Go Bold #71: Captain Alex Kooiman, Commander of the Canadian Submarine Force, on being a submariner in the Royal Canadian Navy

2024 marks the 110th Anniversary of the Canadian Submarine Force, so I thought its appropriate to honor this milestone by talking about Canadian submarines and their amazing capabilities with my guest, Royal Canadian Navy Captain Alex Kooiman, the Commander of the Canadian Submarine Force.Submarines are high-value strategic platforms. They are incredibly complex, and they utilize stealth and deceptive tactics to carry out their roles -- these include anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, mine warfare, land attack, multi-spectrum intelligence operations, special forces support, and so much more. Getting to the point to employ these capabilities takes many years of training and specialization, which you will learn in this episode.Canada operated the Oberon-class submarines from the 1960s to the 1990s, after which the service brought into service 4 Victoria-class diesel-electric submarines, which are former Upholder class subs from the Royal Navy. These submarines have been challenging to support, but they provide incredible capability to the Navy when deployed.You can see inside Canada's Victoria-class submarines on our Go Bold YouTube channel, where we were privileged to visit with the crew of HMCS Corner Brook. We have two videos on there where you'll get an appreciation for what its like to be a submariner in the Royal Canadian Navy.Canada has now begun the process to acquire new conventional submarines through the Canadian Patrol Submarine Project, so we will highlight that program in future episodes of Go Bold.For this episode you will get a sense of the process to become a submariner, and also a commanding officer of a front line attack submarine as Captain Kooiman shares his journey in the Royal Canadian Navy, and his experiences on exchange with allies.I want to thank Captain Kooiman for his time and kindness, and we look forward to having him back on Go Bold in the near future.Happy 110th Anniversary to the Canadian Submarine Force!Go Bold!