BC Lieutenant-Governor Named Honorary Colonel

The link between the province of British Columbia and its Air Force community was strengthened with the investiture of the Lieutenant-Governor as honorary colonel of 19 Wing, Comox.

The Honourable Iona Campagnolo, PC, CM, OBC will serve a three-year period as the Wing’s official “ambassador” representing the Air Force and the 1,400 members of CFB Comox. The Queen’s representative in BC received the honorary rank of colonel in a ceremony on 14 August. The Wing commander is Col Randy Price.

The appointment of honorary colonels within the Air Force is aimed at strengthening ties between the military and civilian community, as it is in the Navy and the Army. The position is open to former officers of the Canadian Forces and to distinguished Canadian citizens.

Her Honour is the Patron of our RUSI of VI.

Ex KOOTENAY CASTLE

TRAIL, BC - The rugged terrain of the West Kootenay Mountains and swift waters of the Columbia River challenged military engineers from four nations during Ex KOOTENAY CASTLE. The 44 Field Engineer Squadron, a Militia unit in Trail, prepared the ground work for the joint and combined participation of Canadian and US Army and Marine Reservists, British Reserve Royal Engineers and a liaison officer from the Australian Army Engineers. The two-week exercise was held in August.

Close to 600 soldiers, including 350 Americans, integrated their forces to conduct joint task force engineering missions, as well as emergency disaster management training. Decontamination and medical units from Edmonton and the US enhanced the realism of the exercise.

Training included assembling a medium girder bridge and combat diving into the Columbia River from a US Army CH47 Chinook helicopter. The 730-foot floating bridge spanned the width of the turbulent Columbia River.

Our past president, H/LCol Al McLean, was a guest during part of the exercise. The Trail Engineer Squadron was his first military unit that he joined as a young sapper.

The New MLBU

The old soldier’s pal, the Mobile Laundry and Bath Unit, has now become the new Containerized Field Shower Complex. The Army recently purchased seven of the portable systems, two for each brigade and one for CFB Gagetown.

The interior of the standard container is stainless steel and includes a well-lit changing room. With a capacity of 60 troops an hour, there is a place for troops to shave and brush teeth while awaiting the shower. It can be set up by a crew of five and transported by truck, crane, forklift or helicopter.

Universal Communicator

The US has awarded the initial contract for a revolutionary family of interoperable radios–the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS). JTRS will ultimately replace all of the US military’s 750,000 tactical radios, used by its four services, with a single family of affordable, interoperable radios that will perform their many diverse functions, ranging from battlefield voice and data communications to long-distance satellite communications. It will be a “software-defined” radio, akin to a computer with a radio “front-end,” with its communications functions based in the radio’s software and not in its hardware.

JTRS represents a $7 to $9 billion program over 20 years. It covers the production of about 250,000 radios to replace existing systems. This new architecture will likely be adopted as an international standard for both military and commercial radios. This would facilitate interoperability among allied forces, thus eliminating the kind of embarrassment experienced by the Canadian Air Force in the air war over Kosovo when our obsolescent aircraft radios could not connect directly with overhead American air controllers.

WANTED -- Very Light Armoured Vehicle

A British army inflatable tank blew away during a multinational training exercise in the Welsh mountains. "If anyone has seen a flying tank please contact us. We would like it back," said an army spokesman. The army was using six of the rubber tanks to recreate battlefield conditions in an exercise with troops from Britain, Belgium, Canada, Poland and the U.S.

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