National Marksmanship Competition – Part 1

I would like to start off by thanking my employer, the QSO, for granting me leave to escort & coach 3045’s National Marksmanship Team in Victoria, B.C.  Attending such a competition for an officer like me is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.  Yes, this competition happens annually, but you never know if you can attend due to a variety of factors.  Thank you, and I will not let this trip go to waste.  I will observe & document how the best teams in the country operate and apply their skills & suggestions to the corps. 

            

You can tell from the preceding paragraph that I was delighted to be allowed to attend the shooting competition in early May.  My civilian teaching job takes precedence over my military duties.  That may sound strange but that’s the way it is for many CIC officers in my position.  I may be in the military but it’s not my full-time job.  I’m a member of COATS and it falls under the Canadian Armed Forces Reserve Force.  We strictly deal with “the training, safety, supervision and administration of nearly 60,000 cadets” across Canada.  We’d be the last corps of reserves to be called up in a war time situation.  We’d most likely be tasked with training new recruits.  But I digress.

            

Upon receiving my approval, I immediately began working on supply teacher plans.  I would be out of town for seven teaching days.  The approval arrived weeks in advance so there was plenty of time to get my plans ready.  Once those were out of the way, I could focus my attention on the logistics of getting my cadets to the competition and back.

            

The organizers sent a number of documents I had to review with the cadets and their parents & guardians.  The most important items were: travel, items to bring, and the competition schedule.  All this information was new to me but thankfully four of the five cadets on the team had attended last year’s competition in Victoria.  (The National Marksmanship Competition usually is not held in the same place).

The cadets were required to travel in uniform.  Going through airport security would be the most time consuming because a cadet’s uniform contains metallic parts.  Transporting air rifles sometimes causes headaches because the airlines treat them like firearms even though they’re technically not firearms under the Criminal Code of Canada.  The only other issue I could think of about travelling in uniform is having to talk to strangers because uniforms attract attention. 

            

The team practiced until Sunday, April 28.  On May 1, they packed their rifles into large hard cases.  The cases were locked and labelled.  We also did a personal clothing check to make sure the cadets were bringing what was required.  I checked my own luggage at home so that I wouldn’t forget anything.  I was confident nothing important would be forgotten.            

We all arrived at the airport on the morning of May 2.  I was allowed to wear my CADPAT military uniform for travel.  This day was going to be long because we would be flying all the way to Victoria.  I had thought we were going to overnight in Ottawa like in the past, but the organizers wanted us to be in Victoria right away.  The cadets & I were going to cross the entire country in one day!  The likelihood of getting there was high because it was spring and the weather forecasts looked promising.

            

Iqaluit.

We boarded the First Air plane without difficulty and flew down to Iqaluit.  A lot of snow had melted in and around Iqaluit.  The sun shined brightly as we disembarked and entered the terminal building.  We stayed inside for an hour before boarding another First Air plane for Ottawa.  Lucky for us, the going-through-airport-security part was in Iqaluit.  The security lines here are not as long as they are in Canada’s capital.  They used to be when the old “yellow submarine” terminal was still in operation.

            

Old Iqaluit Airport Terminal.

There was no snow on the ground when we landed in Ottawa.  The other noticeable thing was the increase in temperature.  We boarded a West Jet plane to Calgary two hours later.  We landed in Calgary at 9:30pm.  We had been travelling for more than 12 hours by this time.  I think we were beginning to experience symptoms of jet lag.  I reassured the cadets that we were almost there.  Just one more flight.  We navigated the very large airport terminal, walking a great distance to get to our next gate.  We could have taken the YYC Passenger Link Shuttle but we chose to get some exercise.  We arrived at the gate on time.  The place was crowded with passengers.  We boarded the plane at 11pm.  We landed in Victoria at 11:30pm.  This was my first time on Vancouver Island and in Victoria. 

            

A CIC captain dressed in CADPAT greeted us in the Arrivals Area.  I saluted him because he was a higher rank and I was the most senior person in my group.  The cadets stood at attention.  We followed him to Carousel 2 and picked up our luggage and rifle cases.   They were loaded into a blue DND van waiting outside.  The warm weather gave me a tropical-like feeling, like I was in southern California.  We left the airport at 11:50pm.

            

The captain gave us a quick briefing on what was to happen.  We had arrived two days early.  The competition was to start on May 5.  We were free to use the next two days as we saw fit.  We just had to be present for equipment check on the morning of May 4.  Everything was taking place at CFB Esquimalt.  The large naval base is spread out over a large area to the west of Victoria.  The base is divided into many named sections.  The captain explained that everyone would be sleeping at Work Point and all the shooting would happen at Naden.  Buses would be used to shuttle everyone to the competition and back.  I looked at my watch and noticed it was well past midnight.  I asked the captain if we could sleep in until lunch time.  He said we were allowed.

            

Work Point was eerily quiet when we pulled up to our accommodations.  The building was called Rainbow Block.  We unloaded the van and the captain gave us our assigned room keys.  We would be the only occupants until May 4 when the other teams arrived.  Each room has four beds.  The captain & I exchanged contact information.  He could chauffeur us into Victoria & back to the barracks if he was available.  I thanked him for being our chauffeur from the airport.

            

Officers would stay on the bottom floor and the cadets would occupy the top two floors.  The second floor was for male cadets and the third was for females.  I quickly unpacked when I got to my room.  I had been travelling an entire day and was really tired.  My brain was yelling at me to get some sleep.  I finally fell asleep some time before 1 am.  We were finally here in Victoria.  I would have to figure out what to do with my cadets for the next two days in the morning.

To Be Continued . . .