What keeps Retired Gen. Wayne Eyre up at night?

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[instrumental music] This is a CBC podcast.

Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is The Current Podcast.

Today, I would like to offer my sincere congratulations to General Wayne Eyre on his nomination as the chief of defense staff. General Eyre and I will continue to work hard in reforming the culture of the Canadian Armed Forces.

Changing the culture of the military was top of the agenda for General Wayne Eyre when he took over as Canada's top commander in 2021. The Canadian Armed Forces were grappling with an ongoing sexual misconduct crisis. His two immediate predecessors were themselves facing allegations. Add to that, it was the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, Afghanistan was mere months away from falling to the Taliban, and more natural disasters, plus Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, were right around the corner. Retired General Wayne Eyre reflects on all of these challenges and his entire 40-year military career in a new memoir. It's called Into the Breach: A Soldier's Journey, and he's with me in our Toronto studio. Wayne Eyre, good morning.

Good morning, Matt, and thanks for having me on your show again.

It's good to have you back on the program. Why did you want to be a soldier? You wanted to be a soldier from your earliest years, despite the fact that, as you say in the book, you didn't come really from a military family.

No, I was drawn to it. My, my brothers and my cousins running around the woods in the farm in Saskatchewan with sawed-off, uh, uh, hockey sticks, patrolling against each other. Uh, joining Army cadets at a very young age, at, uh, at 12, really solidified it. And, you know, from, uh, from being a teenager onwards, I knew what I wanted to do, and that was to join the Canadian Armed Forces, uh, the army in particular, and become an infantry officer.

What did you imagine you'd be doing as a mel- member of the military?

I thought I would be traveling to exotic, distant lands, and l-

That sounds like the advertising campaign

And, and living-

Come see the world

... living an adventure.

Yeah.

And I joined for the adventure. I joined for the lifestyle.

And, I mean, we'll talk about the specifics, but did you get what you signed up for?

I think [laughs] I did. Um, you know, I use the, uh, use the term journey, and it certainly was a journey. That call to service, the, the facing of obstacles and challenges along the way, the professional growth, the, the camaraderie.

Mm.

Uh, the, the ultimate challenges at the end as, as being the chief of the defense staff, and then the reintegration home back into Canadian society.

What was it like as a young recruit for you?

Well, given that I had spent five years in Army cadets, uh, many of