Oski, due to the nature of most of my posts it would be a surprise to many that I did 4 years as a 96B(Intelligence Analyst) for the U.S. Army in Ft. Wainwright, Alaska and even managed to ETS with a honorable discharge and not a single disciplinary action. I'm sort of in the Robert Heinlein-Starship Troopers type of mindset that it gives you a better perspective than the average joe anti-war protester peacenik or the average joe couchcommando warhawk.
When my wife and I went on our honeymoon, one of the places we stayed was at a B&B near Victoria BC. Our bedroom looked out over an open bay, and if I recall correctly, it was the HMCS Vancouver that we watched do maneuvers for a few days. They said it was the "pride" of the fleet, but I have to admit, it was kind of funny watching this thing. It wasn't much bigger than one of our larger Coast Guard vessels. http://www.navy.dnd.ca/mspa_fleet/fleet_home_e.asp
this reminds me of when Tom Green said his dad was in the Canadian Army on Jay Leno. Jay is like, Canada has an army. Tom said, " yeah my dad gaurded the tank."
fadeaway - hope you didn't take offense to that. I deeply respect your decision, I seriously considered doing the same a couple of years ago, until I found out I was unable to serve in the U.S. military. Anyhoo...no offense intended. Oh, I found a picture of the Vancouver:
Not really interesting stuff. Most of our field exercises were in the winter so we spent a lot of time sleeping on the ground at sub-zero temps down to neg 49 degrees or so. I was thinking Tom Clancy stuff when I signed up to be Intel but little did I know that most people in my mos get assigned to tactical units so I spent most of my 3.5 years after training in an infantry battalion and then the brigade headquarters for my last 9 months. Got to go to the Army mountain school, which was a 3 week blast. Really fun school.
Buck -- I'm not offended. However, not being American, I don't really get that whole "we're bigger so let's laugh and make fun of the rest of the world" type of humour. Seems a tad arrogant. Check outWorld Navies Today for a list of all the world's navies and ships. Coincidentally, two frigates from Holland's navy (154 crew members each) are currently docked here in the harbour for four days. They let people come on board for tours today, which was pretty neat. Unfortunately, they wouldn't let us into the living quarters, and the upper decks were roped off (I wanted to check out the bridge, damnit!) but it was still pretty cool to wander around the main deck.
