Roughly 58 Air Cadets from 24 Red Deer Royal Canadian Air Cadet Squadron will take part in the organization's 75th Annual Ceremonial Review on Tuesday night. It takes place at Sky Wings Aviation - Hangar 13 at Red Deer Regional Airport starting at 6:30 p.m.

By Sheldon Spackman

Cadet Graduation

24 Red Deer Royal Canadian Air Cadet Squadron to hold 75th Annual Ceremonial Review

Jun 10, 2019 | 1:06 PM

Dozens of local Air Cadets will celebrate the end of another year and also new beginnings at their Annual Ceremonial Review on Tuesday night.

Now marking their 75^th anniversary, 24 Red Deer Royal Canadian Air Cadet Squadron will host the graduation-style event at Sky Wings Aviation – Hangar 13 at Red Deer Regional Airport starting at 6:30 p.m.

Jolyne Crashley, captain – commanding officer, 24 Red Deer Royal Canadian Air Cadet Squadron, says the cadets have been working on their drill, their dress, their leadership and their air skills all year long leading up to the event.

“Tomorrow is a graduation parade that the parents and community can come and observe what they’ve been working for,” explains Crashley. “We’ve had a lot of 75-year events happen this year. That being said, we’re also affiliated with 409 Squadron – the tactical unit out of 4 Wing Cold Lake and Lt. Col. Mark Hickey who is commanding officer of that squadron will be flying his CF-18 in tomorrow for the event.”

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Crashley says a few of their cadets who range in age from 12 – 19, will be moving on to new adventures following the ceremony, including one off to college, one granted a scholarships to attend post-secondary in Norway and one who is moving to Texas.

“We have cadets that basically either go on to college or for some of them, the military becomes their career path, which is part-in-parcel to the training they’ve taken up until now,” says Crashley. “I’ve been with the Air Cadet program now for 10 years and out of those 10 years I’ve had four of my cadets who are currently serving in the military.”

Crashley says the event is also a great opportunity to reflect on the past year.

“The kids learn different things,” she explains. “They start off learning their uniform, how to take care of it, they learn drill, they have leadership classes that they take and of course we have aviation classes. We do field training, so they’ll go out to the field, they’ll learn how to build a shelter, they’ll learn how to start ground-to-air signals and they learn maps and compass and put those skills to use when we do field training.”

Other highlights from the past year according to Crashley, also included a close working relationship with Red Deer Royal Canadian Legion Branch 35 as always.

“They helped out with the Remembrance Day service and that is always a big thing for our kids,” exclaims Crashley. “They were able to go down to Calgary for a concert and in April we had a change of command. Captain Bruce Heaton retired and that’s when I took over the squadron.”

Although some cadets take part in additional opportunities over the summer, when the program officially starts up again in September, Crashley anticipates a possible trip to Cold Lake next season.

“We’re looking at having a senior’s camp-out where just our seniors are planning it,” says Crashley. “They’re going to do a hike-in and some leadership training. We have Range which is our marksmanship program, we’re looking at doing biathlon, effective speaking, again to field training activities and then just any community events that come along the way to have the kids participate.”