The making of an officer
Jasbir Singh Tatla would sit alone in the barracks some nights writing in his journal and wondering whether he’d made the right decision.
"Why am I doing this?"
At 35, Tatla was a married father of two with no previous military training who had arrived at Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Esquimalt west of Victoria about 30 pounds overweight.
He was a vegetarian non-drinker who wore a turban and the only Sikh going through basic officer training. He'd never so much as held a gun.The first time he was ordered to perform 30 push-ups, he managed nine before he had to stop and catch his breath. But Tatla comes from a long line of military men, and he was determined to see it through. His father Gurdarshan Singh Tatla is a retired flying officer who served as a radar technician in the Indian air force.
Grandfather Mall Singh Tatla was a supervisor in the Judge Advocate General's branch in the Indian army who served in Burma.
Great-grandfather Inder Singh Tatla was a Daffadar (equivalent to a sergeant) in the Indian army cavalry during the First World War.
But growing up, there was no expectation that the young Tatla should follow in their footsteps. It would be his choice.
Instead of donning a uniform, he took up the cap and gown of a university graduate, securing bachelor of engineering and master of technology degrees.
After he emigrated to Canada, Tatla worked as an engineering technician at a Burnaby firm, but was laid off after the 9/11 tragedy caused a slowdown in the high-tech sector.He then became a cab driver, working his way up to become a director of Blacktop and Checker Cabs Ltd. in Vancouver. He was doing all right, but almost every time Tatla would talk to his grandfather, the retired soldier would press his grandson to do better.
"What have you done with your education?" was usually the first thing Mall Singh Tatla would ask. It was said with love and a certain amount of impatience. And then one day Tatla learned the Canadian air force was looking for engineers. It was a chance to do the kind of work he was trained for. He applied. It took four years before he cleared the necessary background checks.If he made it through basic training, he would become the first turban-wearing Sikh air force officer in Canada. As if representing an entire ethnic community wasn't enough responsibility, there was also the weight of three generations of military tradition in his family. His father told Tatla he was worried his out-of-shape son wouldn't be able to handle the physically gruelling 12-week course. With that warning still ringing in his ears, Tatla picked up the required clothing and equipment and reported for training in April of this year.
His days would start each morning at 5 a.m.
Between then and lights out at 11 p.m. there were push-ups, sit-ups and chin-ups - lots of them.
And running, every day. And drills. And obstacle courses. Long marches in full combat clothing and gear. Sessions on the firing range learning how to maintain and use the C7 assault rifle that is standard-issue for the Canadian Forces. The trainees learned orienteering and how to live in the field under tough conditions, plus first aid and CPR skills. For the initial two weeks, Tatla lived on bread and milk and salads because there was little else in the way of vegetarian dishes at the base, and he didn’t want to make a fuss. When Tatla did mention it, the sergeant in charge and the cook quickly arranged to provide meat-free dishes.
During their first 30 days of training, the novice soldiers were not allowed to contact their families.
After the no-contact period was up, Pawandeep Kaur Tatla was reunited with her husband.
She remembers surprise at seeing the lean soldier coming down the stairs at the ferry terminal.
"Oh my God, he's a different man," she recalls thinking.
At his wife’s urging, Tatla had tried diets and special foods to shed some of the pounds gained while he was driving cab, but nothing had seemed to work.
"Running five kilometres in the morning, it works" he observes. Then it was back to CFB Esquimalt and the grind of training.The trainees were now allowed off the base, but beer and burger runs had little appeal for Tatla.He would usually stay behind and use the time to write in his journal and rest his aching muscles.
A picture taken at the end of the last long march shows an exhausted Tatla, his boots and socks removed to cool off his blistered feet.He looks half out of his mind with fatigue, but happy.
“I knew I wasn’t going to have to do that again.†His fellow survivors dragged him off the base for a victory meal. There was even a vegetarian pizza for Tatla. It would have been a lively celebration if it wasn’t for the fact the weary soldiers kept falling asleep at the table.
For his graduation ceremony, Tatla chose a light blue fabric for his turban to go with the air force blue of his dress uniform. No one in the Canadian military had ever had to decide what type of turban was appropriate for an air force officer, so Tatla was told whatever he selected would become the standard, setting a precedent for every Sikh who follows him into the service. On the day he became a second lieutenant, the sergeant who'd pushed Tatla and the other trainees so hard saluted Tatla and called him "sir".
The newly minted officer says it is a memory he will carry with him for the rest of his life.
His father was misty-eyed with pride at the July 12, 2008 graduation of Jasbir S. Tatla, Air Field Engineer.
His grandfather, sadly, couldn't be there. Mall Singh was delighted to hear Tatla had been accepted for training, but passed away before Tatla won his lieutenant's bars. After seeing their father marching with his fellow soldiers, proud sons Sahib Singh Tatla, 8, and Jugraj Singh Tatla, 3, began to stage their own military drills in the backyard of their Surrey home. Second Lieut. Tatla says he would be happy if his sons became the fifth generation of his family to enter military service, but he makes it clear that he will not push them in that direction. It's up to them."
In September, officer Tatla will leave home again for two more months of training at CFB Gagetown, near Fredericton, New Brunswick.
Then he expects to be transferred back to B.C. for French-language training before another stay at Gagetown.
By the time he's done in April 2010, he will be a full lieutenant, the Canadian equivalent of his father's flying officer rank.
Any doubts he might have had about pursuing a soldier’s life are long gone, replaced by a feeling of accomplishment and a sense of pride.
By Dan Ferguson - Surrey North Delta Leader