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Lieutenant Adam Orton: A lot of soldiers talk about the tac vest and, you know, things that they would like to see improved. So, to pretend that it’s not something that’s discussed is a little bit silly.

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Patricia Sztompka: Welcome to the Canadian Army Podcast. My name is Patricia Sztompka, and I’m filling in as your host today, because your regular host, Lieutenant Adam Orton, is our featured guest in this special edition of the Canadian Army podcast. Our listener feedback tells us you want to know more about the soldiers we interview. You also have questions about the podcast itself. So, we will be talking to him about that, the podcast, what it’s about, and where it's going. But we’re also going to be asking him to talk about himself. Adam, welcome to your own show.

Lt Orton: Hi, it’s great to be here with me.

Patricia Sztompka: Of course. First question, an easy one. Why did you join the Canadian Armed Forces?

Lt Orton: Before I joined the military, I worked in technical support. And, for those that have worked in customer service, it's a unique environment. And I was looking to make a change in my life. I was hoping to get out there and make a little bit more of a difference in the world than fixing people’s internet. So, I thought about what skills I was lacking in my life and what I wanted to do more of. And the Army seemed like the natural option. Basically, the direct opposite of an internet technical support agent.

Patricia Sztompka: Why? Why do you say that?

Lt Orton: Well, you know. So, I applied for the infantry, and the reason I chose that is I wanted to run around outside and live a life of adventure and danger and blow some things up. And, you know, the recruiter said all the right things, and here we are.

Patricia Sztompka: Right. Do you want to maybe tell us more about your career?

Lt Orton: So, when I first joined, you know, within 6 months of applying, off to St. Jean which is the training school for the CAF. After that, another 6 months of basically non-stop training and I found myself posted to Shilo, Manitoba with 2nd Battalion PPCLI. From there, basically within 2 years of being posted Battalion deployed to Afghanistan, came back, made the rank of Master Corporal. Went off to work at the winter Olympics, and then from there, decided that I wanted to be closer to my family, my friends, and the people that I loved. So, I moved back to Ottawa, which is where I’m from originally. And, from there I joined the reserves with the Governor General’s Foot Guards, did a couple of things there, had a couple of full-time jobs with the military. For those that don’t know, when you’re in the Reserves, you have the option of full-time or part-time service. So, I just kind of basically found my groove in Ottawa. And, right now, I am the Operations Officer of Army Headquarters. So, I really had quite the adventure.

Patricia Sztompka: That’s not a usual path if you will. I don’t think most people’s experience in the Forces is anything like that.

Lt Orton: Well it’s interesting you mention that. Because, the Army is actually kind of re-examining the way that people transition between these organizations. I don’t know where we stand on that specifically, but there’s a lot of talk about the journey and how, you know, a person’s career isn’t necessarily just a 25-year unbroken block of regular Force service. People have families, they have life events that they need to deal with, and it’s good for the Army in terms of retention to allow people to easily transition between those two things. So, we’re working on that. I don’t know where that sits exactly. Probably a good topic for a future podcast. But, you know, it’s definitely something that, for me anyways, has given me the ability to have a better understanding of how all the pieces of the Army work. Sometimes you focus on what you’re doing, and you don’t really want to look outside. Just because, there’s a lot to think about, even in your specific trade. But, to kind of spread that experience around, gives you a kind of better idea of what other people are dealing with.

Patricia Sztompka: So, a lot to unpack there. You mentioned a lot of things but, I mean, I want to talk about, you mentioned the journey. Your most memorable moment in uniform, what is it?

Lt Orton: I would say, there’s a lot of memorable moments. You know, we can sit here and tell war stories all day. But I guess one of the most defining moments of my career was, I was on parade for the Vimy 95th anniversary parade in France. And I went out there, and it was the longest parade I've ever been on for sure. It was about 3 hours long. It was hovering around 1 degree, it was raining, it was cold, it was miserable, we were at attention for the whole time. And one of the defining characteristics of that event was that you had Canadians that were out there. A lot of Canadian’s had come out for this event, there were local French citizens that were there, and there was the military component. And in addition to that, you know, I got to the point, about an hour in, where I was just like, ugh this is horrible, I hate it, you know I’m just so cold and wet and this is taking forever.

And, I got to thinking to myself like , wow. What a horrible thought to be thinking when you consider that there had been soldiers that had been sitting in trenches being shot at and bombed for months on end. Just being cold and miserable there and going through all these hardships. And you know what, I had a lot of time to think about it. As I went through that thought process I realized, you know, like, here I am, I’m with these Canadian’s, we’re going through these hardships together, I'm with my fellow soldiers, we’re going through this together. And, you know, in some really minor way, I’m there living some super small hardship, in the same spot that people were dying and fighting 95 years ago. So, it really kind of brought it all together for me.

Patricia Sztompka: So why do you do it? Why are you in the military?

Lt Orton: Initially, I guess, I thought that I had a lot to bring to the table. For those that have never seen me before, you know I’m 6’4, I’m a big guy. I felt, you know, we see a lot of images of what that looks like for a soldier. So, I felt like I fit the bill. You know, I really wanted to learn and serve my country, and be there for Canada. I thought that, if it came down to it, if I had to make a difficult decision that would put my life on the line, I would be willing to do it. Fortunately, I haven’t found myself in too many opportunities where I’ve had to go through that, but I think that the reality, that a lot of people kind of forget about, just by virtue of doing your day-to-day life, is that it comes down to a couple of moments where you face off those situations. And, you have to know in your heart that you’re going to make the right decision.

