me I was completely ineligible for service in the combat arms. I almost gave up at this point, but I was told that I could join a logistics or signals regiment.
So that is where I am at this point, waiting to see if a spot opens up in a signals regiment, that I will have to drive an hour both ways to attend.
This is not supposed to be a rant. I am not upset, but I do feel that my file has been treated unfairly, not due to the incompetence of any single individual, but rather because of the bureaucracy of the reserves recruiting process.
Does anyone have any suggestions for what I should do at this point? They told me to sit tight, but I am in my last year of university and very eager to expedite the process.
Three years ago this month, I went down to the Guelph reserve armoury to speak with a recruiter. I was a first year university student, and I thought joining the reserves would be a great way to earn supplemental income, and to see if I would enjoy the full time force. The first question I asked the recruiter, was whether my vision (20/30 in the better eye, but non-correctable) would be an issue. He said no. At this point I submitted my application, hoping to gain entry as a reserve artillery officer.
I called about once a month to check up on the progress of my application, but was consistently told that no officer spots had become available. After about a year of this, I wizened up, and switched my application to NCM, since he did not think there would be any officer spots in the near future. This seemingly got the ball rolling, and that summer I was invited to take part of physical and mental aptitude testing.
Of course, during the medical test, they were interested in my vision. I submitted full medical documentation of the genetic condition I have, and why glasses could not correct it. They submitted this documentation to Ottawa for approval. At this point there were 10 spots available, and 20 applicants. I asked the chief medical officer if this would remove me from the process, since they might just skip me and hire the 10 guys before Ottawa approved me. He told me "that's not how we do things". One month later, I was approved by Ottawa with a V2 vision class, however the 10 spots at the reserve unit had been filled.
At this point I had grown somewhat despondent, but I resolved to persevere, as this was something I really wanted to do. Another year passed, and I continued to call to check if the unit had openings, but I was told that it was full.
At this point my file had been moved to the Hamilton recruiting centre, and they requested I come down for another medical and interview since it had been so long since my last one. I came down, and took the medical again, except this time, despite the fact that my vision was the exact same, they classified my vision as V4, and told me I was completely ineligible for service in the combat arms. I almost gave up at this point, but I was told that I could join a logistics or signals regiment.
So that is where I am at this point, waiting to see if a spot opens up in a signals regiment, that I will have to drive an hour both ways to attend.
This is not supposed to be a rant. I am not upset, but I do feel that my file has been treated unfairly, not due to the incompetence of any single individual, but rather because of the bureaucracy of the reserves recruiting process.
Does anyone have any suggestions for what I should do at this point? They told me to sit tight, but I am in my last year of university and very eager to expedite the process.