Category Archives: Remembrance Day

Remembrance Day Sleepover, Vigil, and Parades – 10NOV22-11NOV22

This is the kickoff for our annual Remembrance Day Vigil. On Thursday, 10 Nov 2022 at 1900 (7:00pm), cadets will meet at the Royal Canadian Legion’s Ed Boldt Memorial Hall (upstairs) and begin preparations for Remembrance Day on Friday.

Bring your uniform (on a hanger) and your boots; pajamas; a sleeping bag and pillow; toiletries; and any other essential items for a sleepover.

Dress for the Thursday evening portion is casual. Jeans and a t-shirt are fine. Dress for the Friday parades is full dress uniform: C1A. The early forecasts are calling for rain and 15deg.   The outside shell of the parka may be required to keep the cadets dry.

Breakfast will be provided by the Squadron Sponsorship Committee through donations by our cadets’ families. Please accept our sincere thanks if you are contributing to our breakfast. Please see the Remembrance Day Breakfast Contributions sign-up sheet and bring the items with you when you arrive on Thursday night.

The sign-up sheet for Remembrance Day breakfast contributions can be found here: Event Sign-ups. Please remember that you need to be logged into the site to see the sign-up sheets.

Remembrance Day occurs on a weekday this year, so a letter has been provided for cadets to take to their schools to explain their absence from classes. It can be found here: Remembrance Day Letter.

Our schedule for Remembrance Day is as follows:

0600 – Reveille (First Group)
0620 – Breakfast (First Group)
0645 – Walk to Cenotaph (First Group)
0700 – Shifts begin
1000 – Last shift at the Cenotaph
1030 – Old Town parade begins
1200 – Old Town parade ends and cadets return to the Royal Canadian Legion
1230 – Cadets are to proceed to Queenston for the afternoon parade
1300 – Queenston parade begins
1430 – Queenston parade ends and cadets return to the Royal Canadian Legion
1500 – Cadets are ready for pickup at the Royal Canadian Legion

Shifts last for 30 mins each with five (5) cadets per shift.

Changeovers will occur at the top and bottom of each hour until the last shift takes position at 1030. This shift will remain for the duration of the Remembrance Day parade.

We have no transportation laid on to get our cadets from Old Town to Queenston and back for the different ceremonies.   We’re looking for available SSC members and parents to help out if possible.

Thank you to all who contribute to making this event successful. The Remembrance Day parades are where we have an opportunity for cadets, staff, and volunteers to show our respect for our fallen and, through them, our community.

D. Couroux
Lieutenant
Commanding Officer
809 Newark RCACS
Immortal!

Remembrance Day – Final Schedule

Here is the current schedule for Remembrance Day activities.

Morning Vigil – Old Town Cenotaph

Supervising Officer / Wreath Laying – Capt Lemoine

Reading of “In Flanders Fields”

Vigil Shifts

1015 – 1045:
1045 – 1130:

Afternoon Schedule – Queenston Cenotaph

Supervising Officer / Wreath Laying – Lt Nicolescu

Reading of “In Flanders Fields”

Vigil Shift

1245 – 1330:

Cadets should be dropped off (at the Old Courthouse parking lot for Old Town and at the RiverBrink Art Museum parking lot for Queenston) 30 minutes before their shift. They can be picked up at the end of the respective service.

If you have any questions, please contact me.

J Lemoine
Captain
Commanding Officer
809 Newark RCACS
Immortal!

Weekly Routine Orders – Week of 7 November 2021

Date
7 November 2021

RO Number
2021-30

CO’s Message

Good evening!

I hope everyone’s recovered from our first FTX of the year! (Okay, our first FTX in almost two years if you can believe it.) It’s good to be back at practical training again. Thanks to Lt Nicolescu for bringing it all together and to all of the senior cadets and staff members for making it a success.

This week, our focus is on Remembrance Day. I’ve already put out the call for cadets to volunteer at the vigils this Thursday and we’ll all be wearing full dress uniform (1A/C1A) on Wednesday to make sure we’re prepared.

