JTF-2 is constantly regarded as one of the most professional, well trained units in the world. I laugh when Americans bad mouth us, but meanwhile back when we first entered Afghanistan, not just JTF-2, but the Princesss Patricias played a pivital role in the insertion of American troops. It was durring this time that a Canadian sniper broke the record for longest kill at 2,4 km (i think). He was sniping men in the mountains so that American troops could advance through. These men were honored by the Bush administration for their work, and the “lives they saved” This sniper record has since been broken by a UK solider.

JTF-2 also takes their identity very seriously. There have been missions that not even our PM knew they were deployed on. Those that make it, do NOT share information. I have an uncle who is a med tech in the Navy, he had a friend make JTF-2 and has said that he talks very little about the selection process, and that he NEVER talks about any deployments or any training.. Not even his family knows.

The fact is, as Canadians, people have the perception that we are the salt of the earth people. That we would take our shirt off our backs for anyone. Maybe its our friendly nature that makes people think that there is no way that we could possibly be home to a sophisticated counter terrorist unit that compares easily with SAS, Delta Force, SEALs, SASR, SBS, GROM, etc.

People who think they know about SF are kidding themselves. The list of requirements is a joke, if you think thats all it takes, give your head a shake. The people who bad mouth any SF unit are deffinatley the same guys who play COD and think they have it all figured out. If you talk to any SF guy in any unit they are all going to say the same thing about eachother, that they are professional, outstanding men, who get in do the job, and get on with it. Training for all SF units have to be fairly similar because of all the Joint operations that constantly happen.

I have only heard one incident where SF units bad mouthed eachother. It was in the early stages of Afghanistan when there was a joint opperation led by Delta Force. Involved were SBS, the German SF (sorry can’t remember the name) JTF-2 and GROM. The mission didn’t go exactly as planned. The Americans complained that the Brits didn’t react as fast as they would like, that they were hesitant to follow through on orders. Americans were quoted as saying: “Being very disapointed with the Brits for coming home empty handed (without prisoners)” and “that there slow reaction times were a strong reason why this happened”

The germans were quoted as saying ” that the americans walked into a small village and unfortunatley shot civilians durring the opperation” later after the abu grave incident these same soliders said ” I am not suprised one bit about those events after watching what the Americans did before”

The whole reason I told this is because both the Americans and Brits did agree on one thing. That JTF-2 played a pivitol role, and that the unit worked fast, and with professionalism.”

The fact is that anyone who is part of any SF unit is someone who is insanely good at their proffesion, the perfectionist, the crazy driven, hard as f**k solider. My hat goes off to all those men, and their sacrifices don’t go missed in my life. As a Candian I have read lots of history books about our triumphs and tragedies in the World Wars, but my favorite quote is by a british reporter who wrote a story on the Canadian army and how it gets little respect in the world when it comes to fighting, but that when the world needs help we are there in a heart beat constantly vigilant and driven to rid the world of evil doers.

” Canada is the wallflower, it sits outside the dance floor waiting to be asked for a dance, and when she is, she doesn’t disapoint. She flourishes and takes the spot light, and in that moment everyone seems to be greatful shes there, and when the songs over, shes back to her chair, forgotten, but she will always be there waiting for a dance partner”

Its our mentality as a nation, we do our jobs, we keep our head down and just do it. We don’t need world recognition because we know as a nation we are very proud of our men and women who have, are, and will wear the uniform.

You don’t even want to know what the expectations are for SASR selection after serving a few years in 3 RAR.

If this is the Canadian standard, I sincerely hope they raise the bar lads.

out“

I find it funny how you say a solder needs his brains doesn`t need bench press, but yet you still mention the pushups, situps, and pullups.

I just wanted to say that the minimum DOES NOT get you 75 points, it gives you 55 points, and you need 75 points to pass. Total amount of points is 150. If you get minimum in everything you fail (as in you fail the physical test).

physical test
swimming
jumping
driving
climibing (the hardest and wheremost boys lost there lives)
and wepons

The regime also includes a chart detailing minimum levels and and more difficult standard level to achieve while working up to selection with the unit.

However one thing that I would point out, Chris, is that while you had been serving in the paras and SASR, the minimum standard to you would be the performance of the guys, not the standards to be looked at to get in. If you have ever met ANY of the guys on “The Hill” you can tell that they can easily outperform the standards listed, and do so on a daily basis.

Trust me and have faith, being regarded as one of the upper SOF units in the world, we didn’t attain this level of proficiency by achieveing the “minimum”.

- 40 Push-ups (Minimum – no rest)
- 40 Sit-ups (Minimum in 1 mn)
- 5 pull-ups
- Bench press (65 kg min)
- Run 1.5 mile (2,4 km) in 9 mn

That will only get you 75 points, “you will need a minimum of 90 points for them to even look at you pretty much. The only way to get a higher point rating is too complete all the tests with much better results than stated above.”

so this is not the standard you need to do alot better then that to join the canadian SF units. allt his only gets you 75 points and has he said already you need 90