Hello
everyone! Today I took inspiration from wikipedia in the did you know
section of the home page to find something to learn about today. I'm
going to tell you about Canadian Lieutanant-General Chris Whitecross.
Chris was born in Germany to a typical home of the 60s, her father
was in the air force and he ran the house. Her mother was a housewife
who pictured her little girl growing up to be a teacher or a nurse.
Chris was destined to do something different.
Chris's
family moved to three different places in Canada following her
birthplace and at the last one in Annapolis Valley, her brothers
played in the cadet pipe band. Chris decided to join them and as soon
as she did, she felt like something fell in place. She enjoyed the
structured society of the military.
When
Chris was in grade nine, her science teacher said she could be a
great engineer. Her father saw the handsome uniforms of the Queen's
University engineers, a gold jacket and clear pride eminating, and
told Chris she should go there. This sounds like advice I would give.
In her second year of school, she surprised her parents by announcing
she was being sworn into the military.
The
truth of the matter is that she had tried to enlist right out of high
school, but Canadian laws on this require a very high placement in an
aptitude test and she had failed and was terribly embarassed. When
she tried again after some school time she wasn't required to take
the exam but she did and aced it. She was now part of the Canadian
Forces and she loved every bit of it. “'I
like the fact that people rely upon me to make good and qualified
decisions,” she says. “I like it when I can say something and
people will do it.'”
But
as much as she loved the military and made wonderful progress there,
she had a family, a husband and children and leaving them behind to
go serve her country is part of the deal. She said it best herself,
“'Sometimes it’s about missing your child’s first birthday
because you’ve gotta go and do something else. Or not being able to
teach your oldest daughter how to ride her bike. Or sometimes it’s
the high school allowing you to watch your daughter graduate through
Skype, and it’s the middle of the night wherever you are.'”
Through
her military career, Chris has been deployed in Germany, Bosnia,
Afghanistan and nearly every Canadian province and territory. Her
work has included engineering officer, director of infrastucture and
environment and commander of a joint task force. She's been awarded
Commander of the Order of Military Merit and the US Defense
Meritorious Service Medal. She's now a three star general.
For
the first few years of her marriage, both she and her husband were in
the military but they felt very badly about moving their three
children repeatedly and often. Her husband became the stay at home
father, rare in the 90s when this was. And with the constant rock of
her husband, they were able to take in foster children along with
their own. They had fostered 33 children over all the years!
The
longest Chris was stationed was Ottawa for eight years up until 2015,
when she was sent to join NATO. But while in Ottawa she was given the
task of battling against sexual misconduct in the military. Chris had
received some name calling and inappropriate conduct herself, but
doesn't go into details. When a report came out about how much this
was still a problem, Chris was shocked. It had been about 30 years
and this was still a problem. She was both unable to believe it and
angered.
This
good, professional woman has started an institutional change in
everything in the military and later an emotive change in the people,
which will take some time for sure. She has started Operation Honour,
to help the military change, so that it's a safe place for women to
serve as well as men. This new program has brought in an outside the
chain of command team of investigators who handle all the cases of
sexual misconduct, to respond to all claims filed to them.
In
the summer of last year, she was sent to be commandant of the NATO
Defense College. This was decided upon by a vote of the twenty-eight
involved nations. Chris has hopes to take what she's learned at her
last post to help bring eyes to this problem worldwide. I'm glad I
learned about such an amazing woman today and I hope you enjoyed it
too!
Sources:
Wikipedia 5 January 2018 Chris Whitecross
Proudfoot, Shannon 6 November 2016 The Sacrifices of Canada's female military trailblazer
0 comments:
Post a Comment