If you haven’t submitted your uniform sizing to CI Dau, best to do it as soon as possible. To be very clear, mixing and matching of uniform items isn’t acceptable. It’s all or nothing, so if you don’t have a C1A uniform that fits, wear civilian clothing on Wednesday. There have been plenty of reminders, so unless you’re a new cadet or CI Dau has told you that we can’t get the right sizes yet, there aren’t really any excuses.

I’ll be away from the 12th to the 23rd, and won’t be in attendance next week, but will be back on the 24th and ready to pick up where we left off.

Remember to read the WROs in their entirety.

See you on Wednesday!

Regular Training Night
10 November 2021

Registration

All attendees must complete the Ontario COVID-19 School Screening form and check in for all in-person activities using the Registration for In-Person Events form. Cadets must complete the school screening as students. Staff must complete the school screening as employees. Confirmation should be emailed to the squadron email box.

Ontario COVID-19 School Screening Form
Ontario COVID-19 School Screening

In-Person Activity Check-In Form
In-Person Activity Registration

CAF Member Dress
1A (Ceremonial with Medals)

Cadet Dress
C1A (Civilian if C1A dress hasn’t been issued.)

Duty Personnel
Duty Officer: CI Dau

This Week’s Activities

Date Day Activity Location Dress OIC
10 November 2021
1830-2100
Wednesday Regular Training Night 809 RCACS HQ 5/C5 CI Dau

Upcoming Activities

Date Day Activity Location Dress OIC
11 November 2021
1830-2100
Thursday Remembrance Day Old Town and Queenston Cenotaphs 1A/C1A Capt Lemoine
17 November 2021
1830-2100
Wednesday Regular Training Night 809 RCACS HQ 5/C5 Lt Nicolescu

J. Lemoine
Captain
Commanding Officer
809 Newark RCACS
Immortal!

Remembrance Day 2021

It is a tradition in Niagara-on-the-Lake, that 809 Cadets stand vigil at the Old Town cenotaph on Remembrance Day from the early morning hours to the end of the 1100 service. In the afternoon, we also participate in the 1300 service at the Queenston cenotaph. Obviously, the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown a wrench in the entire process and we have been unable to participate since Remembrance Day 2019. This year, we’re slowly but surely resuming our role.

Normally, we do an overnight sleepover event at the Royal Canadian Legion the night before and begin standing vigil in half hour shifts from 6am to the end of the first service. We then go to back to the Legion for lunch, travel by bus to the Queenston service and then return to the Legion for parent/guardian pickup. Restrictions on overnight activities and mixed gatherings require us to modify the program this year, so here’s what we’re going to do:

At a minimum, cadets will stand vigil at the Old Town and Queenston cenotaphs during the services themselves and will read “In Flanders Fields” at each service. We already have enough cadet volunteers to fill this role. We’ll work backwards from the 1100 service and begin our half-hour shifts as early as we can depending on how many cadets can get rides to and from the Old Town cenotaph.

Dress for Remembrance Day will be 1A/C1A.

Please email 809air@cadets.gc.ca with your availability for Remembrance Day activities as soon as possible so that we can begin building the schedule.

For those cadets participating, the following letter has been made available to explain to your teachers why you’ll be absent from school while participating.

Remembrance Day Excuse Letter 2021

Cadets who are unable to attend have blanket permission to wear their C1A uniform to school to represent the squadron.

J Lemoine
Captain
Commanding Officer
809 Newark RCACS
Immortal!

Cadets Canada – Remembrance Day 2020

A message from our Commander:

“I am incredibly proud of the small, yet meaningful gestures and actions cadets and JCRs take to show their respect for veterans and their sacrifices. You are clearly demonstrating that the next generation of Canadian leaders will not forget those who gave their lives to defend the values that define Canada.”

Commodore Kurtz, Commander CJCR

Weekly Routine Orders – Week of 1 Nov 2020

Date
1 Nov 2020

RO Number
2020-24

CO’s Message

Congratulations to all of the cadets who received the uniform updates for their promotions last week. If you weren’t in attendance, don’t worry. We’ve got your slip-ons, rank badges, and level badges waiting for you and will issue them as soon as we see you. When everyone has them and we have a complete set of pictures, Sgts Couroux and Abt will be working on a collage so that everyone who couldn’t be there can share in our cadets’ accomplishments.

