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Capt Derek Nichols, a Canadian exchange pilot, was killed when the F/A -18 Hornet he was piloting crashed at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, South Carolina last Jun. 28.
A sense of closure for his widow, Mrs. Deanne Nichols and her two sons came on Nov. 3. The United States Marine Corps remembered the late Capt Nichols by presenting two bursaries of $(US) 16, 000 for the boys’ education.
Through the Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation, funds were raised from
public donations to help Mrs. Nichols set the boys up financially for a strong
educational future. This fund provides assistance to children of Marines and
Federal law enforcement members who are killed on duty. The assistance has
also been extended to foreign exchange members while serving with the Marine
Corps. 
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
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
According to a report in the Washington Times, China tested its new
094-class of ballistic missile submarine in July 04. The submarine,
which was spotted by US intelligence agencies at the Huludao shipyard, is
expected to be fully operational in the next year or so, well ahead of the
Pentagon's estimate of 2010.
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 be out 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.
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
As the investigation continues into the fire that disabled the Canadian submarine HMCS Chicoutimi, former defence members are revealing new information that supports the nation's critical need for submarines. Counter to a multitude of damning reports by Canadian media outlets, stories are being brought to the surface by proponents of the submarine program which detail how a US nuclear sub was cornered by a now-retired Oberon-class submarine in 1985.
The US sub was found in Canadian waters where it was not supposed to be. Moreover, other submariners are now attempting to remind the Canadian public of incursions by Soviet and French subs that have come as close as three miles to Canadian shores.
Supporters hope to publicize similar accounts in order to detail how important
the submarines are for maintaining sovereignty patrols. They suggest
that without a subsurface fleet, Canada will be unable to support its Arctic
sovereignty claims and moreover, former submariners note that the four subs
are an absolute bargain compared to the cost of similar boats acquired by
Australia and the subs desired by Taiwan. National Post, 17 Nov.
2004
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