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Sergeant Brigitte O’Driscoll: I don’t think anybody thought that they’d be doing this kind of work when they joined the Army.

Lieutenant Adam Orton: Hi I’m Lieutenant Adam Orton, and you're listening to the Canadian Army Podcast. On this episode, soldiers on the front line of the fight against COVID-19.

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Lt Orton: Sergeant Brigitte O’Driscoll has been a member of the Canadian Armed Forces since January 2013. She’s with the Royal Montreal Regiment and she joined seven years ago as a reservist in the infantry. Since then, she’s been serving as a door gunner at 438 Squadron for the past year and a half. For the past three weeks, she hasn’t been at her civilian job as a firefighter with the Hudson fire department. Instead, she’s been working in one of Montreal’s long-term care homes. Sergeant O’Driscoll is one of more than 1000 Canadian Armed Forces members deployed on Operation LASER in the province of Quebec. We are with her, through the magic of the internet, in sunny Montreal. Hi Sergeant.

Sgt O’Driscoll: Hi how are you doing? Thanks for having me on.

Lt Orton: I’m great, thanks for coming on. Okay so, you know, first thing is first. You’re on Op LASER. What is Op LASER, and what are you doing there right now?

Sgt O’Driscoll: So, Operation LASER was the Canadian Armed Forces response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which is happening right now. I don’t think any of us knew what we were getting into. At first, it was to have troops stand-by in case the government needed any troops to get involved anywhere. I think for a lot of us, we thought at first that we'd be dealing with the floods, especially in Quebec, based on 2017 and 2019. But that quickly transitioned to the Quebec government asking for help with the long-term housing here in Quebec. Which, a CHSLDs as we call them here, which is Centre Hospitalier Soin Longue Durée, for the French people out there. So that is what we are doing right now.

Lt Orton: So, what does your day-to-day involve when you're there?

Sgt O’Driscoll: So basically, we have three different shifts that we have to work on. So, we have a day shift, which starts at 7 in the morning and goes until 3. We have an evening shift that would go from 3 to 2300. And then, we have a night shift that goes from 2300 to 0700. We’ll be asked to do anything that is needed basically. So that could include scrubbing down the hallways, cleaning the rooms, re-stocking medical supplies, doing the inventory of medical supplies. And then, some other teams are assigned to patient care, so we have medical teams that are attached with our platoon. And we have people from our platoon attached to them to care for the elderly. So that could include feeding them, moving them during the night so that they don’t get bed sores, and just making sure that their overall health is good to go.

Lt Orton: So, you’re talking about patient care, and usually that’s something that’s a pretty specialized task. What kind of pre-deployment training or mission specific training did you receive to kind of prepare for these tasks?

Sgt O’Driscoll: So, first, it was a lot of online training, as we were all sitting at home. So, DND Learn was big. Basically, I started off with basic PPE lessons on what the military was adopting as PPE to be used in the centres, what measures they were adopting for force protection. And then we had a two day in-person course, so the first day was held in St. Jean with military members. They gave us training on mental resilience, to kind of prepare us for what we might be facing in these CHSLDs. Also included things such as how to basically care for the elderly, but very basic. So, things to keep in mind when you're dealing with the elderly that may not affect people who are younger, such as rolling them, again, to avoid bed sores, that most of us don’t have to worry about. But at that age, with the skin that they have, it is a big issue. Things to take into consideration when we are feeding them. So, they can’t eat like some of us do. They have to eat their food in different ways. Everything, you know, stuff that you would not necessarily think about, but they kind of made us aware of that. The second day was with the civilians. So, that was given by the Red Cross, and that was more in-depth into actually caring for these people in these centres.

Lt Orton: Wow that’s a pretty elaborate, in-depth kind of training.

Sgt O’Driscoll: Yeah, well it was done quite rapidly, I would say, two days. A lot of these people that work in these centres, go through a lot more training. But it really allowed us to get a basic knowledge of what we were going to be doing, and to kind of make us feel more prepared for it. And, we’ve been learning on the job a lot as well with the PABs, so Préposé Aux Bénéficiaires, which are the orderlies that work in these places. They’ve been helping us out a lot with the training, and the on-the-job training. So, we’ve been learning a lot on the job as well.

Lt Orton: So, throughout this whole thing, where have you guys been living?

Sgt O’Driscoll: We’ve been living at a hotel, downtown Montreal. So, our room has now become our houses basically. So, if we are not on shift, we are in our hotel rooms trying to pass the time. And that is just to avoid either us getting COVID or just spreading it, in case we do have it. Just trying to minimize those risks.

Lt Orton: So, as with any deployment or military task, especially for long term, soldiers adapt to the situation in unique and interesting ways. How’s morale? And, how are you guys maintaining morale over there?

Sgt O’Driscoll: Honestly, that’s been a big leadership challenge for myself, as a platoon 2IC, a platoon second-in-command. Just having to change all the way I do…just the way I do my job, the way I lead my troops. It’s very hard to lead troops when they are all locked away in their rooms. And I don’t see most of them during the day, right? So, if they are not on my shift, I’m not seeing the night shift, I’m not really seeing the evening shift. So, it’s been an interesting challenge, leadership wise. But the guys are doing good, you know, they talk to the guys that are on their shifts, they can share after their shifts. We often have quick AAR’s, after action reviews after the day. To kind of, go over stuff that might have happened during the day, how their feeling, how something might have affected them. You know, it’s the military, we’re used to sticking together, so even though we’re in our rooms, you know, FaceTime-ing, texting, emails, I guess. So, the guys are doing good overall. We’re happy to be here and helping out the people in need.