Once again, there will be a virtual meeting on Google Meet for parents/guardians of existing and new cadets where we will outline how 809 Newark Squadron will be delivering the air cadet program this year. For new cadets and their parents/guardians, this will be a summary of the cadet program, our objectives for the training year, and a comparison of how we will be operating versus how we operate normally. For parents and guardians of existing cadets, this will be an overview of changes that have become necessary in the face of COVID-19. A Q&A session will follow the presentation. If you know of any potential new cadets who might be interested in joining us, please direct them to one of these sessions. If further dates need to be scheduled, those can be done as required.

As of Friday, 30 Oct, the Legion Poppy Campaign has begun. Until the end of Remembrance Day itself, the Poppy is a mandatory component of the air cadet uniform. When wearing tunics or shirts with pockets, the Poppy is worn centred on the flap of the left breast pocket. When wearing sweaters or t-shirts, the Poppy is worn approximately over the heart. We won’t be participating in the Poppy Campaign directly this year due to COVID-19 restrictions, but we will still be observing the season in our own fashion. If you do not already have a Poppy for your uniform, we will have them at HQ when you arrive for training.

See you on Wednesday!

Training Night
4 Nov 2020

Training Night Schedule
See the Events Calendar.

CAF Member Dress
3B

Cadet Dress
C3B: Sgt, FSgt, WO2, WO1
C3F: AC, LAC, Cpl, FCpl

Duty Personnel
Duty Officer: 2Lt Nicolescu
Duty NCM: FSgt Lampman

This Week’s Activities

Date Day Activity Location Dress OIC
2 Nov 2020
1900-2000
Monday Virtual Information Session for Parents and New Cadets Google Meet) Civilian Capt Lemoine
4 Nov 2020
1810-2100
Regular Training Night Wednesday 809 HQ C3B/C3F 2Lt Nicolescu

Upcoming Activities

Date Day Activity Location Dress OIC
11 Nov 2020
1810-2100
Remembrance Day Wednesday 809 HQ C1A OCdt Couroux
28 Nov 2020
0900-1600
Saturday Cadet Leadership Workshop RCL Branch 418, 294 Vine Street, St. Catharines, ON L2M 4T3 and Virtual C5  

J. Lemoine
Captain
Commanding Officer
809 Newark RCACS
Immortal!

Remembrance

Tomorrow, the Royal Canadian Legion begins its annual Poppy Campaign. Under normal circumstances, our staff and cadets would be participating in the campaign, giving due consideration to what it means, and taking the opportunity to learn from our veterans about their experiences in times of conflict. Many of these opportunities aren’t going to be available this year due to the constraints of COVID-19 preparedness, but it is still our responsibility to take the time to think of what it all means.

Tales of war will fill our consciousness over the next few weeks, not because we give these things any kind of reverence or glory themselves, but because of the people who were and are willing to give everything for their loved ones, their communities, and their country. The Poppy and Remembrance are not about war, though war figures into the stories. They are about ensuring that the memory of war remains strong enough that we know it for the horror that it is. They are about holding everlasting respect for those who are willing to step up and do what their country calls them to do, without knowing the sacrifices that might have to be made for it. They are about knowing those sacrifices as our own, remembering the losses as our own losses, and feeling the pain that our veterans live with each day as our own pain.

Remembrance is about more than the consideration of the memories and sacrifices of others. It is about ensuring that these are always a part of who we are. It is about making them immortal.

From tomorrow until Remembrance Day on 11 November, the Poppy is to be worn on cadet and CAF uniforms, and I encourage everyone to consider its deeper significance while they wear it.

I’ll leave you with the Royal Canadian Air Force’s video production of HCol Loreena McKennitt‘s “Breaking of the Sword” to set the tone for the next weeks.

Be safe. Stay healthy. Remember.

J Lemoine
Captain
Commanding Officer
809 Newark RCACS
Immortal!