Forty Cadets from 517 Flight Lieutenant Graham Royal Canadian Air Cadet Squadron traveled to Camp Mockingee, near Windsor, for a June 20 to 22 Field Training Exercise (FTX) focused on aircrew survival training.
Throughout the weekend, Cadets were divided into eight-person syndicates, and trained for the title of most effective survival team through a variety of events, including bushcraft training, map and compass navigation, and survival skills. For the competition, syndicates were presented with aircrew survival scenarios and marked on their effectiveness in completing tasks, including shelter-building, fire-starting, field sanitation and hygiene-planning, ground-to-air signaling, and locating essential resources. As an added challenge, some individuals were also assigned injuries for the duration of the scenarios, and teams were limited in the available equipment they could use to accomplish their mission.
“This is an amazing experience,” said Leading Air Cadet Abigale Salisbury, who participated in Syndicate One. “I love the amount of practice we’re getting.”
At the end of the scenarios, Syndicate Two’s group won first place, taking home the coveted boxes of supplemental snacks on the final day of the exercise – but not before demonstrating esprit de corps towards their entire squadron and sharing the spoils with members of the other syndicates. And, of course, no 517 F/Lt Graham RCACS summer FTX would be complete without playing the traditional games of the Golden Flamingo Scavenger Hunt, and “Mantracker,” an individual competition where Cadets race to “free the flamingo.”
