My cadets were in good spirits on
the morning of Sunday, April 7. It was
the last day of the competition.
Everyone was instructed to turn in their bedding and pack their luggage
after breakfast. The military
promotes/enforces getting things done ahead of time and those two tasks are
always first on the last day of any event. The breakfast menu was the same but the food was fresh & tasty.
I walked over to the hangar with my
cadets. The shooting range looked much
different than the day before. The SIUS
targets were sitting on black metal posts while the screens & consoles sat
on grey tables. Grey foldout chairs were
placed in front of the tables for each competitor. The shooting mats covered all the wires to
protected them against ricocheting lead pellets. (These things happen). My cadets followed the same routine as
yesterday: putting on their shooting jackets, checking their air rifles, and
then walking to their assigned lanes as a team.
The first standing relay for us was
9am. Cadet competitors were given 15
minutes to shoot 10 pellets at the target.
That’s more than enough time; 90 seconds per pellet. Shooting while standing is more of a
challenge because you’re only allowed to use your arms & hands to hold the
rifle. Using bipods/tripods would be
cheating. I stood back and let my cadets
shoot at their own pace. I did let them
know how much time was left.
The second standing relay for my
cadets started at 11:45am. This time,
they were given 20 pellets and had 30 minutes to shoot all of them at the SIUS
targets. Again, I let them shoot at
their own pace and helped them upon request.
I managed to take several pictures for the corps Facebook page.
The second standing relay was the
last relay for my cadets. The
competition was done. They went back to
the assigned room and packed everything.
Now all we had to do was wait for the results to be posted after lunch. The cadets felt confident that their scores
were pretty high and enough to advance to the national level.
The final results were posted in the
hangar after lunch. We were competing
against Iqaluit & Rankin Inlet, the other two corps in the Eastern Arctic
Region. Iqaluit was in third place. Rankin Inlet came in second place. And we were first. 3045 Arctic Bay was advancing to Stage IV,
the National Marksmanship Competition in Victoria, BC. We were all ecstatic! I posted a short status update on the corps
Facebook page and it didn’t take long for the likes & congratulatory
comments to start pouring in.
Everyone assembled in the hangar at
1:30pm for the awards ceremony. The
Captain-in-charge congratulated the cadets for making it to Stage III and
proceeded to announce the teams that would advance to Stage IV. He then handed out silver marksmanship pins
to each cadet. The last thing to do was
to take a group photo of all the participating teams.
The same officer who drove us to
Gimli would drive us to the Winnipeg Airport.
We had to be at the airport at least 2 hours early. We loaded our luggage & rifles in the
back of the blue DND van. My cadets said
their goodbyes to the Rankin Inlet & Iqaluit cadets. We left the base at 2:30pm.
We drove into Gimli and stopped at a
local Tim Hortons. I was walking towards
the main entrance when a kid exited the restaurant. I was wearing my military CADPAT
uniform. He looked at me and saluted. I returned the salute and said, “Carry on.” I went inside and didn't see any
long lines. I bought a small Ice Capp. My cadets came in thereafter and bought what
they wanted. We left 10 minutes later.
We arrived at the Winnipeg Airport
at 4pm. I thanked the officer for being
our personal chauffeur for the weekend.
He left after we checked in our luggage and rifles. Once through security, we found our gate and
waited for boarding to commence. We
passed the time staring at our electronic devices. Upon boarding the WestJet plane, I quickly
found out that the military had booked Plus seats for myself and one of my
cadets. The seats are similar to Premium
Economy with more leg room and space. We
didn’t complain. The other cadets were
jealous. Next time, I’ll look at the
plane tickets more closely.
 |
| Toronto Pearson Airport. |
 |
| One of my cadets takes a break from all the walking at Toronto Pearson. Thankfully, no one asked him about the CIBC Aventura card. |
Unfortunately, our flight wasn’t
direct to Ottawa. We had to go through
Toronto Pearson Airport. Luckily my
cadets had me to help them navigate the large airport. Of course, they did have some experience
considering we flew through here on the way to Winnipeg. Just as I had suspected, our next gate was
far from where we deplaned. We had to
walk quite a distance. Thankfully, there
were moving walkways to take the stress off of our legs.
We landed in Ottawa close to
midnight. Our next flight was in the early
morning. We could have stayed at the
airport and slept on couches and chairs, but the military had booked us hotel
rooms. The time was past midnight when
we got to the hotel. I told my tired
cadets that we would have the rooms only for a few hours.
They didn’t seem to mind. At
least we would have privacy.
True to my words, we were back at
the airport at 7am. We checked in and got
through security somehow. The power naps
helped but we were still tired from all the travelling. And we still weren’t home. The cadets managed to get some much-needed
rest on the First Air flight to Iqaluit.
I drifted in & out. Sleeping
while sitting is still a challenge for me.
 |
| Waiting for our flight to Arctic Bay. |
We stayed at the Iqaluit Airport for
another hour before boarding our flight to Pond Inlet and Arctic Bay. We finally touched in Arctic Bay at 6pm. The parents & guardians of the cadets greeted
us at the airport. They were thrilled to
hear that we would be going to Nationals in May. I was already thinking about applying for
leave and hoping my superiors would grant me the time off. But for now, what I needed the most was a
good night’s rest.
End
of Stage III Marksmanship (2019) Mini-series.
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