Diversions
Cadet for Life
FROM:
MAR-APR 2003 ISSUE
The age of 40 is rather young to have devoted
25 years to anything, but Lynda
Murdoch-Furchner, CD, CIM, CGA, has done just
that — to the Canadian army cadet program.
Lynda joined the cadets, the National Defence youth program, when she was 15 and worked her way up through the chain of command to become cadet commanding officer, the
top-ranking official in the cadets, at
age 18. "I was the first female commanding officer of the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry Cadet Corps," she proudly points out.
After four years as a cadet, Lynda continued in the adult program as an officer in the cadet corps, where she spent weekends teaching the younger cadets fieldcraft, bushcraft, how to use a map, weapons handling and survival. By this time, she had already begun her accounting career, working as an accounts receivable clerk.
Within a few years, she was making history again, becoming the
first female commanding officer of the cadet corps. "In those days, the ladies did all the secretarial stuff...I went straight into the training staff, working with the kids and planning their activities," she says.
When she finished her three-year stint as commanding officer, Lynda was barely 25, one of the youngest members of the corps. "So I went through the cycle again," she says. Now she was juggling
full-time work and CGA studies with the cadets. "I told them that I wouldn't assume the commanding officer position again until I got my CGA." She received her designation
in 1993.
Lynda is now corporate accounting manager for the insurance broker Aon Reed Stenhouse Canada in Toronto. She still volunteers with the RHLI, serving as secretary on the executive of the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry Veterans' Association.
Despite this commitment, Lynda never seriously considered a military career. "I was really enjoying my job [as an accountant]," she says. "I chose a
non-military career, but I still think the cadet system did something for me." Lynda says she was a shy teenager and credits the cadets with bringing out her leadership, public speaking and teaching skills.
"All those little things that go on in the cadets corps that you'd never think would become useful in a civilian career have benefited me tremendously," she says.
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