Mid-Career Army Officer

🇨🇦 Army Officer. Carl Gustav enthusiast. Mostly jokes but some thoughts about doctrine, leadership, culture, & tech.

All views my own, especially the jokes.

[Mid-Career Army Officer @MidOfficer]

I like to write threads with funny gifs about Canadian Armed Forces culture, doctrine, and management issues - mostly late at night to avoid sleeping. This is a meta 🧵 of 🧵:

[Mid-Career Army Officer @MidOfficer]

@Xtplpctl This was the unofficial flag of Canada at the time we were looking to create a proper independent national flag. The Union Jack showed up in many of the proposed designs.

[Mid-Career Army Officer @MidOfficer]

In 1964, Canadians submitted 3,541 proposals to the parliamentary committee tasked to pick a new national flag.

Honestly, I think we should have picked Keith Quasena's bold depiction of our country's fiercest and most bloodthirsty predator.

[Mid-Career Army Officer @MidOfficer]

@greatgreyowls I've run into a moose a few times up close in the forest. They always give off a very distinct "leave me alone and I'll leave you alone" vibe.

Geese on the other hand....

[Mid-Career Army Officer @MidOfficer]

@sued709

[Mid-Career Army Officer @MidOfficer]

The CAF failed to meet recruiting goals for a decade yet in 2025 hit a post Cold War record.

In 2025 the Snowbirds had a historically light schedule, only performing aerobatic shows at 15 🇨🇦 events.

In this paper I will demonstrate that the Snowbirds actually hurt recruiting...

[National Post @nationalpost]

Fraser Tolmie: Snowbirds' 'pause' a devastating blow to recruitment https://t.co/ceL92K5Xvx

[Mid-Career Army Officer @MidOfficer]

@PodPilotProject @NoahGairn Hey, real question, what's the RCAF equivalent of the TAPV?

[Mid-Career Army Officer @MidOfficer]

@lucas_sorge It's ultimately more compelling and honest to just make the national pride / 1st world military expectations argument.

[Mid-Career Army Officer @MidOfficer]

@Cody_FE98 Tell those hard working and under resourced people to stop stealing Snowbird valour!

[Mid-Career Army Officer @MidOfficer]

@amartin_nl Great point - who was reading a petition in the House of Commons demanding that we retain ground-based air defence?

[Mid-Career Army Officer @MidOfficer]

@voteLabonte @JessieTweeting Sadly you can lower standards all the way to the floor, but it won't fix a broken recruiting process. Took the CAF a long time to realize that was the issue - and it's finally being improved now.

[Mid-Career Army Officer @MidOfficer]

@SteveDaly15 @DivebumChef @JessieTweeting

[Mid-Career Army Officer @MidOfficer]

@northdud @NoahGairn Arguably none of our political parties are capable of having a mature conversation on defence, as both are historically guilty of treating us as a political cudgel rather than jointly stewarding a key national institution.

[Mid-Career Army Officer @MidOfficer]

@StreetNepean Don't forget that Tim Hortons introduced pizza in 2024.

Not a surprise that so many people wanted to defend their country from that.

[Mid-Career Army Officer @MidOfficer]

@northdud @NoahGairn

[Mid-Career Army Officer @MidOfficer]

@DivebumChef @JessieTweeting You're not wrong. Sailors and pilots get to do 'the real job' so much more than most other trades.

[Mid-Career Army Officer @MidOfficer]

@JohnBouras3230 Hear me out - we replace the Snowbirds with a synchronized TAPV crashing team.

[Mid-Career Army Officer @MidOfficer]

@CavalryCanuck You redeemed yourself with that pun 😂

[Mid-Career Army Officer @MidOfficer]

@CavalryCanuck Yes, that's the joke.

[Mid-Career Army Officer @MidOfficer]

@JessieTweeting The problem with recruiting is that people come out when there is a compelling mission. See 2006-2012. When there is no excitement we can only try to compete on pay and benefits - the military can't start its own wars on demand.

Well, at least not the Canadian military.