BARRIE -- Handling a weapon like a C7 rifle is one of the many lessons recruits will undertake during their ten weeks of basic training at Base Borden, but Day one begins with a lesson on COVID-19.
"When they wear their masks, how they sanitize when they are done in the bathroom, everything," says Captain Russell Storring, an instructor at CFB Borden.
"The whole process is explained to them in the first couple days, and its reiterated throughout the course."
Basic training was put on pause because of the pandemic, but with protocols now in place, the routine has returned, and now the 27 recruits have to do it all.
"Drill, where they learn to march proper drill movements on parade, weapons handling, as they are doing today, shooting, field crafts where they have to live outside in the environment whether its winter or summer, tents, some basic tactics patrol I'm gonna that sort of thing," says Captain Storring.
While training has mainly stayed the same, some of the social aspects of being on the base have changed.
Recruits will now have to stay strictly within their own cohorts, which means no mixing or mingling with others on the base.
"It is an adjustment, but we still found a way to grow together," says Private Recruit Josh Buwalda.
"You get to know your cohort very well; you are constantly working together from five in the morning to ten at night, so you get to know each other really well."
The current group of trainees are expected to graduate on March 11. After then, they will move onto specialized training in their trades, which will also take place at CFB Borden.
