VACC ALUMNI SPRING 2006 NEWSLETTER
VACC Alumni Association nd 3009 – 32 Avenue Vernon BC V1T 2L8 www.vaccalumni.ca ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING – 2006. The AGM will be held on Saturday, August 12th at 0900 hrs local time in the Vernon Officers Mess (unless changed). Lunch will be available afterwards in the mess for a small fee (less than $10). New members are more than welcome, as well as present and past members. There will be a Friday night parade on the August 11 , and Sunday Morning (13 ) there will be a drumhead Ceremony at the Camp also. Check out the web site www.armycadethistory.com/ - This is a must see web site, more photos and cadet corps histories are continually being added. They want your submissions. Future Events th th The 60 Anniversary of the Camp is in 2008 - that will be the 60 summer the camp has been in operation as a cadet camp. An Event is being planned and a meeting will be held after lunch on th the afternoon of August 12 location will likely be either the officers mess or C42, the location will be confirmed at the Annual General Meeting. A survey form to submit what you would like to see should be on the web site shortly. If you have ideas for this event let us know on the website or snail mail us a line at the address above. Stay tuned folks! Current Project Currently members of the Alumni Association are putting together an additional set of helmets and spikes. More were needed due to the expansion of the guard and to allow for spares. Corporate Contributors to help fund this project were UMA Engineering, Nason Construction, and Camtrac Inspections. Our thanks go out to our Corporate friends and our members who helped on this project. Pillars 2006 This Event was attended by President Norm Sanderson, Past President Rod McLeod, Al Saunders and Francois Arseneault, it was an update on whats happening with Army cadets in BC, more information can be found on the BC Leagues website at www.armycadetleague.bc.ca/ . The trade show booth on the Sunday was manned by Paul Riopelle and Tom Mason and our thanks go out to them. Cool stuff The British Columbia Dragoons Cadet Corps 1705, 903, and 788 debuted a mounted troop at the 2006 Pillars Conference, and they put on an excellent show. Rumour has it that Cadet Corps affiliated with the Lord Strathcona Horse in the Fort Steele area will form another mounted troop. Change of Command Lieutenant Colonel Alan Dengis will be taking over as Commanding Officer at the Camp, Lt. Col Dengis was the DCO last year and a Company Commander prior to that. In his other job he is a member of the RCMP. He takes over from Lt. Col. Terry Kopan who served as Commanding Officer for four years.
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Rumours Heard: The Approval process for having the Sherman Tank placed at the Camp as a monument is underway. The Tank is currently with the Lord Strathconas Horse Historical Troop and will be painted in the colours of the British Columbia Dragoons. The tank will be a tie in to the camps history as a World War 2 training center. Plans are underway for an appropriate monument commemorating the cadet presence at Camp Vernon. The current training center has been continuously used for nearly sixty years and the monument that is being considered could see figures representing cadets in the uniforms unique to at least three time periods. A Bit of History The Summer of 1949 found Mel Lee getting on a Northern Alberta Railways train in Beaverlodge Alberta with the rest of the Beaverlodge Cadets, it was 11:00 in the morning and the cadets from Fort St. John BC were already on board the train. They spent all night traveling to Edmonton, as this was the regular train run, it stopped at all the small towns on the way, Grande Prairie, Rycroft, High Prairie, Slave Lake, Smith, etc. and every second or third stop more cadets got on. The train arrived in Edmonton the next morning, and they had about a four hour stop over, then changed trains, and left in the afternoon and went on through Kamloops and arrived in Vernon the following afternoon. In 1950 and 1951 the trip was different, after arriving in Edmonton they changed trains to Canadian Pacific and went to Calgary where they changed onto a troop train of 20-21 carloads of cadets, which left Calgary at about 7 pm and arrived in Vernon the next afternoon. Mel reminds us these were not diesel trains but the older coal fired steam trains in those days. After arriving at Vernon the cadets were formed into platoons at