Patricia Sztompka: Let’s talk about day-to-day life. I’m going to bring us back to the present. Your full-time position, you said, is Army Headquarters, Operations Officer, or OpSo. You mentioned you're a reservist, so you work part-time, evenings and weekends with the Governor General’s Foot Guards. And now you're also the podcast host. When do you sleep?

Lt Orton: Never. That’s okay the Army trains for that, so it’s fine.

Patricia Sztompka: How do you make it work?

Lt Orton: So, I mean really, the thing that keeps me going is, you know, it’s actually pretty tough on family and friends to put them second when you're juggling all of this stuff that maybe you don’t even need to juggle. But, sometimes it’s hard to stay focused when you’re doing the same thing repetitively, at least for me. And, to be able to switch gears a little bit and do different things, definitely keeps me motivated and keeps my head in the game as much as possible. I think the trick is, first of all, making sure that the chain of commands are all on the same page. I have a lot of hats and a lot of different bosses, but, also, it gives me a good visibility on how the Army is functioning at any given time because, I get to see kind of how things happen at the top of the Army, but at the same time, I’m doing stuff at the bottom with the ground troops and seeing how they’re kind of living. And, also, trying to bridge those two gaps together, doing the podcast thing, to try and tie it all together. So, it’s more interesting that way. Keeps me busy, and I’m learning a lot. So, that’s kind of how I keep going.

Patricia Sztompka: Right, so, variety is key is basically what you’re saying.

Lt Orton: Variety is the spice of life.

Patricia Sztompka: Is that something you think might be reflected in your work here on the podcast? I mean, what kind of topics can we expect to talk about on the podcast?

Lt Orton: You know the plan is to cover a wide range of topics and try and keep everybody interested. Sometimes, you know, I think government communications can be a little bit dry. We’ve all lived that. So, my hope is that at different levels of command we can talk to different people. Learn about how the engineers operate day-to-day. You know, like, sometimes you’re in your own little bubble, and you’re doing your infantry thing or whatever. You’ve worked with these other organizations, but you haven’t really, you don’t really understand how they live on the day-to-day and how they do their thing and what their traditions are. Talk about the different trades, the engineers, the artillery, the logistics people. And, in addition to that, you know, cover off some history stuff, find out where we come from. You need to know that to know where you’re going. Talk about gear. Nobody talks more about gear then soldiers. So, try to hit on everything and try to keep it as interesting as humanly possible.

Patricia Sztompka: What about controversial subjects? How will the podcast deal with them? And, is that something that you think will happen?

Lt Orton: It’s an official podcast so, you know, we definitely have to walk a certain line in terms of how we're going to approach, especially, controversial subjects. A good example, you know, not to single anything out, but a lot of soldiers talk about the tac vest, and, you know, things that they would like to see improved. And, I think soldiers at all levels have had that conversation. So, to pretend that it’s not something that’s discussed is a little bit silly. And I know that we’re looking at approaching subjects such as that. And having a real constructive conversation with the people that are working on making it better. Sometimes, things move slowly in that environment, but we're working on getting there and there are people working on it. And so, I think tying that in and letting people know how we are making that progress is going to go a long way to making things better.

Patricia Sztompka: What other topics is the podcast planning to cover in the coming months? Do you know yet?

Lt Orton: We kind of have a schedule fleshed out, but there’s a lot of limitations. Especially operating in a COVID-19 world. And a lot of different people have a lot of different perspectives on what the next episodes are going to be about. We have a limitation in terms of resources and getting to talk to the right people about the right subjects. So, we do have a schedule, and we do have a plan, and all the topics that I mentioned before are going to be coming up eventually. We are getting input from people, listeners, such as yourself. Breaking the fourth wall; you right there, listening to this podcast. And we’re processing that and doing our best to see if we can't make something out of it that’s worth listening to. So people were sending in suggestions and stuff like that. We’re looking at it and doing our best to make it happen. And, the schedule is not always on schedule, the enemy always gets a vote as the Commander said in episode one.

Patricia Sztompka: A lot of possibilities.

Lt Orton: Yeah.

Patricia Sztompka: But most especially, a lot of work on the horizon for the folks behind the podcast. Those were all the questions we had for today. Hopefully, they’ve helped listeners gain a better understanding of who’s behind the voice of the Canadian Army podcast. But, before we end this, I did want to ask one last question: that is, was there anything you wanted to tell the people listening in today?

Lt Orton: I guess the only thing I want to say is, I believe in what we are trying to accomplish here. And, you know, look at any popular television show. You know, sometimes the first season has some bumps that’s got to be worked through. We’re working in adverse conditions right now, but we are really trying our best to make this something worth listening to. And, if people listening have suggestions, or they have concerns, they want to bring things up, let us know and we will do our best to improve it. We have limitations and arcs just like anybody else. But there is a concerted effort from the top down of the military chain of command to make this work. And, we’re going to do our best to make it something that you are going to enjoy. So, if there is something missing, let us know, and we’ll take action.

Patricia Sztompka: And, there you have it. I hope everyone was paying close attention. He’s a military member with experience in both the regular and reserve forces who also progressed through the non-commissioned member ranks. Before commissioning, he would have also gained an appreciation for the forces when he stood miserably in the rain at Vimy. He is Lieutenant Adam Orton.

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Patricia Sztompka: And, thanks for playing the part of interviewee today, Adam. I’m Patricia Sztompka, your guest host for today. Earlier we heard Lieutenant Orton say why he joined the Canadian Armed Forces; we now want to hear from you. You can send 60 second audio clips telling us what inspired you to join to the email address in the show notes. We might use them in an upcoming episode. Thanks for listening in, and look out for more content from the Canadian Army Podcast.

Lt Orton: Stay Frosty!

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