The Canadian Experience Lieutenant Colonel Krista Brodie, Commanding Officer Of

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RUSI of Australia Website Presentation Transcript

Gender in Defence and Security Leadership: The Canadian Experience

Lieutenant Colonel Krista Brodie, Commanding Officer of 1 Service Battalion, Canadian Army spoke at the Gender in Defence and Security Leadership Conference in Canberra on 12 March 2013.

The Department of Defence and the Royal United Services Institute of Australia jointly hosted a conference on Gender in Defence and Security Leadership. LTCOL Brodie’s presentation is captured below in this transcript. ______There is, in Canada a Defence Champion for Women, Rear-Admiral JJ Bennett, who is for the first time in Canadian history, actually a woman. There is a Defence Women’s Advisory Organisation whose tentacles span the nation. Under the purview of the Chief of Military Personnel there is a Directorate of Human Rights and Diversity, DHRD, and DHRD 3–7 is the desk officer for Canadian Forces women. Who knew?

I am a collector of stories, and from time to time I tell bits and pieces of my own story. By the grace of generations of pioneers and trailblazing (Defence Photo: Lieutenant Colonel Brodie) women who have come before me, and by the ______relative focus on those of my generation who

chose to forge their paths in the Combat Arms, I’m Lieutenant Colonel Krista Brodie of the who in their collective experience have created a Canadian Army, and I have a confession to make: critical mass of firsts, I have been able to pursue I have never spoken at a conference of this nature my career in the Army largely unhindered by before; this is a first for me. And on the heels of gender-based limitations and unfettered by the Commander Eleanor Ablett’s very compelling overt scrutiny of being a woman in a male- presentation and particularly her comments with dominated profession. respect to complacency, I must be quite honest and confess that until last week I didn’t pay I am, I suppose, part of that first generation to attention to statistics or policies pertaining to enjoy the relative anonymity of being a woman in women in the Canadian Forces. I didn’t know the Canadian Army. Until now I had never what the numbers were, not even in the battalion thought of my story as a woman’s story. It is a that I’ve been commanding for the better part of story of fire, (the kind that consumes forests, and two years. I didn’t particularly care. I was the kind that rains down on you in battle), of blissfully unaware of the policy evolution that has wind, of sand, and of memories of water, frozen both deliberately and accidentally shaped my and flowing – a soldier’s story. experience in the Profession of Arms over the past quarter of a century. I do, now, have some A story made of moments that sear themselves appreciation of those things. into memory. When all of a sudden a series of

inconsequential decisions and actions lead to a

The aims of the RUSI of Australia are to promote informed debate, and to improve public awareness and understanding, of defence and national security. The views expressed by speakers are not to be regarded as being endorsed by the RUSI of Australia or its Constituent Bodies. © Copyright by RUSI Australia Inc 2013.

Page 2 of 5 moment where time slows down, and in that into the Bihać pocket to bring stability to North- moment you wonder: Where am I? How the hell Western Bosnia during the northern winter of did I get here? And perhaps more importantly, 1995/96. where do I go from here? I had spent three and a half years as the One such moment came in the summer of 2000. I Quartermaster of the 3rd Battalion Princess was 29 years old, and I was standing on the Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry; fighting lowered ramp in the back of the Hercules tactical floods, ice-storms and forest fires at home. I had transport plane at 13,000 foot wearing more than been the Beach-Master for an amphibious landing my bodyweight in equipment. I was sweating off the USS Anchorage (which in all its weighty profusely, as you do in those moments. After 56 and wet misery is still executed very much the descents in 20 days I was about to qualify as a same as it was on D-Day). I had qualified as an military free-fall parachutist. The ‘where do I go aerial delivery specialist and then a basic from here’ was painfully obvious: I was going parachutist, earned my American jump wings, down, and fast, and not necessarily in control: along with two black eyes and a broken nose, on The ‘how did I get here’ was a whole different exchange with the 2nd of the 75th Ranger Battalion story. in Fort Lewis, Washington State, and spent a year as a second-in-command of the Parachute As I was growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, I Support Company at the Army Centre of aspired to be only one thing: a soldier. In my Excellence for training in special environments. thinking, it was the perfect profession for someone who loves to play outside, who has an There have been moments in my career when I overdeveloped sense of wanting to serve society felt conspicuous, but rarely in my time as an in some productive way, yet hasn’t the faintest airborne soldier – that’s the beauty of one clue of what they want to be when they grow up. standard – you meet the standard and you’re part (I’m not sure that I’ve yet decided.) of the club. And speaking of being part of the club, I was reminded of an anecdote during The summer before my final year of high school I Colonel MacDuff’s presentation that I will tell, joined the Naval Reserve as a bosun. Deciding against my better judgment. It was during my that I was more suited to milieux with the sky time as the Quartermaster of the 3rd Battalion. I above and the ground below, I commenced my had been there for three years already, it was full-time commitment under the Regular Officer nearing Christmas time, and I was just getting Training Programme in 1989, coincidentally the home from work one night. The phone was year that Canada opened its doors to women in ringing, and I was madly trying to untie my boots the Combat Arms. I had the option of closing and got to the phone just before the caller gave with, and destroying, the enemy. up.

