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Written by Richard Amery
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Saturday, January 31 2009, 2:52 PM |
The 18th Air Defence Regiment’s new commanding officer, Major Mike Duguay, said training is the biggest challenge facing the Lethbridge reserve regiment.
“Getting them through the door. All of these parties have jobs, commitments and families. It takes us four months to do a month-long training course because we can only do it on weekends,” Duguay said after a Saturday afternoon ceremony at the Vimy Ridge Armouries, during which Major Daniel Beauchamp handed the reins of the regiment over to him.
There will be 15 members of the regiment going to Afghanistan in the fall. In the meantime, in addition to renaming the regiment the 20th Independent Field Battery, they will train in a variety of skills including artillery duties, computing, reconnaissance with robotic flying vehicles, general surveillance and many others.
“There is a lot of things we do,” said the former Kate Andrews High School math, physics, biology and chemistry teacher who has been with the regiment since moving to Lethbridge in 1992. He spent 20 years before that in the regular forces, Royal Canadian Artillery, served three years with the Royal Canadian Hussars Artillery, W. Battery Gagetown and has been posted at CFB Shilo and CFB Chatham (air defence).
“I’ve lived all over. But as soon as we moved here we loved it and I dropped off that duffel bag and decided to settle here,” Duguay continued. He has been married for 27 years and has two grown sons.
While he has completed tours of duty in Cypress in 1982 and Bosnia in 2003-2004, he would like to go to Afghanistan. But in the meantime, training soldiers will be his priority.
“My mission right now is to train soldiers, but I’d like to double the number of soldiers here under my term,” he said, adding he would like to see 100 soldiers as members of the 18th Air Defence Regiment.
“I think a community the size of Lethbridge can easily generate 100 soldiers,” he said, adding recruitment for the reserves is going really well.
“We have steady recruitment, rather paradoxically Afghanistan has really benefited recruitment,” he said, adding he is proud to be able to carry on Lethbridge’s proud military tradition during his four- to five-year term.
“Absolutely. In the First World War, we had 3,000 out of a population of 13,000. That was 30 per cent of our effective strength,” he said.
Meanwhile, Beauchamp is sad to be leaving.
“The cycle is continuing,” he said, adding though he was only here for a year and a half, his proudest achievement was being in charge during the regiment’s centennial last year.
“I am feeling a loss of sorts. I’m going back to Calgary and won’t see these guys as much. There’s been great support in this city,” he said, pointing out numerous military organizations like the Korean Veterans and the Royal Canadian Legion.
“People are always glad to see us. The soldiers and people in the community are what I’m going to miss the most.”
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