Retiring Lt.-Cmdr. reflects on change in the forces
An open house at the HMCS Cabot on Saturday gave the public the opportunity to learn more about what life in the Canadian Armed Forces is like and perhaps one of the people best equipped to share their experiences with the public is Lt.-Cmdr. Margaret Morris. After 42 years as a reservist, Morris is retiring.
“It’s been a blast,” she said, and encouraged young people to join the forces for an exciting career.
A lot has changed since Morris first signed up, though. She said the opportunity to travel was what first drew her to the forces, but her idea was to join for the short term. Forty years wasn’t exactly what she had in mind at the time.
“Like many reservists, I was just looking for a summer job,” she said. “At the time when I joined the naval reserves, the whole philosophy about women at sea — consistently you would hear ‘it will never happen.’”
Morris has to look no further to the dock alongside HMCS Cabot where the HMCS Glace Bay was on Saturday, a coastal defence vessel with a female captain and female second in command.
Morris made it around Newfoundland twice on a training vessel — once as a crew member and once as the captain.
“I was the only woman in the crew. Everyone thought I was the cook because I was the girl. And I
can’t cook to save my life,” she said.