I decided instead to be a Logistics Officer, and I picked it up just before the final ring. It was graduated from Royal Roads Military College Corporal Caldwell’s wife from the Battalion’s with an honours degree in Military and Strategic partner support group calling to invite my Studies in 1993, having completed my Army significant other, Denise, to the partner support Logistics specialty training in the intervening group Christmas wine and cheese function. I summers. By the time I lumbered off that replied, “Oh, you must mean my husband Hercules ramp for that final qualifying jump, I Dennis!” And she went, “Oh, my God”, and had served as Combat Supplies Platoon hung up the phone. Thirty seconds later the Commander in 1 Service Battalion in Calgary; I phone rang again, and she said: “Oh, I’m so had deployed to Croatia as a convoy coordination sorry!” I responded that there was no need to officer with the United Nations Protection Force apologise. I explained that Dennis was in in the former Yugoslavia; I’d been part of the Toronto at the time doing his General Surgery NATO Advanced Parties that fought their way Residency and Trauma Fellowship and he wasn’t

Page 3 of 5 available to attend, although he enjoys both wine At the STAND-BY you shuffle forward on the and cheese. ramp, strangely detached from reality as you watch the horizon line list erratically. On the The next morning I was in the gym pushing my “GO”, you go falling, battered by the wind, “girly” weights, and Corporal Caldwell came in impaling yourself on the pointy ends of raindrops and barked out: “Ma’am - what do you mean, - one of life’s more surprisingly uncomfortable you’re not gay?” And I replied: “Well, whatever sensations - until the moment you activate your would make you think that I was?” He piped up main canopy and are shocked by the silence that with: “Ah, you’ve been here for years and you’re follows the shutter as the cells of your canopy fill not sleeping with any of us, so we figured you with air. I landed hard, toppling forward with the had to be”. Water, water, everywhere, and not a weight of the reserve canopy, rucksack, weapon drop to drink! Heaven forbid that we should have and snowshoes (we’re Canadian), driving my face an ounce of personal or professional integrity. into the sand, filling my eyes, mouth and nostrils as I struggled to activate the canopy releases to I never considered myself an outsider in ‘this separate from the 400 square foot canopy - it’s man’s Army’; it was always ‘my Army’, and I like flying a Mac Truck - that was dragging me spent the middle years of my career ingratiating spluttering and cursing across a dusty and rutted myself to the Combat Arms community the hard field. way. So I was, quite frankly taken a little aback when I stood on Drop Zone Salinas in 1998 By this time my face had created enough traction exchanging jump wings with one of the American in the sand to slow me down – my nose truly has Rangers who, regarding my long hair pulled back borne the brunt of my professional follies – and I in a bun framing my bashed-up face piped up readied my weapon, gathered my kit and limped with: “I ain’t never had to give no wings to a off that drop zone, I was quietly confident that I “gurl” before!” As we heard so eloquently earlier was right where I was supposed to be – the sky today, the Navy and the Air Force may have above and the ground below. It was the summer come a long way, but the American Army still of 2000, I was 29 years old, and I was has a way to go. comfortable in the skin of my chosen profession.

