Ex Cadet’s Memory Honoured:
15708 Capt. Michael Allen (CMR RMC ’87) was killed July 22, 1993 on training flight at CFB Wainwright, Alta. Family, friends and dignitaries were on hand at 8 Wing ceremonies recently to honour his memory. Michael was the husband of now Lt Col Frances Allen current CO of AETSS at Trenton; and the son of 5533 JG (Glen) RRMC / RMC ’62) and Judith now residing in Westport, ON. Brother 20704 Matthew R (RMC ’97) and his family now reside in Oakville, ON.
Landing Zone Allen christened
Posted By Luke Hendry
First appeared in the Belleville Intelligencer – October 3 2007
The memory of a Trenton airman received an appropriate tribute here Monday. Family, friends and others gathered on the new gravel runway at CFB Trenton’s detachment here Tuesday morning to christen it Landing Zone Allen. Capt. Michael Allen was killed July 22, 1993, one day before his 29th birthday. At the time, he was on a training flight at CFB Wainwright, Alta.; the crew was doing a low-altitude parachute extraction system drop when their CC-130 Hercules plane crashed. Of the nine people aboard, five were killed.
Allen’s wife, Lt.-Col. Frances Allen, now commands Trenton’s Aerospace and Telecommunications Engineering Support Squadron. She said despite the sad story behind the runway’s new name, it was a good day for her family.
“We’re focusing on the good side, the remembrance,” Allen said. “It’s a happy occasion for us.”
Allen said her husband joined the Canadian Forces in 1982, earning his wings in 1988. He chose an air transport job so they could be posted closer to one another. Capt. Allen worked in Trenton from 1988 to 1993.
“Flying was something he always loved … Mike loved challenges; he loved adventure,” said Allen. “He always came home with stories and pictures.”
She noted he had flown in the first Gulf War and his crew was among the first to fly into Sarajevo during the wars in the former Yugoslavia.
“We had just moved to Edmonton after being here with 436 (Squadron),” Allen said. “He was killed about three weeks after we got there.”
She was seven months pregnant at the time.
Their son, Nick, joined his mother and grandparents at the ceremony. Capt. Allen’s mother, Carole Cox, father Glenn Allen, and Glenn’s wife Judy joined Nick in removing an air force tartan covering the sign at the runway’s northeast end.
Allen said Nick enjoys hearing “every little bit he can get about his dad’s career or what his father was like.” (Click image to enlarge)
“It’s very nice for him to learn that from people he worked with,” Allen said. As for her husband, she said, it’s a fitting way to remember him because training is such a large part of transport crews’ jobs. The airstrip is now being used to train Hercules pilots for landings on rough ground both in Canada and abroad.
“I think he would be really thrilled and honoured that the air mobility community remembered,” Allen said.
Col. Mike Hood, who trained with Capt. Allen, recalled the pilot as “always happy” and full of energy. “Anyone that knew Mike would know he had an aura about him,” said Hood, adding Allen loved the Hercules.
14055 Geoff Marinoff (RRMC RMC ’83)
New boss on Mississauga buses. Transit chief sets sights on commuters who drive to work but have a choice
Tess Kalinowski
Transportation Reporter
First appeared in The Toronto Star – October 08, 2007
He’s got a reputation for steady-handed leadership, but Geoff Marinoff knows he’ll have to shake things up in his new role as director of Mississauga Transit. An engineer with an appreciation for no-nonsense efficiency born of his Canadian Forces years, Marinoff was hired from the TTC to grab the wheel of Mississauga’s bus system at a time of unprecedented challenge.
Long considered synonymous with sprawl, the city has an urgent need to coax residents out of their cars and onto a bus. It will be the soft-spoken Marinoff’s job to take that bus service where it’s never gone before. “Where people work, live and play doesn’t respect lines on a map,” he says of the challenge to provide reliable transit links through the city’s labyrinth of subdivisions and industrial sites built to distance homes from high-traffic arteries. Mississauga Transit’s goal is to increase its 29 million annual bus rides by 25 per cent in the next five years. To do that, it will add 75 buses to its fleet of about 390 and increase service hours from 1.1 million per year to 1.4 million. The bus garage near Burnhamthorpe and Mavis Rds. is being expanded and the city has taken the lead in testing a regional fare card to make it more convenient for riders to transfer to other transit systems. There’s a new bus corridor on the books and talk of light rail for the Hurontario and Dundas corridors. Mississauga Transit has two kinds of customers – captive riders who don’t have access to a car, and those with a choice. Even drivers who won’t take the bus in off-hours can be persuaded to use it to commute to work, if the speed and convenience are competitive.
“What we’re really talking about is getting the `choice rider’ to leave the car in the driveway,” says Marinoff, 46, who spent more than seven years at the TTC, most recently as deputy general manager of subway operations. A long-time resident of Mississauga’s Applewood area, Marinoff points to his own commute as a classic example. Four days a week, he drives. It takes about eight minutes. Once a week he rides the bus, which also takes about eight minutes to get him to the city centre. There, however, he has to wait 16 minutes to catch a connecting bus to the transit offices, near Burnhamthorpe Rd. west of Mavis. Trim that 16-minute wait by 10 minutes and you’ve got a far better commute option. “To get that choice rider, we really have to compete on speed. To do that, you need to provide a good service, with good frequencies, with competitive travel times in competition with the car – a pretty daunting task,” he says. “That’s why you have to do things differently than in the past.” What Mississauga Transit needs is the backbone that the TTC gives riders with the subway – a spine of frequent, reliable service through a key corridor. Bus rapid transit with signal priority can help in the short term, and maybe light rail in the longer term, Marinoff says. “Light rail can provide a level of comfort a city bus doesn’t necessarily provide,” he says. “If it’s fast, reliable and free of the road network, it’s very competitive over time.”
Two Ex cadets are among Nominees for CF Male Athlete of the Year.
17948 Captain Matthew RMS Barlee (RRMC 1991) – Top Right
23777 Second Lieutenant Jonathan A Lucas (RMC 2007) – Bottom Left
The best of the best in CF sports and fitness will gather in Ottawa next month for the annual CF Sports Awards Ceremony on November 17. 
The CF Sports Awards Ceremony, considered to be the highlight of the CF sports year, is held annually to honour athletic excellence in the CF. Athletes, coaches and officials are recognized for their successes on the playing field and the contributions they have made to the CF Sports Program. Selected members, serving and retired, are also inducted into the CF Sports Hall of Fame and Honour Roll during the ceremony. We would like to highlight the achievements of some of those athletes who are ex-cadets.
22620 Neal Whiman (RMC ’03)
Faces of War
22644 2Lt Steve Neta (RMC ‘03)
Canadian and US forces team up for NORAD exercise