CAF Story | Finding your true calling
Video / February 17, 2023
Transcript
(AG) I've done a lot of things in my life, I really have. Until we finally find our true call, right? But you don't know what that is until you get it. So, my name is Adam Gabrielsson, boatswain on the HMCS Vancouver. I moved to Canada from Sweden on September 11, 2003, a year after my parents had moved; my brother, should I say, and my mom. We lived in Toronto about a year, and essentially after that, we moved to Kingston. From Kingston, Ontario, we moved again after about 5 or 6 years to Phoenix, Arizona. Basically, in Kingston, we had a chip truck and we had a hot dog stand. We said we wanted to open up something bigger. We wanted to show the world the Swedish cuisine and Polish cuisine, and what you can do out of it.
So, I was in the food and entertainment business for about 12 years. That was not my calling or my passion. I told my mom, I'm like "No, not doing it anymore". She goes: "OK, I understand you, son". I came back to Canada, to Kingston again. It was rough, it was extremely rough, going back to Kingston a second time. So, I ended up being homeless for a little while. And I also went hungry for about two weeks. And that's when I turned my life around, when "No, never gonna go hungry for the rest of my life". I got a job in Kingston, while also working in a bar. I wanted to get something better, some better pay and all that. Minimal wage is not always the best. I obviously met my wife, who is the most amazing human being in the world. But then, she mentioned the Navy. Well, not Navy specifically, but she did mention the military. Then, about six months, I went to her, I was like "Oh! Why not? Let's just try and see what the military is all about".
Cause again, you have all this preconception of what the military is. It's tough in the beginning, yes it is. I will not say it's not. You will go through some hurdles and some bumps until you learn how it works. So, at that point of time, I said yes. I really wanted to be on the best West Coast. And I wanted to be on the Vancouver, because I heard Vancouver is a good ship, but also because we’re deployed. For a boatswain, career progression means the more you are at sea, the better off for you it is for your career progression.
So, what boatswains essentially do is... we're jack of all trades, so we do everything from evolutions at sea, meaning we do razing, which is replenishment at sea, which is a highly dangerous part of the job. Because again, now, you're attached to a ship. We come to mooring. We do also as well, anchoring and all that fun stuff. When we are at sea, we also do rigging. We actually are, fortunately are the people that also do clean a lot, which is also a ship's evolution thing, but we are the ones in charge of that as well. Never a dull day in our trade.
When I did join the military or the Navy, it gave me the sense of union or family, that are just weird random people from all Canada. It helps you guide you and understand who you are. That is what the Navy does. I actually did have an incident like that not too long ago. My wife ended up in a hospital. And the amount of support I had from top to bottom was unreal. The minute they found out, they let me know within 10 or 15 minutes that my wife had ended up in a hospital. That's the family thing that is so amazing in the Navy. It's just this tight-knit community that helps you guide you through any struggles that you can possibly have.
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