RMC Alumni Association Announces New Alumni Branch & Class Manager
The RMC Alumni Association is pleased to welcome a new staff member to our dedicated team of professionals. Sonja Taylor, a communications specialist by trade has taken on the role of Alumni Branch and Class Engagement Manager at the end of February.
2022 Old Brigade Dinner Announcement
One of the big events of the weekend is the Old Brigade Dinner, a tradition that dates back to 1906. At this dinner, members of the more senior classes, some well into their nineties, will welcome and induct the new Class of Entry 2022, who first entered a Canadian Military College in 1972-3, and/or who graduated in 1977. It is a time to renew long-ago friendships and to reflect on how fortunate we are to have shared our MilCol experience. Whether from Royal Roads, Kingston, or Saint Jean, we all had a unique start to our careers, one that bonds us together for a lifetime.
CDS Message regarding Invasion of Ukraine
These events have also given me cause to reflect upon the paradox that lies at the heart of a professional military. We train our entire lives – spending blood, tears, toil, and sweat – to prepare ourselves to fight in defence of our homeland, against threats we dearly hope will never come. For our brothers and sisters in Ukraine, that fight is upon them now.
The Class of 1979 Remembers – The General and the Ditch
On a wet afternoon in the week before Ex-Cadet weekend, I found myself standing in a soggy Navy Bay sports field waiting for the Commandant to inspect the set of obstacles found there. The first to be inspected was the infamous muddy ditch through which the recruits would have to leopard-crawl – it was early in the course to make sure they would be wet and muddy for the remainder. To ensure they got the full experience of being in the mud, the ditch was crossed by 4×4 posts every six feet or so to ensure they maintained contact with the mud.
RMC Cadets Return to Campus
For the first time in nearly two years, the entirety of the RMC student body was on the peninsula. Braving a cold winter’s day, RMC Naval and Officer Cadets attended classes, collected their uniforms, and helped peers who may or may not have forgotten how to find their way around the academic buildings.
Peacekeeping Simulation Comes to RMC thanks to an anonymous donor from the Class of 1965
The pandemic has made training peacekeepers difficult, creating a need for a digital training environment that can offer experiential learning that goes beyond traditional approaches to education.
Meet the Branches – Kingston Branch
The branch covers a wide geographic area of Eastern Ontario East/West from Cornwall to Trenton and North to Perth. Although we have over two hundred alumni on our membership list, only about twenty-five are active. Prior to COVID, we held monthly luncheons at the RMC Senior Staff Mess which usually featured a guest speaker. Other social activities include Spring and Fall “formal” dinners, a Valentines luncheon and a summer barbecue. Humanitarian activities have included Habitat for Humanity and donations to various charitable cause, the most recent being a large donation to Homes for Heroes.
They Proudly Served – LCol (Ret’d) 10386 Chas Cormier
Charles Cormier discovered an interest in military operations in high school. After a classroom presentation of the Canadian Armed Forces Officer Training Plan, he enlisted in the Reserves at the age of 16. At 18, he transferred to the Regular Force and began his studies at the Royal Military College St-Jean. “I didn’t want to put financial stress on my parents.”
The Class of 1979 Remembers – Skylarks
It was a dark and stormy night on the 13th of October 1977 … okay not really – it was actually quite a nice but cool late evening, as six intrepid III year members of 4 Squadron, under cover of darkness, gathered stealthily around the base of the Memorial Arch – 12249 Terry Wood, 12207 Kevin McCarthy, 12218 Wayne Murray, 12357 Steve Zuber, 12154 Mark Beaulieu, and 12114 Brian Pitman.