For our Remembrance Day Sleepover/Vigil, we are asking parents to bring snack and breakfast items for the cadets. The list of needed items can be found on the sign-up sheet below and can be dropped off with your cadet on Friday evening. Please be sure that these items are nut-free as we do have cadets with allergies to consider. Hungry cadets thank you in advance for your contributions.
Author Archives: Capt Lemoine
This Week
Thanks to all of the cadets and staff who participated in the flurry of pre-Remembrance Day activities on the weekend. Between the various Royal Canadian Legion events (the Poppy Campaign, and the Veterans’ Dinner and Luncheon) and the Grace United Church Remembrance Service, the complements on the cadets’ contributions were almost non-stop. Well done!
We have one more week to go before the November schedule relaxes somewhat. This week’s training details, parades, and community events have been posted to the calendar and can be found below.
Wednesday: Training Night
Friday and Saturday: Remembrance Day Vigil and Parades
Sunday: St. Mark’s Church Service (for cadets who attended the Vimy 100 Trip)
In other good news, we now have the training schedule with instructors posted for the remainder of the calendar year and are committing to have the first three months of 2018’s schedule posted by the beginning of December.
Remember that you have to be signed into the web page to see instructors’ names in the training schedule and to have access to the signup sheets.
Tomorrow Night’s Training
This Week (Links Corrected)
Despite a bit of cold and wet weather, this last weekend’s FTX was enjoyed by all. Thanks to all of the staff who contributed to its success.
This week’s training details and community events have been posted to the calendar and can be found below.
Wednesday: Training Night
Saturday and Sunday: Royal Canadian Legion Poppy Campaign
Saturday: Royal Canadian Legion Veterans’ Dinner
Sunday: Royal Canadian Legion Veterans’ Luncheon
Sunday: Grace United Church Remembrance Service
For the Saturday and Sunday events, there are specific sign-up sheets in each calendar entry. Paper sign-up sheets will also be provided on Wednesday night.
Remember that you have to be signed into the web page to see instructors’ names in the training schedule and to have access to the signup sheets.
Training Night and Merit Review Boards (Updated)
Duty Officer
CI Carbone
Dress
C2B: Sgt, FSgt, WO2, WO1
C4A: AC, LAC, Cpl, FCpl
Schedule
The training schedule can be found on this evening’s calendar entry here.
Merit Review Boards
In addition to our regular training this evening, there will be a set of Merit Review Boards for promotion from WO2 to WO1 and from FSgt to WO2. We are planning interviews as follows for the eligible cadets.
- WO2 Giansante
- FSgt Griffin
- FSgt Lett
- FSgt Zalepa
All interviews will be 10-15 minutes long. Dress for the interview is C1, so participating cadets should bring their tunic (with medals) and tie on a hangar.
The Area representative for the board is Maj Lisa LaCombe. There will be two other members on the board:
- At least one representative from OPC: a member of the Squadron Sponsoring Committee; and
- A staff officer from the squadron: not the Commanding Officer (CO).
The following information will be presented to the board:
- A copy of the Cadet’s FORTRESS record;
- The cadet’s personnel file;
- Attendance records for the cadet as published from FORTRESS for the last two years;
- All previous Cadet Summer Training Centre (CSTC) course reports;
- A listing of the national, regional and Niagara Air Group (NAG) directed activities they have participated in the last two years;
- Uniform inspection marks for the previous training year;
- Any blue and/or red chits as found in their personnel file; and
- Any other pertinent information the CO wishes the board to consider.
Cadets should have a quick review of C407.01 prior to their MRB.
Vimy 100 Trip: Day Seven (Late)
A day of sightseeing in Paris finished our trip. We hopped onto a tour bus, visited Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, rode past the Musée du Louvre, and spent some time at La Tour Eiffel before collecting our vans and leaving town.
We visited a mall near the airport to give the cadets some shopping time, grabbed a pasta dinner (with an oversized dessert in there somewhere), and called it a night.
A big thank you goes out to the trip staff, without whom this wouldn’t have been a success.
Vimy 100 Trip: The Return
Last day. We’re getting ready to board our flight (AC 881) and everything looks to be running smoothly for an arrival time of 1:00pm EDT in Toronto.
We all had a great time and an amazing experience, but please be understanding if your cadet (or spouse) isn’t terribly energetic over the next few days.
Great personal thanks go out to OCdt Couroux, CV Gowans, and CV Lett. Without their help and understanding, this trip would not have been the success that it has been.
See you all when we arrive!
Vimy 100 Trip: Day Six
We put our uniforms on and left Rouen for Bernières-sur-Mer, Courseulles-sur-Mer, and Bény-sur-Mer on the northern coast of Normandy. We visited the Canadian D-Day Memorial at Canada House, various monuments along the beach, the Centre Juno Beach / Juno Beach Centre, and the Bény-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery before carrying on to Paris.
Tomorrow, we end our trip with a relaxing day of shopping and touring various attractions in Paris. The cadets and staff had a great trip, but we’re all exhausted and looking forward to finally coming home and telling our stories.
Vimy 100 Trip: Day Five (A Day at The Beach)
We started later today and drove north to Dieppe, the site of the 1942/8/19 Operation Jubilee Raid. The day was left largely unstructured in order to recharge after four days of packed schedule.
We began by walking the beach at low tide, continued on to visit the Dieppe Canadian Memorial and a few other regimental monuments, have lunch at a local cafe, and do some shopping. We visited the Dieppe Canadian War Cemetery on our way out of town, and finished the day with pizza Rouen-style at Le Marégraphe near our hotel.
Tomorrow, we leave Rouen to explore the Centre Juno Beach / Juno Beach Centre and finish the day in Paris, so look for more updates then.
Moments:
OCdt Couroux ordering beef tongue for lunch and •really• enjoyed it. The portion was a bit large and he wasn’t able to finish it, which led to a semi-awkward exclamation of “Come over here and eat my tongue!” when his cadet indicated that he was still hungry.
Apparently the GPS considers closed roads and small footpaths to be valid routes for a large passenger van. Each time this sort of routing occurs, the laughter from the second van intensifies. I can’t be absolutely sure there’s a correlation there, but I’m beginning to suspect.
Vimy 100 Trip: Day Four
After getting the vans and picking up the cadets and remaining staff at the hotel, we drove to Wizernes to visit La Coupole, learning about the occupation of France by Nazi Germany and about the V1 and V2 weapons projects.
From La Coupole, we moved on to the key destination of our trip, the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, where we spent the rest of the day. Between the sheer joy on the faces of our Canadian guides (pictured are Kate Harder, Alexandra McKinnon, and August Sobers) when we delivered their Kraft Dinner care package, the cadets’ fascination with the tunnels and trenches tour, and the glory of sunset on the monument itself, we shared an amazing experience today.
Today, the high-speed pace of the trip winds down dramatically as we spend the day in Dieppe, visit the memorial on the beach and explore the town. More to come then.