the train station and loaded onto WW2 military pattern Ford 4 by 4 trucks and transported to the camp. They were unloaded on the parade square and assigned barracks. Mels first camp in 1949 was 2 weeks and in 50 and 51 he was on the 6 week driver mechanics courses. The H hut he was in each year was located on the east edge of the camp, which made it a short walk to the embankment to get down to the golf course from where you could follow the railroad tracks to lake Kalamalka (the camp did receive complaints from the golf course back in the early days!). In 1955 Paul Riopelle first came to Camp Vernon by Greyhound Bus, a relatively short ride on the regular bus run from Salmon Arm, a total of 12 cadets from the Rocky Mountain Rangers Salmon Arm High School Cadet Corp were at camp that summer. In 1959 Tom Mason came to the camp his first time by private motor car for orientation training, in 1960 he came for the whole summer, he advises that the whole staff from Jericho (Vancouver Regular Army Base at the time) moved en masse to the camp to operate Camp Vernon for the summer in those years. Either the brigade commander or chief of staff commanded the camp in those times. In 1962 Rod McLeod (a bonnie wee lad then) recalls traveling from Edmonton to Calgary via a green armed forces bus (sometimes referred to as a pickle) driven by a Sergeant McIvor (“Everyone calls me driver McIvor but you guys are too young and must call me Sgt. McIvor”). In Calgary they were taken to Currie Barracks, he remembers the buildings being white with green and red trim as the Queens Own Rifles were running the place back then. They had lunch and were then taken downtown to the train station (Canadian Pacific) where there were loaded onto 6 or 7 passenger cars with cadets from Calgary and points east. They then headed towards the mountains, the train stopped at Three Valley Gap, and overnighted at Sicamous where the next day they exited the train and marched over to another train that took them South to Vernon. On Arriving in Vernon they were loaded in the backs of 3 ton stake trucks (fondly referred to as cattle trucks) and deuce and a halfs (2.5 ton 1953 military pattern trucks) and taken to supply and then barracks – Juliette lines. 1978 – Al Saunders recalls getting on a military bus at the Leonforte gym building at Griesbach (the old Edmonton Base) and being shuttled to the Edmonton International Airport, on this serial
of cadets there were some Air Cadets, some Sea Cadets, and mostly Army Cadets, the 2551 Airborne Cadets were wearing the Tee Dubs – Tropical Wear Uniform, the remainder were in the woolen battledress or the new green tri-service cadet uniform, as he was wearing a blue wedge with a bird on it Cadet Saunders stood out. At Edmonton’s Airport the cadets were loaded onto Pacific Western Airlines 737’s (an air type would know this) chartered for the occasion, for a short hop over the mountains to the sunny Okanogan’s Kelowna airport. Here cadets were loaded onto yellow school buses, with kit going on deuce and a halfs or stake trucks, for the very windy journey down the old highway 97 to Vernon. Upon Arrival in Vernon Cadet Saunders went through the Sausage machine like all the rest and was then transported to Barrracks in the K lines up on the hill (where the current tent like structures are). Delta Company, Cadet Leader Course, this is where he ran into a Cadet from Calgary named Arseneault, and the rest they say is History. In the 80’s and 90’s and to the present day operation, the methods have not changed much. There have been from time to time some variations in the theme such as Armed Forces C130’s lifting directly to the Vernon Airport but generally it is a combination of charter and commercial flights, bussing, and private motor vehicle that get the Staff and Cadets to and from the Camp each summer. Hats off to the unsung heroes of the Movements Section who make it all happen. More Cool stuff st On January 31 2006 Chief of Defense Staff Rick Hillier announced a re-organization of the Canadian Forces with four new Commands to meet the demands of the future. They are: Canada Command Responsible for operations inside Canada (domestic). Canadian Operational Support Command (CANOSCOM) Responsible for providing support to all Canadian Forces international, continental and domestic operations Canadian Expeditionary Force Command (CEFCOM) Responsible for all Canadian Forces international operations except for operations by the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command