Where did the summer go?
It seemed like summer just started the other day and now it is almost gone. While some were enjoying life at the beach or cottage, the Regimental family has been busy. This edition looks back at what happened and what will be happening in the next couple of months.
The Col Thomas Dunn Softball Tournament
The 20th of July was a beautiful day for the tournament. Duggan Park had a good crowd of over 50 people come out to watch a pair of teams from the serving Regiment and one from the Association battle for the coveted trophy.
A wide range of athletic ability and sporting fashions were on display through the day. MCpl Savage and Pte Patel did a great job of capturing many of these in their photographs, which were posted on the Association's Facebook page on 20 July.
For the protection of all who played, the games' scores weren’t kept. Everyone playing seemed happy, regardless of the game score.
The final game saw the Association take on Peel Company for the trophy. While the Peel Company Team was enthusiastic, the
combination of age, guile, and experience of the Association team prevailed.
Many people and groups came together to make the day successful. Thanks go out to Rick Lukasik and Affair Party and Event Rentals for providing the BBQ, to Ollie Garceau who did a great job cooking, to Adam Phelps for being extremely patient in organizing and coaching the serving teams, 557 Cadet Corps for providing playing equipment, the Regimental Public Affairs team for taking pictures and to all who showed up to cheer on the players.
Next year will be the 10th Annual Tournament, so start putting your team together. The serving Regiment, Association, Cadet Corps (individually or collectively), family and friends, you are all invited to enter teams. If, you don’t want to enter a team, bring a lawn chair and cheer on those who are playing. It will be a great day to get together, meet up with old friends and make some new ones.
Cadets Jumping out of airplanes.
The Cadet Parachute Course is one the hardest in the Cadet program in several ways.
First, potential candidates must be a Gold Star qualified Cadet. Then they must pass a medical examination and the weeklong, physically demanding, pre-course to become eligible to apply for the course. Then they must be selected from all the applicants across Canada. The maximum course load is 48, so a lot of applicants don’t get selected. The successful ones then must complete a two-week long jumping phase. Those who
complete this are then awarded their CF Parachute Qualification.
This year, the Lorne Scots had two Cadets make the cut. Cadet CWO Alex Jiang of 1188 Cadet Corps in Oakville and Cadet CWO Nathan Peredery of 676 Cadet Corps in Georgetown were successfully completed the course.
Congratulations to both CWO’s.
Fusiliers in the Desert
The 1st battalion of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers has been back “In the box” this summer.
In May, the CO and a team deployed to Fort Irwin, California to learn about Stryker AFV
operations. Y Company along with the Anti-tank Platoon and the Snipers, arrived in early August for a rotation with 1st Armoured Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division.
1st Battalion of the Fusiliers has selected as the lead unit of the British Army to receive the Boxer AFV later this year.
Those who have trained at Fort Irwin, on EX KHYBER THRUST or Afghanistan rotations will
remember the conditions. Now think of it with the heat cranked up into the 40 + degree range.
You can see more about the deployment on the First Fusiliers Facebook page
Some Regimental members got to work with Strykers in 2011 when the US 112th Infantry
conducted summer training in CFB Petawawa.
You can find out about the Stryker on Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stryker and
about the Boxer at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxer_(armoured_fighting_vehicle).
Museum Update
The summer has gone very well for the Museum. Awareness of the Museum is continuing to grow, and the numbers of daily visitors are continuing to increase.
We have seen the first of what we hope will be many repeat visitors and August wrapped up with a group visit by the Santos Youth Council, formed, and led by Brampton City Councillor Rowena Santos. This visit put the attendance numbers over 700 since opening day on 15 May.
The Museum calendar is filling with coming events.
25 Sept – Maj Matt Proulx will be giving a presentation on his operational tour as a Staff Officer in Europe in 2023.
05 Oct – Doors Open Brampton. This year’s theme is re-purposed buildings. There will also be a display and presentation by Mr. David Brunelle about the militia in the War of 1812 and the re-enactment community today.
09 Oct – The Army Cadet League will be holding a speaker’s night. Local author Mr. Malcolm Kelly will talk about his book “Sprogs.” Registration is required and there
will be an admission fee for this. See https://www.friendsofcadets.ca/events for more
information.
09 – 12 Oct – Cadet Week Display.
12 Oct – Lobby display at the “Thank you for Your Service” concert at the Rose Theatre.
The search for more volunteers to help sort, pack and record items is continuing. The next step is going to be creating a weekly Volunteer Night. One night per week, volunteers can come in for a couple of hours and be trained and work on jobs that need to be done. The biggest jobs currently are sorting, recording, and repacking of collection items and sorting,
organising, and recording archival materials.
If you are interested in helping, contact the Museum at curator@lornescots.ca and let him know what evening works best for you. Once we get enough names and a better idea of what day will be the best, more information will be released.
From the Regiment
In July, Cpl I Bhangu and Pte G Randhawa were tasked as part of the support staff for the 3 Ranger Patrol Group Camp Loon. The Camp introduces young people from
Indigenous communities across North Ontario to skills building and adventure
training as part of the Junior Rangers program.
Congratulations to Cpls Otall, Johnstone, Waye, Hernandez and Laidlaw for successfully completing PLQ training at Meaford.
The Regiment continued its’ tradition of sending competitors to the 2 CMBG Iron Warrior
competition in Petawawa. The competition has competitors do a 9.6 km rucksack march, 1 km canoe portage, 4.7 km river paddle and then another 6.28 km rucksack march to the finish line.
Congratulations to Dan Rei, Devanshue Nijhawan, Kartik Nijhawan, and Dylan Shaban, our 2024 Iron Warriors.
Help Wanted
The Regimental Association is looking for some help. Due to increasing family and work pressures, the Membership and Social Chairs have had to step down from the Executive. Both these positions play an important part in keeping the membership connected and involved.
The Membership Chair keeps track of both the actual members, their contact information, and the mailing. Membership works closely with the Media Chair to keep members current and informed.
The Social Chair plans, organises and conducts the various events of the Association year.
Anyone interested in filling in these positions until the election of a new Executive in April 2025 can contact the President at president@lornescots.ca
Links to other parts of the Regimental Family
The Serving Regiment - https://www.facebook.com/LorneScots
The Pipes and Drums - https://www.facebook.com/LorneScotsPipesandDrums/posts_to_page/
The Association - https://www.facebook.com/groups/146923842093667/
The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers – www.thefusiliers.org
The Fusilier Association - http://www.fusiliers-association.co.uk/
492 Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps (Fergus) – www.Fergusarmycadets.ca
557 Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps (Brampton) – www.557armycadets.ca
676 Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps (Georgetown) – www.georgetownarmycadets.ca
1188 Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps (Oakville) – www.oakvillearmycadets.ca)
1849 Royal Canadian Army Cadets (Orangeville) – www.1849Orangevillearmycadets.ca
2990 Royal Canadian Army Cadets (Milton) – www.miltonarmycadets.ca
How to contribute to the Newsletter
If you have a story about an upcoming event, want to pass on how an event went or something that may be of interest to the Regimental Family, please send a short write-up (100 – 150 words or so) with one or two good quality pictures to the President at president@lornescots.com.
Please ensure that all people in any submitted pictures have agreed to have their images posted.
The Association will assume that such permissions have been acquired before the picture was submitted.
The Association reserves the right to vet all submissions for appropriateness before posting. Items may not be deemed suitable for posting due to inappropriate language or content. Items submitted will reviewed for factual accuracy and may be edited for length.
Any mistakes which may occur are entirely accidental and no malice or harm is ever intended.