TITLE:
LOGISTICS OFFICER
KIM: In order to be an effective presence at home and around the world, the Canadian Forces requires the provision of efficient and coordinated logistics support.
Whether it’s with the Navy, the Army or the Air Force, Logistics Officers - or Log Officers - are responsible for ensuring that all military operations and exercises are properly supported.
That means everything from the initial budgeting and procurement, to warehousing of material, vehicles and ammunition, to arranging transportation for the movement of personnel and cargo throughout the world.
TITLE:
LOGISTICS OFFICER
IN THE CANADIAN FORCES
This is a multifaceted career, throughout the course of which you will work in: Supply Chain Management, Transportation, Human Resource Management, Financial Management, or Food Services.
As an officer, your primary responsibility is to lead a team of talented men and women under your command.
Logistics Officers are employed throughout all three military environments: the Army, Navy and Air Force, and each represents its own challenges.
Hi I’m Captain Paul Kim, I’m an Air Force Logistics Officer from New Westminster, British Columbia
Providing support to air operations is a considerable challenge due in large part to the stringent maintenance cycles of aircraft.
Being able to replenish the CF air fleet anywhere in the world is essential to keeping it operational.
Finding it, purchasing it, packing it and moving it is all part of what we do.
Early in your career you’ll be posted to an operational wing or squadron in order to build upon your environmental training and to develop your leadership experience.
I’m Lieutenant Commander Trish Roberts from Port Colbourne, Ontario. I’m a Naval Logisitics Officer currently serving in CFB Halifax.
In the Navy, Log Officers will serve as the Ship’s Supply Officers in the early stages of their careers.
Your team will consist of Stewards, Cooks, Supply Techs and Resource Management Support Clerks.
Responsible for the oversight of all shipboard logistics, your main role is to ensure that your ship is logistically ready in all aspects to support the ship’s mission.
We take care of getting the ship what it needs to do its job.
You’re a fully integrated member of the ship’s company, and as such, you’ll engage in additional duties like standing watch as Officer of the Day, leading the ship’s Casualty Clearing team, Damage Control, Firefighting or Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear teams.
You could also be responsible for leading a Naval Boarding Party or being a Ship’s Diver.
On foreign deployments, Naval Log Officers are the first on the ground, liaising with the ‘Chandlers’ to resupply the ship with fresh water, stores and fuel.
Hi I’m Lieutenant Ryan McClement from Oromocto, New Brunswick. I am an Army Log Officer posted to Land Forces Western Area Headquarters here in Edmonton, Alberta.
KIM: Army Log Officers are primarily concerned with coordinating sustainment of the field force.
Whether it’s warehousing or moving supplies, ammunition, fuel, food or the actual vehicles and armaments being used in theatre.
McCLEMENT: The sustainment portion of any operation is paramount and without it, the army would not succeed.
KIM: In the early stages of your career, you’ll be employed in a Service Battalion to expand your leadership capabilities and consolidate your environmental training.
When you’re in the field, you’ll likely be working out of a Command Post coordinating the various sustainment activities, and physically working on the ground with the troops.
Potential Logistics Officers can approach their career in one of two ways.
By enrolling in the Regular Officer Training Plan, or ROTP, you can get started after high school by earning your Bachelor’s Degree at the Royal Military College of Canada, or any other accredited Canadian university.
If you’re already in the process of obtaining a bachelor’s degree in a related field such as Business, Accounting or Human Resource Management, you may be eligible for the Direct Entry Officer Plan.
Under either entry plan all candidates will be required to attend the basic military officer qualification course, or BMOQ.
This is where you'll fine-tune your natural leadership abilities, and learn the regulations and customs of the Canadian Forces that will serve you throughout your career.
If you’re still in school and/or looking for a part-time job, you can become a Reserve Force Log Officer and take all of your training during the summer.
The Logistics Officer Common Course is held at the home of the majority of all our logistics training, the Canadian Forces School of Administration and Logistics, or CFSAL, in Borden, Ontario.
Following this, you’ll complete specialty logistics training and training focused on your environmental affiliation.
ROBERTS: As you progress in rank and experience, a wider scope of command and staff opportunities will be presented to you, as well as further specialization in areas such as Movements, Postal or Ammunition.
After the first few tours of duty, Logistics Officers will have opportunities to be employed at higher headquarters, dealing with the management of logistics functions in Joint and Combined Operations.
One of the key players in exercising this function is the Canadian Operational Support Command, known as CANOSCOM.
CANOSCOM is responsible for providing effective and efficient operational support to Canadian Forces operations – be they domestic, continental or expeditionary, and presents numerous challenges for Logistics Officers.
As Logistics Officers what we do every day directly contributes to the success of the Canadian Forces across all elements: Sea, Land and Air.
KIM: If you’re looking for an exciting challenge without equal, and a diverse career that delivers, consider becoming a Logistics Officer in the Canadian Forces.