In a series of logically progressive and rather And then came 9/11. By the summer of 2002, the innocuous steps, I had honed my skills supporting logistics career managers decided that I had sub- Light Infantry Operations in the domains of specialised enough, and I was transferred back to airmobile, airborne, amphibious, and mountain, to Edmonton and the Army of the West to broaden the point where without much deliberate thought my horizons in General Close Support. I was (but with significant physical effort and a healthy commanding a company of 120 combat service dose of ‘there ain’t nothing you can’t do when support soldiers (truckers, vehicle and weapons you set your mind to it’), I stood on the brink of mechanics, supply technicians, signallers, medics what might be considered a significant leap of and admin clerks) back in 1 Service Battalion faith. when I was selected and deployed to Afghanistan as the Deputy Commanding Officer of the 600- Now, the beauty of military instructional personnel National Support Element in Kabul technique, as we can all appreciate, is that it from July 2004 to February 2005. My private makes everything a drill. So when they give you war was all about dust and water, of getting the the two-minute warning, you lower your goggles job done, and of not embarrassing myself and you become indestructible. As long as you irreparably in front of the troops - the secret fear can’t feel the wind on your eyeballs, you are a of every officer. It was a war of learning lessons, superhero, cooler than Tom Cruise in Mission many of them the hard way. Impossible, when they’re tumbling out the back of an airplane in the middle of the night. Then I came home. After 15 years in the field I spent two years as a Chief of Staff (and for those

Page 4 of 5 of you that have served in that capacity, it is the affection that is born of common experience: most soul-sucking of appointments), unravelling “Krista, you are truly an enigma to me. You the mysteries of the Institutional Army in hardly look robust enough to do this (expletive)”. Western Canada. All of those things that they My outside voice replied, ‘Well, you can’t all be don’t teach you in any military college or on any as huge as I am, while my inside voice said, “I’m course, command or staff, ever. That complex smaller than you, but I could take you if I had to.” web of infrastructure, of plumbing, of roofs, of I took it as the profoundest of compliments. I fibre optic cabling, of water treatment and knew in that moment that I was right where I was distribution systems, of oil and gas development supposed to be. I felt the same way when I took on federal property, of species at risk and command, and I have more or less continued to geospatial intelligence, of non-public property feel that way every day since – that sense that I and military museums, of ranchers and farmers have arrived, at this time and in this place, with who push the boundaries of the land on which our the requisite personal and professional credibility Army is trying to train. Then there’s ‘the Whole to make it seem right. Defence Team’ and the nuances of union negotiations and Labour Relations on behalf of I’ve deployed the Battalion to the flood plains of your civilian public servants. Southern Manitoba, to the Arctic, and to the mountains of interior British Columbia, which is Together with my husband of 15 years, we some of the harshest terrain this side of the Hindu decided to embrace life not according to plan, and Kush. I’ve visited with my command team in the past six years we have adopted three partner - my Regimental Sergeant-Major - our children. Our oldest, Maya, came to us a new- troops deployed in Afghanistan, both in Kandahar born; she is now six. Then my husband, who had and in Kabul, and at our support hub in Kuwait. retired from the military after 20 years of service And I’ve had the honour in the last couple of and was working with the Red Cross at the time, months to command a UK Logistics Brigade as deployed to Haiti in one of their field hospitals the “colonial usurper” on exercise with the 20th following the earthquake, lost his heart to a little (UK) Armoured Division - so it’s felt a bit like girl who had been abandoned, and we began a infinity and beyond. three-year odyssey to adopt her and bring her home – an odyssey that just ended this Christmas Where do we go from here? I am a soldier, a time. I can tell you there are no leave policies in wife, a mother, and in my story is the legacy of a the Canadian experience that deal with that. In the nation that has let her fighting sons and daughters midst of all that was a little boy, Jeremy, who make their stories her inheritance. I was recruited joined us from South Korea when he was two into an equal opportunity Army. I lived large as a months old and is now about to turn three. subaltern and a junior officer in the age of consequence where policies on gender integration In April of 2011 I assumed command of 1 and zero tolerance towards harassment and Service Battalion – the first woman to command discrimination had resonance and teeth. I’ve the Combat Service Support Warriors of the come of age in Canada’s renaissance as a combat West. There was no fanfare or media attention at power, part of a generation of leaders who my Change of Command parade. But, in the inherently value and respect each other for the quiet lull before the band commenced playing for collective experience that is both our legacy and the Inspection of the Guards, there was a lone our burden. We have been to war, we have slept small voice that drifted across the parade square. and we have defecated in the same shell scrapes, The voice of Maya, my then four-year-old, we have buried our friends and subordinates, and calling: “Mama, mama, I need to pee!” In that we have come home to pick up the pieces of our moment, I was worthy. fractured lives. I have arrived on the eve of uncertain tomorrows as both a warrior and as a In my airborne days I once had a commanding woman. officer who said to me with the pride and