Canadian Special Operations Forces Command. With this last Command it looks like Canada is getting in the Special Forces business seriously. Units attached so far to the Special Forces Command appear to be Joint Task Force 2, The Joint Nuclear Biological and Chemical Defence Company, 427 Special Operations Aviation Squadron (formerly a Tactical Helicopter Squadron with a history back to WW2) and a new regiment, the Canadian Special Operations Regiment. The Special Operations Regiment looks like it will be about 750 strong when up to strength and will have a mission similar to the US Green Berets, British SAS type outfits. The Commander was seen wearing a Sand coloured Beret – Does this harken back to the days of the short lived Canadian Special Air Service Company (SAS) of 1946?? Will the Airborne Regiment be reactivated?? Junior Officers Sword of Excellence The late Col. D.F.B. Kinloch donated the sword, and the Vernon Senior Secondary woodworking shop manufactured an attractive wooden case for mounting in the Officer’s Mess. The Sword of Excellence recipient is selected by a panel of Officers appointed by the Commanding Officer. 2005 recipient was Lt. Audra Bowers 2004 recipient was 2Lt. C. Baker. 2003 recipient was Lt. R. Chamberlain
Alumni Kit Shop - The Kit Shop is Open - so far we only have shirts at $43 plus shipping ($12) if your interested drop us a note and the kit shop guy will contact you – (or send a message to the Web master). The kit shop will be open at the Annual General Meeting also. If you are in the Edmonton Area there is a possibility of saving shipping cost as the Kit Shop Guy lives nearby (he also travels around Alberta a bit so get in contact…). Our thanks to CEL Surplus for sponsoring last years draw at the annual General Meeting Check them out at www.celsurplus.com or CEL Surplus of #4, 9802- 90 Avenue, Morinville Industrial Park, Morinville AB toll free 1-877-939-3026. Past Alumni Projects and Activities: -Members attended the Pillars conference in the Spring of 2005 -The 2004 project/fundraising presented a check to the camp in the amount of $2600 to assist with the purchase of new Furniture for the Staff Cadet Mess. - coordinating the acquisition of and presenting The Junior Officers Sword of Excellence to the camp. - presentation of a Pipe Banner to the VACC pipe band - supplying the guard with dress helmets and spikes - attending graduation parades (in VACC Alumni “uniforms”) - attending weekly parades, drumhead services, change of command and change of RSM ceremonies, freedom of city parades - attending social events at the Officer’s and NCM’s Composite Messes - maintaining an interesting and informative website - presentation of Certificates of Appreciation to The Morning Star for their coverage of camp and alumni activities - organizing the 1999 Reunion & maintaining a nucleus for future reunions - fund raising Objectives: According to our constitution our main objectives are: i) ii) iii) To support the continuation of the camp as a cadet training centre. To provide a venue for the celebration of VACC through reunions and other special events. To raise funds specifically for the operation of VACC
Newsletter Contributions: Anyone interested in contributing to a future newsletter can send their clean jokes, articles or information to the above address attention Newsletter Editor – note they may be edited for length and content. Constructive comments are welcomed, especially if errors are made by the writers/editor (for which they apologize greatly and may be flogged later). Nasty grams, references to the marital status of the editors’ parents, etc, will not be published.
VERNON ARMY CADET CAMP ALUMNI ASSOCIATION CONTACT INFORMATION
Mailing Address:
VACC Alumni Association Care of Greater Vernon Museum and Archives nd 3009 32 Avenue Vernon BC V1T 2L8 www.vaccalumni.ca
Web Site Address:
The web master can be e-mailed from the site by going to the “contact us” box. So you want to join? Membership runs 1 July to 30 June. Yes, it’s a funny year, but we like it. Detach the form below, attach your cheque & send it to the mailing address above. Please ensure the information is written clearly Remember the 60 Anniversary in 2008 !! Fold & Tear……………………………………………………….…Fold & Tear
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VACC Alumni Association Annual dues (expires 30 June07) Project / Fund-raiser Donation (hush money for past transgressions can be hidden here) Total
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