Transcript

(S) A team of aviators from 19 Wing Comox, including those working in the new Air Operations Support Technician occupation, represented the RCAF at Exercise AIR RAID earlier this month at 942 Lyon Air Force Base in Mont Verdun, France.

(J) Upon their return, participants spoke to us about how this Air Reserve competition helped hone their skills, showcase their capabilities, and learn from their peers.

(SD) Exercise AIR RAID France is an adventure-type race, approximately three hundred people strong, two hundred of them being from the French Air Force reserves.

It’s over a thirty five hour period. It’s a fifty kilometre race with rucksack and at every five or six kilometres there’s a stop where you do soldier skill at arms-type competition, which could be from shooting to map and compass work to questionnaires on the fauna that’s in the area, and it varies every year.

You know, it brings us back to the roots of the military, being a soldier. And these are all things that we’ve learned. Secondary to this, is the young people who are coming with me on the team have never done this type of thing. And these are the types of trips you remember and we’re really proud to represent Canada in this and it’s pretty important to us.