Cadets celebrate annual Ceremonial Parade
Jenna Campbell
Times Jr Reporter
Strathmore’s Royal Canadian Air Cadet Squadron celebrated their Ceremonial Annual Parade at Strathmore’s Civic Center, this past Saturday, June 4. Many parents and friends were in attendance to support and acknowledge the great work that the fifty-two cadets, ranging in age from 12-19, have accomplished throughout this past year.
These events include a lot of fundraising, competitions, and aviation directed skill building. Even though this year’s air cadet program has come to its seasonal end, a lot of the ceremony talk was directed towards what training the cadets will be taking this summer.
Some of the younger cadets will be taking a general, two week training course where they will learn the basics: how to march, drills, leadership skills and an expanded knowledge on aviation. Others will be attending leadership courses and a Survival Camp in Cold Lake.
One cadet is going to train to be a survival instructor for the first half of summer. In the survival course, cadets will be sent on solos, some two, three, and five days long. Given only the necessities to survive, the cadets must ration one meal package, which contains enough calories to sustain the cadets for the duration of their solo.
“They teach them how to bush-craft. For example, we’ve had kids come out of the field with marionettes that that they have made out of sticks, something to keep them entertained. But, they do a lot of sleeping because they don’t know what else to do with themselves,” said Captain Tara MacPherson.
Some senior cadets have been successful in receiving scholarships for their summer training courses, including some cadets who will be training for their glider pilots, and fighter pilots license, all paid for by the Department of National Defense and the Air Cadet League of Canada.
One cadet will be learning to be a Rifle Coach, to eventually be able to run a range for the cadets. Out of the fifty-two cadets, there will be only one cadet who will be graduating from the squadron – Flight Sergeant Sean McCarton, who is currently working in construction hopes to become a missionary in the future.
Captain Tara MacPherson is very proud of her cadets and states that her job is very easy, given the excellent group of kids. Even the so-called ‘trouble makers’ are not really trouble makers.
“My husband and I joke that we have two kids, but really, we have fifty kids. You get them when they’re 12 and they leave us when they’re 19, so it’s a long time to have any group of teenagers,” said MacPherson.
With many cadets returning to next year’s squadron, the only hope is that even more kids will get involved and join the program.
“This is Canada’s best kept secret. These kids are getting the greatest training you can get in this country and it’s free,” said MacPherson.