By Sheldon Spackman

24 Red Deer Royal Canadian Air Cadet Squadron wraps up successful year

Jun 18, 2018 | 3:21 PM

Dozens of local Air Cadets took part in their Annual Review Ceremony at Red Deer’s École Camille J. Lerouge School on Saturday .

The year-end wrap-up for 24 Red Deer Royal Canadian Air Cadet Squadron featured a drill parade, awards to notable cadets and a reception at the Cormack Armoury following the ceremony.

Captain Bruce Heaton says 42 cadets between the ages of 12-19 took part while having a chance to reflect on many highlights over the past year.

“Today is an accumulation of all of their training that they’ve done throughout the year,” says Heaton. “They’ve been practicing the drill and their sports and rifle range and taking various lessons in aviation and so forth. Our Annual Cadet Review is what we call it, but it’s also their awards banquet, looking at what they’ve done for the past year, reminiscing on that and recognizing those deserving cadets that have shone a little bit above and beyond the others.”

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Heaton says some of the training cadets receive often becomes a valuable life skill.

“Weekend exercises are what we call our field training exercises,” explains Heaton. “Those are always an exciting event because we go out in the bush and we do some survival training and just learn techniques that are kind of handy to have if you’re out hiking and get lost for a little while and you don’t panic, you learn a little bit about that psychology and you do have to spend the night. We learn how to do improvised shelters so it’s a handy knowledge to have.”

In addition, cadets learn to become confident public speakers Heaton says. However, becoming a good citizen is ultimately the biggest focus for these young people.

“We do not promote war and violence or anything of the sort there,” he explains. “It is not a program designed to lead on into the military, although they’re most welcome to. Many cadets do go on into regular forces after the fact, but at this level it’s all about citizenship and turning them into leaders, learning respect and how to lead, how to stand out from a crowd.”

One of this past year’s citizenship tours, for example, included a trip up to Edmonton’s Telus World of Science which hasn’t been done for a number of years, according to Heaton.

“Next year we might go down to Nanton for our citizenship tour and tour the Lancaster Bomber Museum and things like that,” he adds. “I feel confident turning these young people loose to move onwards and upwards in their careers in whatever field they choose. They’re going to be leaders, it just seems to be part of them once they leave here.”