Sixteen-year-old Anna Walton is a Corporal with 547 North Bay Air Cadets.
This is her second year as a cadet.
“I wanted to experience different things and I’ve expressed an interest in aircraft and I wanted to learn a lot more about it”, she said referring to why she joined Air Cadets.
Despite moving to zoom meetings because of COVID, she remained inspired to continue learning.
“They allowed us to join on zoom and I still learned a lot even though it was online. We learned a lot about aircraft.”
On Saturday, cadets visited the Comsatec Aviation Hanger at the airport for "547 Air Cadets Hanger Day" where they learned about basic aircraft while being given the opportunity to touch these flying machines.
Technicians from Northern Heights spent time with the teens, explaining how to maintain aircraft, which is right up Walton’s alley.
“I’m hoping to learn a lot about aircraft like how to fix an engine because I’ve never seen aircraft up close, this is actually my first time being anywhere near them.”
But if all goes according to plan, it definitely won’t be Walton's last time seeing and touching aircraft up close.
Once Walton ages out of air cadets at 18, she would like to pursue a career as an aircraft maintenance technician.
“Because it is something that is very interesting to me. I am working a little bit in the backyard with my brother but even though that is automotive, being an aircraft mechanic is something that has sparked my interest quite a bit.”
While Walton is just getting started in her air cadet program, Korbyn Hand, signed up with Air Cadets when he was just 12 years old. Now 18 years old, this sadly is his final year in air cadets.
”I’m feeling a little empty because I have been here for so long and this has been such a big part of my life and it is such a great opportunity that a lot of kids don’t utilize.”
Air Cadets has helped mold Hand into the young man he is today, which is Chief Warrant Officer First Class.
“You learn to take criticism and you learn how to follow orders and get the job done,“ Hand went on to say his training has opened plenty of doors for his future.
“Cadets itself offers a bunch of medical opportunities going through into the military and having a little bit of an upper hand on other people who are joining because you already know how the military system works and how you’re able to get a job.”
Hand wants to attend university in North Bay.
“Through Cadets, I’ve learned I have a very big love of physical fitness outside of Cadets. I actually have the highest award you can get at the fitness level which is Excellence. And with that, I’m hoping to go to university at Nipissing for the Bachelors of Education Physical Health.”
He has advice for anyone contemplating signing their son or daughter up for cadets.
“I would say do it. It is a great opportunity for kids and I’ve made a lot of friends that are going to be lifelong friends. I have friends here of all ages. And it opens up doors that other kids wouldn’t get.”
Stephen Howe spent Saturday morning with the cadets going over aircraft up close.
Retired from the Air Forces four years ago, he was a helicopter pilot and is now a civilian volunteer with the 547 Canuck Squadron in North Bay.
He would like to see the younger generation continue with the cadet traditions.
“A lot of aviation both in the military and the industry comes from cadets, this is where a lot of them get their start.”
On this day, Howe lets the cadets climb into the cockpit and learn a little about being a pilot.
“They’re going to get to see stuff that pilots do, and a big part of the industry is support, for example, the services over at the airport, flight service, maintenance is a big part. And that’s the sort of thing that fulfills one of the requirements or one of the aims of the cadet movement which is to get them interested in aviation and the aviation side of the Canadian Forces.”
Howe says there are still plenty of opportunities in aviation today.
“The industry has been stunted a little bit with COVID over the last couple of years but it is making a comeback. There is a huge cohort of people retiring, and leaving the industry and they’re looking for people to fill it. So, it is maybe not that easy to get going in the industry, but once you’re in, you’re pretty well settled. It depends on where you want to work and what you want to do.”
The Air Cadet program offers two types of free pilot scholarships; glider and powered.
“If the cadets get into the scholarship courses, there is a glider scholarship course where they can get a glider private licence and some of them move on from that or end up with what they call private pilot airplane licence scholarship.”
Howe says Saturday was an exciting opportunity to go beyond a picture on a chalkboard or PowerPoint.
Roughly 20 to 25 cadets, both girls and boys, participated. Cadets are aged 12 to 18.
“Some of them are a little slow coming back, they have been working off the screen for the past two years on and off, so this is an introduction to aviation in its basic form. In the hangar where we are there are a lot of private aircraft, a helicopter and these are the starting points for somebody getting interested in aviation,” explained Bob Armstrong Squadron Sponsoring Committee Chair.
"They got to see something simple little two or four-seaters that people own themselves and it is a step for them to get to see these aircraft, to see what they look like, feel like and sometimes smell like, the smell of the oil and leather, and twig their conscious into thinking maybe there’s something for me in the aviation world."
“There is no charge, everything is provided. DND which is our main sponsor, provides a lot of the training, supplies, meals,and transportation when we go on trips,” Armstrong said.
“We have cadets that come from all around the area. It is based in North Bay but we have a lot of kids that come from Powassan or Sturgeon Falls, and we did have some coming down from Temagami, so it is basically that periphery around town.”
The program has been described as “life-changing.”
“I’d say maybe the most important might be is they’re organized. Part of the program involves group discipline and being part of that filters down to self-discipline which is about getting organized, time management, and getting things working for you,” said Armstrong.
“A very favourable comment I got from a parent some years ago, was that her son had been in cadets for a couple of years and she said she couldn’t believe the difference in little Johnny, ‘He’s cleaning up his room and his marks have improved in school.' So that is pretty telling, it gets them organized and thinking about how they’re going to do things and their future. One part of the program is effective speaking which I think is even more important these days. I think a lot of people are too tuned in to a screen and they don’t really have a lot of real-time conversations with people. So this is something that is also offered as part of the program," said Armstrong.
"If somebody comes in on their 12th birthday, there is an awful lot of opportunity there for doing these projects and travel also, whether it be around the province and the country, And there was an international exchange program going on where those who had really done well could put in for a foreign country where they also have a cadet program.”
Air cadets have been nurturing and building confidence in young people for decades.
