Reprinted for Halloween from a National Post article dated 11 April 2017
For decades, staff the Dunsfold Aerodrome in southern England talked of the dead Canadian beneath the runway
For decades, the staff at the Dunsfold Aerodrome in southern England talked of the dead Canadian beneath the runway. Clifford Davies heard the story when he started working there in the 1960s, 20 years after the Royal Canadian Engineers built the airfield during the Second World War.
The story,…
The Royal Canadian Legion’s president David Flannigan presented the symbolic First Poppy to Her Excellency the Right Honourable Julie Payette, Governor General and Commander-in-Chief of Canada, at Rideau Hall in Ottawa today, 23 October 2017. Sharp eyes will notice her Aide-de-Camp is an RCE officer and Combat Diver. She is Captain Celine Best who has been working at Rideau Hall since April 2016.
18 October 2017
The CMEA website has been publishing Last Post entries for Fallen Engineers for quite some time. These entries acknowledge the service, military and civilian, each of these people made over their lives. We create a Last Post entry whenever we learn a comrade has fallen. We try to record deaths back to the origins of the CMEA in 2000. This information is archived by the CME Museum in a databank of personality profiles each and every Engineer deserves to have…
From 06 June 17 to 23 June 17, Combat Divers from 4 Engineer Support Regiment (4 ESR) took part in a Military Engineer Diving Exercise 2017 in the Netherlands. Members conducted valuable dive training alongside NATO allies from Norway and the United Kingdom in order to hone their skills and improve interoperability with members of other dive teams. Training included underwater navigation, salvage diving, welding, bridge deconstruction, as well as river crossings and bottom…
A new book of interest to the CME family and our surveyors, in particular, has recently been published. Two Years Below the Horn: Operation Tabarin, Field Science, and Antarctic Sovereignty, 1944-1946, published by the University of Winnipeg, tells the story of Major Andrew Taylor B.Sc (C.E.), CD, M.A., Ph.D., D.Sc., O.C., a renowned Antarctic explorer and the only Canadian to lead an expedition. The article Sapper Leads Antarctic Expedition tells some of the story,…
The Mine Awareness Training Area of the Peace Support Training Centre in Kingston Ontario was dedicated 26 May 2000 to Sergeant Ivan Stark.
Sergeant Ivan Lethbridge Stark was born 9 April 1928 in Ocean Falls British Columbia. His parents, Ivan and Mary, originated in Labrador. Sergeant Stark joined the Canadian Army on 5 February 1945 in London Ontario. He served in Canada and had volunteered for the Pacific Theatre, but the war ended before he could be sent. He…
Reprinted from the Ottawa Citizen by David Pugliese
A new documentary about Canadian Forces combat engineers in Afghanistan will be shown later this month. On Thursday, October 26, Clearing the Way: Combat Engineers in Kandahar will have its world premiere as the opening film of the Forest City Film Festival in London, Ont. The film is based on the book, “Clearing the Way” by London native, Colonel Mark Gasparotto
Former Canadian Army commander retired Lt.-Gen.…
On this date in 1942, Spr F.P. Hutchinson returned to 1st Field Company two years after being left behind in France after Dunkirk in 1940. He was awarded the first Military Medal to a Canadian in WW II.
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On September 14, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Matt DeCourcey, attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a newly-constructed Tactical Armoured Patrol Vehicle (TAPV) facility at 5 Canadian Division Support Base (5 CDSB) Gagetown.
The facility meets LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver standards. Completed on time and on budget, this $26.1 million facility will house 61 TAPVs and provide 12 maintenance bays for…