Lt Orton: You know this is not a typical task that the Army would necessarily expect to be involved in. Granted, the Army is pretty adaptable in general, but are they handling the situation well? Are the soldiers adapting pretty well to the change in pattern of life?

Sgt O’Driscoll: I think so. We’re so used to being thrown into different kinds of situations. Obviously, I don’t think anybody thought that they’d be doing this kind of work when they joined the Army. But, at the end of the day, we all joined to serve Canadians in need and that is what we are doing. It might not be in the way we thought we would be doing it, but what we are doing is having an effect, and we can see the effect that we are having, so that’s good for morale too. It’s rewarding work, even though it's challenging and tough work.

Lt Orton: You know I’m glad that you said that because, one of the thoughts that I had as we were going into this interview was, why is what you are doing, why does it matter?

Sgt O’Driscoll: Well it matters, because these are the people that built the society that we live in. If they weren’t here, we wouldn’t be here either. And, they are Canadian’s just like everybody else, it doesn't matter what kind of state they are in. You know, they’ve had their lives, and they need some dignity and some compassion as they are nearing the end of that life. We’re just happy to be here to offer that to them and help out the civilian staff as well who have been going through a very tough time, in less than ideal conditions. So, it’s not even just about helping the elderly, but about helping out the staff in these centers as well.

Lt Orton: Yeah, and I mean a lot of people are going through tough times in this particularly challenging environment. I’m sure that you're facing a lot of challenges over there, but in addition to that, surely, you’ve had some good experiences. What are your memorable moments from going through this whole process?

Sgt O’Driscoll: I think just the gratification that the staff are showing. I think every time that they come into work, they are like “thank you for coming, you guys are making a big difference”, and we can tell that we are making a difference too. Just the way that we can help the staff clean the center more, it’s a lot cleaner since we’ve been there. Because the staff has been overloaded, they’ve been trying to do as best they can. But it’s very hard for them to do it when there’s one person per floor to clean every single room, every single hallway, you know. Just the little “thank-yous ” that we get continuously throughout the day, from the staff, and even from the people living in these centers, it’s a morale boost, and it shows we are making a difference.

Lt Orton: I’m going to go back to a comment you made earlier on. You talked about being a platoon 2IC, that is second-in-command, for people who are not aware. For you, how many soldiers are you taking care of as part of this whole process?

Sgt O’Driscoll: So right now, I have 25 people from my regiment, the Royal Montreal Regiment. And we have a group of 7 people attached to us, 7 medical members. So they're not necessarily med techs. We have some dentists, we have a physiotherapist with us. But they are considered to be our medical team. So, they are the ones dealing with the care of the patients, primarily, care of the elderly, primarily. So, 33 people total.

Lt Orton: Wow, it’s interesting you mentioned the diversity too because a lot of people think Army and guns and stuff like that, but there’s actually a broad spectrum of jobs and trades, and now here they all are working together in an environment that is not typically associated with Army work.

Sgt O’Driscoll: Yeah, exactly. And like I said, for the dentist in our group, for example, I mean this is not the kind of work he has been trained to do, but everybody’s just adapting and making it work.

Lt Orton: So, tell us, when did you get there? And how long have you been working there?

Sgt O’Driscoll: So, we actually deployed to our hotel on May 11. We’re here until further notice, we don’t have an official end date yet. Basically until whenever the military decides it’s time to withdraw or when the government decides that they don’t need us anymore. So, when that will be, I’m not sure, but we’re ready to serve until needed.

Lt Orton: So, is there anybody you want to give a shout-out to since, you know, we’re broadcasting all over the world right now.

Sgt O’Driscoll: My family back at home, and I guess the Hudson fire department as well, my civilian job, who have been nothing but open about letting me take a leave of absence for a couple of months and come out and work here.

Lt Orton: That’s awesome, I love it. Is there any last points you want to throw out there? Before we wrap things up.

Sgt O’Driscoll: No, just thanks for having me on. We’re glad to be making a difference and I’m glad to be able to share the kind of work that we are doing with Canadians and fellow Army members, military members.

Lt Orton: You know what, and it really sounds like you’re making a difference, like when you’re talking about some of the cleaning and all of that stuff. Taking care of the elderly is a particular challenge in this environment, and I don’t think there is any better way that we can serve Canada by providing that kind of service in an emergency.

Sgt O’Driscoll: Yeah, exactly. We are here to help Canadians in times of need, and that’s what we’re doing.

Lt Orton: Thanks a lot for coming on Sergeant and stay safe out there.

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Lt Orton: That was Sergeant Brigitte O’Driscoll, from the Royal Montreal Regiment. And this is the Canadian Army Podcast. Don’t forget to subscribe and follow the Canadian Army on our social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. And stay tuned for up-coming episodes.

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