John Baker:  

Military I joined the Royal Canadian Army Cadets (RCAC) September 9, 1999. I started out as a cadet and completed the "Green Star" level of training by May, 2000. I attended Vernon Army Cadet Summer Training Centre (VACSTC) for the basic familiarization course for 2 weeks at the beginning of July 2000. For that course I received the "Top Cadet" of 20 platoon (plt). When I came back, I was promoted to the rank of Private. During the year of 2000-2001 I completed the "Red Star" level of training and for the Annual Ceremonial Review (ACR), me and my friend Rob Gordon and Dan McIntyre were the only 3 privates on the Colour Party. That summer, I returned to VACSTC to complete a six week course of a "Cadet Leader" course. The following October I received the rank of Corporal, completed my "Silver Star" training level that year (2001-2002) and then returned to VACSTC. This time, I was attempting to complete the "Cadet Leader Instructor Band" course. Here I made many friends and I showed my best this year. I was appointed the acting "Company Sergeant Major" (CSM). My course report looked good when I came back home, but only received the rank of Master Coporal. During this year it was gonna be a challenging year as I was taking the National Star Certification Exam (NSCE). NSCE is the hardest test to accomplish in a cadet career and it takes years of training to acquire the knowledge that is required to complete it. I went into the Exam with the most knowledge out of the four candidates attempting to conquer it and I was the only one who went home without it. My Commanding Officer (CO) at the time called in because he knew himself that I shouldn't have failed with the way I was going into the exam with and they recalculated my marks and it appeared that I did qualify for a re-test on one part and the Thursday that followed the NSCE weekend I received the rank of Sergeant and the following Saturday ...Expand for more