National Defence committee  I won't take even five minutes, Mr. Chairman--

National Defence committee  Sir, we have changed dramatically what we're doing here. The VCDS just went through, with oversight from me and the deputy minister, our planning process for what all the stresses and demands are, where the money needs to be headed to get certain effects, and he has allocated significantly more moneys here.

National Defence committee  With more money.

National Defence committee  Oh, sorry. My God, I thought you were giving the time to me.

National Defence committee  Without making light of it all, I'd like to start with myself, if I could.

National Defence committee  I'm not sure what recommendations I can make that would go outside the Canadian Forces purview, if you will. We've considered the family and the impact upon the family of the operational stress injuries, PTSD, and other injuries. We've considered all of that and the fact that, holistically, you should be able to treat the family together.

National Defence committee  Danny Williams thinks I'm his chief of defence staff.

National Defence committee  I think the key word here is “balance”. We've known, since time immemorial, that time away adds to the stress and that time away with risk added to it adds to the stress even more. When I was a brigade commander in Petawawa in the mid-1990s, the families used to tell me that they didn't mind a deployment into Bosnia for six or seven months at a time, but it was the three- to five-month workup training added to that that led to a year of separation.

National Defence committee  First of all, Mr. Hawn, thank you for mentioning those three fine young soldiers. I had the opportunity to spend Saturday night at a gala ball for the Military Families Fund in Calgary with Master Corporal Paul Franklin, his wife Audra, and his mother-in-law. I've also had the chance to see Will Salikin, incredible young man that he is, and Corporal Jeffrey Bailey, massive young man that he is, many times since they were wounded.

National Defence committee  I'd be delighted to talk to that. Of all the unique challenges we have, the reserves are actually a little greater challenge. You all understand; you bring people back and if they want to go back to their home communities, sometimes it is difficult to maintain that contact and communication with them.

National Defence committee  We've taken that one on, yes, we have. What we want is a soldier treated as a soldier.

National Defence committee  You make me feel old when you say “many decades of service”.

National Defence committee  Well, I would say that the gap has been eternal. You mentioned World War II and even, obviously, when we had veterans alive, World War I, right up to the former Yugoslavia. I am actually surprised that we had any treatment program for people who came out of Bosnia, Croatia, Somalia, and places like that.

National Defence committee  Sir, thank you for the question. Let me walk through a couple of points. First, we went through a terrible time in the former Republic of Yugoslavia, in the Balkans, when under the mission mandate and the rules of engagement and the legal constraints we had soldiers standing around and watching what was equivalent to ethnic cleansing.

National Defence committee  Sir, what I would say is this. I'm not going to talk about when I specifically did it. It's very clear to my chain of command. We do this because we believe that's one of the things our young men and women in uniform have to be absolutely clear about, that we have the moral high ground.