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Cadet Words of Wisdom
As Taught At Camp Ipperwash 

The Shame Behind CFB Ipperwash

• Friendly fire - isn't.
• Suppressive fires - won't.
• A sucking chest wound is Nature's way of telling you to slow down.
• If it's stupid but it works, it isn't stupid.
• Try to look unimportant; the enemy may be low on ammo.

• If at first you don't succeed, call in an air strike.

• Never share a foxhole with anyone braver than yourself.
• Never forget that your weapon was made by the lowest bidder.
• If your attack is going really well, it's an ambush.
• The enemy diversion you're ignoring is their main attack.
• The enemy invariably attacks on two occasions: when you're ready and when you're not.
• No plan ever survives initial contact.
• The important things are always simple; the simple are always hard.
• The easy way is always mined.
• Teamwork is essential; it gives the enemy other people to shoot at.
• Don't look conspicuous; it draws fire.
• Never do anything to draw fire; it irritates everyone around you.
• If you are short of everything but the enemy, you are in the combat zone.
• When you have secured the area, make sure the enemy knows it too.
• Incoming fire has the right of way.
• No combat ready unit has ever passed inspection.
• No inspection ready unit has ever passed combat.
• If the enemy is within range, so are you.
• The only thing more accurate than enemy fire is friendly fire.
• Radars are designed to fail at night or in bad weather.
• Anything you do can get you killed, including nothing.
• Make it too tough for the enemy to get in, and you won't be able to get out.
• Tracers work both ways.
• Professional soldiers are predictable; amateur soldiers are dangerous.
• Napalm is an area support weapon.
• Mines are equal opportunity weapons.
• The one item you need is always in short supply.
• Interchangeable parts aren't.
• It's not the one with your name on it; it's the one addressed "to whom it may concern" you've got to think about.
• When in doubt, empty your magazine.
• Exceptions prove the rule, and destroy the battle plan.
• The enemy never watches until you make a mistake.
• One enemy soldier is never enough, but two is entirely too many.
• The worse the weather, the more you are required to be out in it.
• Whenever you have plenty of ammo, you never miss. Whenever you are low on ammo, you can't hit the broad side of a barn.
• The more a weapon costs, the farther you will have to send it away to be repaired.
• Field experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.
• No matter which way you have to march, its always uphill.
• For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism.
• The tough part about being an officer is that the troops don't know what they want, but they know for certain what they don't want.
• The bursting radius of a hand grenade is always one foot greater than your jumping range.
• All-weather close air support doesn't work in bad weather.
• The crucial round is a dud.
• There is no such place as a convenient foxhole.
• If your positions are firmly set and you are prepared to take the enemy assault on, he will bypass you.
• If your ambush is properly set, the enemy won't walk into it.
• If your flank march is going well, the enemy expects you to outflank him.
• Success occurs when no one is looking, failure occurs when the General is watching.

Girl Cadets
The Truth We Never Told

Cadets were compulsory unless you were in the SGDHS Band or had medical or religious excused absence.  The boys' uniforms were issued in the two standard military sizes, too big or too small.  The girls were issued blazers and head gear, but were responsible for proving their own while pleated skirts.  

For reasons known only to providence, these skirts were no match for the sunlight which would stream through the second floor corridor windows and bounce up from the mezzanine floor at the south end.  We would take turns engaging the ladies in conversations four feet north of the windows allowing our fellow cadets to observe whatever through the now see-through material of those white skirts.  Yes those Inspection Dress Rehearsals were cherished annual event.