The "Troupes de la Marine" were under the control of the Ministry of the Marine, which ran the Royal French Navy and all of the French colonies, dressed in distinctive white and blue uniform, and were recruited in France for an 8-year period of service. Though the men of the "Troupes de la Marine" were recruited in France, many of the officers were "Canadiens". From the 1690s on, the sons of the "seigneurs" of New France had often been attached to the "Troupes de la Marine" as cadets starting in their teenage years before securing a commission in the "Troupes de la Marine", meaning that many of officers of the "Troupes de la Marine" were familiar with frontier warfare and knew the Indian languages. Chartrand wrote the Canadian-born officers of the "Troupes de la Marine" had "...devised an unwritten tactical doctrine that combined the best elements of European organization and discipline with the American Indians' extraordinary ability to travel great distances largely undetected and mount very fierce attacks". In New France, all able-bodied men had to serve in the militia from the ages of 16 to 60 with every parish being organized into a company that practiced war games once very month. The French-Canadian militia wore no uniforms and received no pay, but received a gun, ammunition and other equipment from the French state when called up. As almost every "Canadien" man owned a gun and was a dead shot, having been using flintlocks from childhood onward and as many French-Canadians worked as "voyageurs" in the fur trade, they knew the frontier very well. Chartrand called the militia of New France "fierce and outstanding bush fighters".