Viral Contagion Covid 19

Hubby is working at home and the rare time he might need to head in, they have given him a parking spot so he can drive straight in and out. I am working on the farm. I had to cancel or had canceled on me all my off farm talks, events or training sessions. I will see if I can do some online training/farm/homestead/garden.

At the moment, we are good on being prepared.. but there is a lot of time coming and we are figuring things out as we go..

I think there will be a very big push on getting that food to the shelves an the people.. but really people need to step up as well.. sprout your greens, garden in your flower beds, tuck food plants in all over the place.. do not waste the fruit that is produced in parks and yards.. forage and if at all possible.. get a garden in..

all great points on need to garden. I will be out harvesting wild garlic/leek this spring and guessing i may have to fend off extra pickers from Quebec. buggers try and hit my bush every year.

with unemployment hitting nose bleed heights, i am guessing we will see more theft from those wishing to top up revenues. that will likley leed to confrontations etc.

any news on where the military is in all this? haven't heard a thing. they should be out popping up triage tents in front of hospitals and helping nurses who are already getting a bit stressed. Imagining they are getting ready for activation of emergency act an figuring out road choke points, helping keep the peace at grocery stores, hopefull helping feed the shut ins and elderly. Still, there absence on the scene is bizarre

all great points on need to garden. I will be out harvesting wild garlic/leek this spring and guessing i may have to fend off extra pickers from Quebec. buggers try and hit my bush every year.

with unemployment hitting nose bleed heights, i am guessing we will see more theft from those wishing to top up revenues. that will likley leed to confrontations etc.

any news on where the military is in all this? haven't heard a thing. they should be out popping up triage tents in front of hospitals and helping nurses who are already getting a bit stressed. Imagining they are getting ready for activation of emergency act an figuring out road choke points, helping keep the peace at grocery stores, hopefull helping feed the shut ins and elderly. Still, there absence on the scene is bizarre

We are not there yet, they are in the news and been there for the past couple days.. talking about getting ready, about this and that.. so I am seeing it around.. but honestly I am not seeing anything YET that would need to bring them out..

So far things are pretty calm in most ways..

Now the theft for the bush, yes that will indeed a issue and I can see that in my neck of the woods as well. Things could get a little heated on "this is my area" or private land being foraged on without permission.

Still, if you can' not sit on the corner of the highway and sell, and people are not out, the demand will not be the same as well. so that could have a influence.. Chef's can't use them unless its something in a take out and that's not the style really.

Non essential military personnelle were given 2 weeks leave last Friday. Orders not to travel more than 250km from home... so they’ll be contagious and or asymptomatic when they get back and start infecting everyone else.

Don’t expect much help from them 3 weeks from now.

Now the theft for the bush, yes that will indeed a issue and I can see that in my neck of the woods as well. Things could get a little heated on "this is my area" or private land being foraged on without permission.

Still, if you can' not sit on the corner of the highway and sell, and people are not out, the demand will not be the same as well. so that could have a influence.. Chef's can't use them unless its something in a take out and that's not the style really.

That’s a good point about the chefs. That said, desperate people do desperate things and with price of gas being low, people may lower their price and still make the same dollar. But good point and time will tell and I will just need to keep eyes open. Carry on!

Non essential military personnelle were given 2 weeks leave last Friday. Orders not to travel more than 250km from home... so they’ll be contagious and or asymptomatic when they get back and start infecting everyone else.

Don’t expect much help from them 3 weeks from now.

I can see them giving time off to rest in advance but your point about them potentially being infected is also high!
Given how bad and spread out this will be and how few there are of them, they will be occupied in the big cities and not much help in the country side, if they are out here, likely be at food store

Ok, time for HP to get out of the closet...

HP is a military helicopter pilot. A senior officer who's the "boss" for ~ 240 troops (aircrew, aircraft technicians, logisticians, etc). I've been keeping this quiet as I wanted to keep a modicum of "OPSEC" though some of you were already aware. It was also nice to be able to keep a different persona that allowed me to "just be" without concern for professional consequences.

I'm not the general making the decision, but I'm also equally far from the junior ranks' rumour mill and cynicism. I'm certainly keen now to share information about the military that is of public domain (Open Source Intelligence - OSINT), this in the spirit of dispelling some misconceptions that I've read too often on this forum. That said, I'd appreciate not being "quoted" outside of this forum and appreciate that sometime, I will be (have been!) offering my personal opinion and not that of the Forces.

