Home on the Range: – Soyuz Escape Pod

The Russian Space Agency has found just the place to land astronauts in a hurry. If the crew of the International Space Station has to escape using the Russian escape pod and Kazakhstan is too far, the alternate now is the wide-open prairie between Estevan and Yorkton, Sask. —TC, Victoria 7 Jan 04 _

Comox Cormorants

Our new Search and Rescue helicopters continue to dazzle the aviation community. During the evening of Aug. 6, a CH-149 Cormorant from 19 Wing, Comox performed its first landing aboard a cruise ship (rather than hoisting) to airlift a heart attack victim to hospital. The cruise ship NORWEGIAN SPIRIT was about 30 nautical miles off the southwest coast of Vancouver Island. This was the third cruise ship MEDEVAC this summer. —The Maple Leaf _

Training for War

The telling results of a CanWest Global survey as reported Mon. Oct. 18 found nearly 80 percent of Canadians think the number one job of the military is to prepare for war (8,160 out of 10,366 votes). The next most popular choice in the survey was the defence of Canada’s borders (1,191 out of 10,366), with a mere 745 votes that supported peacekeeping as the main role. It seems our Government may beout of step with the priorities of Canadians on defence issues. Canadians recognize that the nature of peacekeeping and the world itself has drastically changed, and it is about time the government did the same. _

We Keep On Trucking

Federal bureaucrats reportedly scuttled a deal that could have saved taxpayers as much as $300 million replacing the Canadian army's fleet of aging and potentially unsafe trucks. Tentatively approved last year was a deal to buy 1,500 new trucks from the U.S. Army. Federal bureaucrats, fearing the deal would not create Canadian jobs, fought to replace it with a competition open to domestic companies. The end result is the trucks will not be delivered until at least 2008 and the program will cost approximately $300-million more than the deal offered by the U.S. military. Under the original plan, Canada would have received the trucks at a reduced price because the U.S. Army wants 83,000 of these and was getting a good deal because of the massive size of that purchase. The trucks would have replaced the obsolete problem-plagued, Canadian made, Medium Logistic Vehicle Wheeled, or MLVW. —CanWest _

Sneaky Thieves . . .
(Advisory from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police)

Keep alert for people with cell phones in hand standing near you in the checkout line at retail stores, restaurants, grocery stores, etc. With the new camera cell phones, they can take a picture of your credit card, which gives them your name, number, and expiration date. Identification theft is one of the fastest growing crimes today, and this is just another example of the means that are being used. So, be aware of your surroundings.
Please tell all your friends and family, acquaintances too. _

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