A Soldier and His TLAV: A PCF Story

By: Cpl David Gillis

In August 2017, I was employed as the Admin NCO for TLAV D&M Serial 0249 being run by my old command team: Lt Dan “Smiley” Dixon and WO Sean “Old Hand” Thompson.

Under the stalwart direction of our Course Officer and Course Warrant, as well as our instructors MCpl Brandon “TLAV is my Middle Name” Campbell and MCpl Alastair “Tracks Rule, Wheels Drool” Gordon, I started my journey by collecting the necessary tools and resources needed for the course. With multiple PCF courses taking place concurrently, it was (and is) a very busy time of year at the Regiment. This meant that not all the resources needed for the course were readily available from one location. Thus I was required to call upon my wits, my resourcefulness, my contacts, and the notorious good-will of Squadron Quartermasters throughout the Regiment in order to completely acquire everything we needed to train our soldiers on the Tracked Light Armoured Vehicle (TLAV).

The first few days of the course ended up being some of the busiest I’ve ever known in Garrison, with me having to sort out POL and piece together on-the-fly solutions to problems that would always come up unexpectedly. But as the course moved on, and the days started to flow by more smoothly, we were all told to take a tactical pause and answer our country’s call to action in British Columbia by assisting with the firefighting efforts there. With the majority of both candidates and instructors employed on this recently completed task, we have been forced to put the course on hold. Will the candidates ever learn to truly tame the beast known as “TLAV”? To find out the answer, tune in next week: same Track-Time, same Track-Channel! (Spoiler: Yes, they will).