Navy Mess Dinner
Article by: 26032 Naval Cadet (IV) K.S. Reed – 1 Squadron
It almost did not happen. Somehow, the Kingston weather conspired against the Navy and provided it with the worst weather seen on the peninsula for many weeks. However, despite a few unfortunate cancellations, the 4th Year Naval Mess Dinner carried on in true naval fashion with a storm raging outside, and alcohol flowing like water.
Our guest of honour was 16885 Cmdre Art McDonald, the current Director General of Naval Force Deployment in Ottawa, and a 1990 graduate of RMCC.
In addition, we also had the pleasure of the company of 6604 Dr. Jim Carruthers (Class of 1965), the President of the RMC Foundation, and the National President of the Naval Association of Canada.
Cmdre McDonald discussed with us the future of the Navy, as well as its current state of affairs. He reminisced about his RMCC days, and expressed his appreciation for the importance of the training system that gets us from recruit camp to deployment.
Dr. Carruthers shared with us his thoughts on the Navy and his aspirations of making the Navy more prevalent at RMCC. He also had the pleasure to announce the 3 winners of the Naval Swords of Honour. One was awarded to each section of the Navy: MARS, Engineering and Logistics. The MARS winner was (26130) NCdt Jesse Deason; the Engineering winner was (25945) NCdt Michael Baskin; and the Logistics winner was (26075) NCdt Matthew Bergeron.
These swords were based on the merit of the cadets during both their time at RMCC, and their performance on the coasts. Congratulations to all! The three swords are provided by donors through the RMC Foundation.
Overall, the night was a success, and it could not have been possible without all the people who worked to make it a reality including the mess manager, Roch Carriere, the mess staff and cooks, and all the musicians who played so well.
Click on photos for better viewing by Curtis Maynard. More Photos Here
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17th International Cadet Conference at the National Defence Academy of Japan
The International Cadet Conference (ICC) is held every year at the National Defence Academy (NDA) of Japan. This conference is an occasion for cadets from different military academies around the world to discuss about their academy and how young officers are trained, as well as how they view the military system in their country. It is also used by the NDA as part of a long term experiment to see how the training evolves with years in these different countries.
This year’s conference was held from the 4th to the 10th of March 2014 and the subject was: “Leadership Matters: How to Develop Leaders in the New and Uncertain Era”. Representing Canada, two OCdts were sent from RMCC: OCdt Marc-Antoine Pelletier (CWC) and OCdt Nicolas Léonard (CDL D). They joined 16 other countries for a total of 20 participants.
After the opening ceremony and a presentation of each academy, the conferences were divided into three sessions. The first one was about Leadership Education, the second one was about Cadets’ Life in military academies, and the last one was about Gender and Leadership. Each cadet had to prepare and give two presentations on the specific subject of their own session. The format of the conference was made to allow more time for discussion than for presentations. That way, NDA cadets could get involve in each discussion along with the presenters.
Cette conférence est une excellente occasion de comprendre comment chaque pays entraine leurs futurs
officiers. Nous avons également discuté des différences entre le fonctionnement de certains collèges ayant tous comme but commun de former des officiers bien éduqués.
De plus, cette conférence nous a donné l’occasion de discuter de divers sujets tout en analysant leurs impacts sur notre leadership. Nous avons largement appris sur les cultures étrangères et cela nous a donné l’opportunité d’échanger afin de mieux comprendre le fondement de la culture organisationnelle militaire de chaque pays.
Mis à part la conférence, deux journées complètes furent allouées à une visite de Tokyo et des villes environnantes. Nous avons visité de nombreux endroits connus à travers le monde ainsi que les racoins méconnus des touristes, mais très populaires auprès de la population japonaise. Il s’agit d’un pays très différent par leur culture qui ne demande qu’à être connu. Bref, un voyage très enrichissant sur tous les points de vue, un pays à visiter à tout prix!
Ci-dessus, vous trouvez les participants de la 17e édition.
Auteurs: 25654 Élof (IV) Marc-Antoine Pelletier – CWC
25643 Élof (IV) Nicolas Léonard – CDL D
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West Point Diplomatic Exchange
By: 26659 OCdt (II) Danielle Andela – 1 Squadron
This past week the Royal Military College of Canada had the unparalleled delight of hosting a group of West Point Cadets during the course of their diplomatic exchange to Canada. These twelve West Point Cadets who are part of the Military and Defence Study Group spent four days in Canada, two in Ottawa and two at RMCC to learn about Canadian-American diplomatic relations and experience some Canadian Culture.
The following statement by 13261 Lieutenant Colonel L. Paziuk, Special Assistant to the Principal of RMCC, describes the intent of this exchange opportunity:
“It is a visit organized by the Canadian Consulate in New York to expose West Point Cadets to some military, political and defence arrangements specifically between Canada and the USA. The actual focus of the visit is in Ottawa, they spend the last two days in Ottawa before they come here and they get various briefing by various political officials in Ottawa and senior military personnel in Ottawa and as a side trip they come down to RMC where they will be presented a lecture by Dr. Howard Coombs on Canadian-US military cooperation.”
I spoke to the Officer Cadet in charge of the Cadets stay at RMC Officer Cadet 26219 (IV) Colin Cooke and he said a few words on the purpose of the exchange as well:
“They are here for the day; they are going to be addressed by the Principal who is going
to welcome them to the college. Then Dr. Howard Coombs is going to come in and talk about Canada-US defence and cooperation. These guys are basically here on a little liaison trip, from my understanding they are mostly poetics students and they spent the last couple days in Ottawa, saw a Senators game and received some briefings from some senior officers and parliamentarians. We’re giving them the other side of what they do at West Point and how we do it here.”
I also had the opportunity to interview West Point Cadet X42097 (IV) Jeff Knutson and ask him about his trip, what he enjoyed and what he’s getting out of it:
Q: What have you done during your visit here?
We arrived on Sunday and proceeded directly to the hotel for some delicious poutine. I have been to Canada several times but not everyone has so we decided to show them what little we knew of Canadian culture, one of which is poutine. Monday we got to visit the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Development and speak to a lot of people who have been a part of that. We also went to see the Parliament Building; we went to the top of the Peace Tower, saw the Book of Remembrance and then we got to attend a game of the Ottawa Senators, which was a good time. It was my first hockey game in Canada so everybody was in the same boat with that. This morning we visited the National War Memorial and we got a quick tour of the museum and had the opportunity to speak with not only members of the Canadian Military but the CSIS organization and some American military attachés as well as one RMC graduate who got to compare the academies between us.
Q: What was your favourite part of the visit thus far?
So far my favourite thing was the hockey game because it gave me a chance to unwind a little bit but I’ve visited RMC once before and I’m pretty sure I will have fun visiting here as well, seeing some of my older friends and going into Kingston.
Q: How does this tie into what you are studying a West Point?
I am actually a management student who is very involved in the politics community. I’m in all of the clubs that are involved in that. I do it mostly during my leisure time but the big thing that we are getting out of it is just reinforcement of the fact that Canada is America’s biggest ally and America is Canada’s biggest ally, both economically and militarily, and that it is important for people who are going to be serving in the American Military (especially because as a senior, I am about to graduate) to have an understanding of the importance of our relationship with Canada and what better way to do it then to have a first-hand view of those things.
The exchange was a huge success and both the staff and officer cadets of RMC enjoyed having the West Point cadets present and being able to teach them a bit more about Canadian-American relations.