Soldiers were sent home but essential business continues: that is, Search and Rescue, NORAD response, etc. The initial stab at planning is that troop dispersal will be going until 6 April. Frankly, this is now clear that it will have to endure longer, though there is no set timelines at this time, nor speculations as to when normalcy will return. Training courses continue so as to keep folks trained to do their jobs, but exercises all the way until June are extremely curtailed if not cancelled, including a major one held in Wainwright AB every May.

Mandates remain the same at this time. That is in addition to the SAR / NORAD, aircraft like mine, troops etc are maintaining the USUAL response mandate (Domestic Operations - DOMOPS) within their assigned regions (Maritimes, QC, ON, West, North and Pacific); that is usually in response to natural disaster. The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) made it clear that the Canadian Armed Forces will not engage in law-enforcement type activities.

To contextualize the last statement, you may want to read online the documents obtained through access to information regarding the High River floods... in short, the military isn't into policing in Canada.

As for the dispersal and other restrictions, their details are available online especially on FaceBook an other social medias, in the form of fact sheets and letters straight form General Vance. They make sense. We must keep the troops healthy for whatever comes next. Because guess what... Once again, the St John River is going to flood, the Red River valley is going to flood and BC / Northern AB / Yukon is likely going to burn this summer... like last year, the year before and the year before-before. And the call will come to the military, perhaps more so this year if there are disruption in the civilian/public sector.

Is the military going to run triage tents in hospital parking lots? Unlikely, at least not in the foreseeable future, not in any scenarios I can run in my head based on experience. Even the Emergency Measures Act (formerly War Measures Act, last invoked under PM Trudeau Sr) would still have to keep in mind jurisdiction issues with having medical professionals providing care in a province they are not certified in. Yes, the nurses, medics and docs who treat me and my troops may not be licensed practitioners in Alberta. It should also be said that the military relies heavily on the civilian health care for all but primary care services; there are no more "base hospitals". So the CDS certainly considered this when he more-or-less quarantined his troops in their residences, he doesn't want his troops in hospitals taking bed spaces from civilians.

Regarding multiple prior comments made on this forum, I have to point out that the CAF is made out of ~60,000 soldiers combined, ranking from Ordinary Seaman/Private/Aviator to General/Admiral. Some of those are recruits awaiting training, some are senior people in headquarters who haven't seen a rucksack or a rifle range in many years. Some of those are sick/injured soldiers awaiting their release from the military or otherwise temporarily unable to function as an operational soldier. The military - and not just the CAF - is a big machine, heavily relying on Command and Control processes that are -and I admit - cumbersome. That means that, unfortunately, to do a simple "one guy" job, there might be 3 or more people. The analogy would be the cliché road workers where one guy holds a shovel and 3 are standing there telling him how to do his job. This to say, by the time you remove those non-combat effective, those "running the system" those persons running bases (fire fighters, military police, airfield or construction engineers, finance administrators, air traffic controllers, vehicle technicians, etc etc etc), it doesn't leave a whole lot of soldiers to carry out "martial law" duties as relished in the books of J.W.R. and likes; folks, this is fantasy. Especially when one considers the fast expenses of our nation. As for the militia... well, they too are undermanned, are not designed to work/fight as a formed unit (rather train augmentation for the regular force) and though they can probably provide some bodies in time of crisis to fill sand bags in Portage-la-Prairie MB, they likely cannot work for months on end securing grocery stores. We simply do not have a National Guard like in the USA.

Well, this is it for tonight...

Thank you HP..

Awesome read and overview on many things I knew but a bit more clear on some thing as well..

I guess I should also come out quietly that my mate is a high ranking (As in as high as you can get clearance) government wonk that is currently pulled off his normal work files and has been pulled into the active (Working overtime and 7 days a week) responds team in regards to different things in regards to C-19

Having said that, I am careful, my thoughts are my own and I will NOT post or share things until they hit the "News" public etc..

Well good luck out there HP, Truly, we will all need it.
Your reminder on fires and floods is something that I am hoping people are ready for.
In ottawa area, hope they don’t spend time on flooded homes that should have been raised or sold years ago to those who could do what is needed. Harsh I know, but people need to get with the show and stop looking surprised every few springs when the flood out Need to prioritize

I can’t come fully out of the closet 😆 , just a great deal of private and public sector experience in security, both national and international. Retired and miss it

Never been in one of those closets.
Volunteered to take 2 weeks off work to see where things go from here.
If work is not shut down in 2 weeks I will be going back. I am not in essential services.
In my opinion Ontario will do what ever the US does 3 days later.
I hear the Tobermory area is beautiful this time of year.