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Today there are no recruiting quotas in the “Imagination”: because we are desperate for Canadian Armed Forces. There are targets, but some of those innovative HR policies that we’ve no quotas. There are no promotion quotas. The heard about earlier today. We need those flexible Pink List for the selection of senior women to employment arrangements and those flexible attend Command and Staff College has long since Terms of Service, and that Leave Without Pay been abandoned. Succession planning criteria are option that will entice not only talented women universal. From that level playing field in the but talented men to stay in during that critical largest field unit in the Canadian Army (with a juncture between the age of 30 and 35/36 where military establishment of 947 and 100 civilians), we grapple with managing the work/life balance three of my seven Company Commanders are and we haemorrhage talent, in particular in the women. Western Army experience to the oil and gas sector as it booms in Alberta. With the announcement of a new Canadian Armed Forces physical fitness test this past week, “Patience”: because accelerated advancement or the single standard for fitness that the Army has not, we are not patient when it comes to change. enjoyed for as long as I can remember – we Like my six-year-old who sits in the back of the march, we dig, we drag casualties – is about to be car in her car seat, demanding, “Are we there superseded by a standard set of four universal yet?” Are we there yet? Sometimes in the heat measures of operational readiness: one standard of battle we fail to appreciate when we have truly regardless of gender, or of age, or of branch of arrived. service. It lends an authentic ring to the principle of Universality of Service that underpins the I tell my junior officers that there are only four Canadian experience. things they need to do to be successful: they need to be humble warriors; they need to be ethical That said, it takes tolerance, imagination and decision makers; they need to be erudite officers patience. (the masters of their tactical/ technical domains – the stuff that allows you to survive to fight “Tolerance”: not for all things inappropriate, but another day); and they must be passionate for the fluctuations that we see in the numbers leaders, and in so being, it is the human when you don’t have those quotas; tolerance for dimension of their leadership that makes them that variance between 15% and 12% on an worthy of leading our Nation’s sons and observed downward slide particularly when we’d daughters. like to see it closer to 20%; for the difference between the number of women that we see in the Forged out of memories of fire, of wind, of sand, Navy and the Air Force, much higher than we do of water, and shaped by a military ethos that in the Army; for the numbers that we see in the values the inherent equality of the warrior spirit, Reserve Force, much higher than we do in the their’s for the making is a story, the stuff of myth Regular Force. and legend, and of the collective experience that binds all of us. Thank you.

Biography:

Lieutenant Colonel Brodie is a Army Logistics officer . She spent her subalternship as a Platoon Commander and on operational deployments in Croatia and Bosnia. In 1999, LtCol Brodie was posted to the Canadian Parachute Centre as Second-in-Command of the parachute support company and qualified as a Military Freefall Parachutist. She served as the Adjutant of 1 General Support Battalion and in 2003 was promoted to the rank of Major and appointed Officer Commanding Administration Company in 1 Service Battalion. Following an Afghanistan deployment as Deputy Commanding Officer of the National Support Element, LtCol Brodie was appointed Chief of Logistics for 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group. LtCol Brodie was promoted to her current rank in 2008. On 21 April 2011 she was appointed Commanding Officer of 1 Service Battalion.

(Photo & BIO: Canadian Forces)