Like the other squadrons at 14 Wing Greenwood, 413 (Transport and Rescue) Squadron recently moved its Colours from the Annapolis Mess to 14 Hangar, where squadron members work day-to-day, and from where they respond to search and rescue missions as called upon.
Finding the right place and home in the hangar was a challenge, and the unit is grateful multiple volunteers, including Warrant Officer Dave Chevalier as lead, Captain Jeremy Appolloni, Corporal Matthew Harlow and Corporal Liam Ryan of 14 Air Maintenance Squadron; spearheaded a project to build a custom, all maple wood, cabinet. The results are awesome/ spectacular, and the cabinet, its style and finish and details are impeccable.
October 12, the members who built the cabinet were honoured during an uncasing ceremony. The cabinet features some squadron uniqueness, in that the flag sash is hanging from a CH149 Cormorant pitot tube and the Colours rest in the oil filter strainer housing from a CC130 Hercules; fitting representations of 413 Squadron and the aircraft it operates.
Squadron Commanding Officer Lieutenant-Colonel Mark Norris says three things stand out to him, as the return of 413 Squadron’s Colours has been a “reawakening of squadron members’ military ethos.
“Colours represent what our forbearers accomplished,” Norris says. “Just like uniforms serve as a reminder we can succeed like they did, the Colours’ battle honours and its worn patch and hole are physical reminders squadron members see every day.”
Norris says the Colours remain a common rallying point for 413 Squadron members, just as in the days of Napoleonic warfare: Colours are a home beacon and represent the unit.
“As a search-and-rescue squadron, members will always come home to their hangar as the centre of their operations and professional lives. It is fitting squadron Colours are also with them.”
Finally and most importantly, Norris, says, squadron members invested thousands of hours into this project to return the squadron Colours to the centre of 413 Squadron members’ daily work lives, done on behalf of and for the past and present members of the unit.
“413 Squadron will forever be grateful for their amazing work.”
Ad Vigilamus Undis
413 (Transport and Rescue) Squadron
’s Colours rest in a repurposed oil filter strainer housing from a CC130 Hercules, one of the search and rescue aircraft at home in the unit.
The 413 (Transport and Rescue) Squadron
’s Colours sash now hanging from a CH149 Cormorant pitot tube, commonly
known as a speedometer, found along the front fuselage or wing of aircraft.
Commanding Officer of 413 (Transport and Rescue) Squadron Lieutenant-Colonel Mark Norris, left, with Chief Warrant Officer Stephen Bates, right, uncased the squadron’s new display case October 12, built to house the squadron Colours by Warrant Officer Dave Chevalier, centre, Corporal Matthew Harlow, second from right, and Captain Jeremy Appolloni.
Corporal F. Roy, 14 Wing Imaging
