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| Cadet Corps 2719 on parade. |
Cadet Corps 2719 commanded by 2lt Francois Bélec held it's annual
ceremonial parade at the Cotes -des-Neiges Amoury on Saturday, May 4,
2013. The reviewing officer for the event was the commanding officer of
the 2nd Field Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery, Lcol Richard Garon.
3BAM members participated in the event by firing a salute, providing a
vehicle and 25-pdr gun for the march past as well as for a cadet gun
drill demonstration and by presenting some of the awards and trophies
that were passed out that day.
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| Cadets offer the ceremonial salute to the reviewing officer. |
3BAM members who participated in events this day included our Sunray, CWO (ret) Gilles Aubé, Lcol (ret) Jaques Borne, Capt (ret) Maurice Noreau, Ocdt Monique Champagne, MWO (Ret) Tom Savoie, WO (ret) Gilles Pelletier, Sgt (ret) Marc Castonguay, whose trousers were....a bit tight, Lsgt Marc-Antoine Hotte, and of course, yours truly, dressed as always in civilian clothes and fedora.
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| Lcol Ricard Garon address the cadet corps |
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Supporting the cadets is an important part of 3BAM's mission. If 3BAM represents the "Old Guard" and the regiment itself is the "present" then the cadets in many way represent the future of the regiment, being an important source of recruits to the unit once they've reached adulthood. Several of the regiment's former commanding officers in fact, were cadets in CC 2719 before joining the regiment. In his address to the cadet corps, Colonel Garon in fact remarked that there were a number of cadets he'd met that day that he was ready to take into the regiment immediately. Hint, hint guys! Now's your time! The regiment really needs you and the CO wants you!
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| Lcol Garon takes the salute from Lcol Borne |
As I mentioned earlier, the march past included included a gun and tractor, driven by Sgt (ret) Marc Castonguay who also prepared the ammunition for the day's shoot, while Lcol (ret) Jaques Borne stood in the cupola to offer a salute the reviewing officer. The tractor and gun were followed by the main body of the cadet corps led by cadet CWO Duffus. Notice this young fellow already has his parachute wings! Now there's an accomplishment for a young man of that age. I can see this fellow being quickly selected to for officer's training if he does chose to join the regiment.
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| Cade CWO Duffus leads his cadets in the march past. |
Following the inspection and march past the main body of the corps was marched off the parade to allow for the cadet corps band to give a short concert and for a 25-pdr gun drill demonstration by select member of the cadet corps who are cadet-members of 3BAM and entitled to wear a special khaki uniform to denote their status. Though they perform gun drills with the howitzer, and they do it pretty well, the cadets are not permitted to fire the howitzer with blank ammunition for safety reasons.
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| 2lt Bélec hands out an award. |
Following the demonstrations, a number of awards were handed out to various cadets for achieving distinctions in areas ranging from marksmanship to dress and deportment, personal improvement, and long service within the cadet corps. The presenters included the reviewing officer, Lcol Garon, the cadet corps comanding officer, 2lt Bélec, various members of 3BAM, and various VIP guests. There were quite a lot of these awards incidentally, and for a while, it felt like I was at the Oscars or something like that, though thankfully, no speeches!
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| Ocdt Champagne in the #3 position, ready to shoot! |
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Once the ceremonies indoors were concluded, the cadets and guests proceeded outdoors to the parking lot where 3BAM had set up the 25pdr to fire a salute. The # for the occasion was Ocdt Monique Champagne who was firing the gun for the first time. Lcol (ret) Borne served as GPO.As weak as the indoor light was for photography inside the armoury, the outdoor light was just as frustrating, being too strong and contrasty for my tastes, not to mention that the sun was in completely the wrong place as far as was concerned, but nobody really cares about that except the photographer, right? Anyway...once the two shots were fired - we had a bit of difficulty with the first- and the national anthem played, things were pretty much over for the day and a couple of group photos were posed for before everyone repaired indoors to return stores and enjoy a brief reception. I ran off home shortly thereafter to start the editing process of the 175 photos I shot and start thinking about what I was going to write. And here you have it.
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| The Gang! |
Ubique!
Gary Menten
Official Photographer,
3BAM
