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Welcome to the 415 Squadron Association Website
For those
 of
you who are Members of this Association, this note is to inform you of
the results of the Second Annual Meeting of the Association on 26 August
2006 at 14 Wing Greenwood. For non-members or first time visitors to
this website, it is hoped that this note may assist you in gaining a
useful insight into our Association.
The focus of this year’s annual meeting was to
further develop this Website as the Associations principle
communications tool. Indeed over the last twelve months the Committee
has worked diligently to enhance our Website with the goal of ensuring
our Associations Mission is met. As a reminder to all, the Mission as
stated in our Constitution is “To safeguard the heritage, artifacts and
memorabilia of 415 Squadron and to be prepared to assist with the
re-activation of the Squadron should the welcome need arise. To the
extent possible, the Association will facilitate opportunities for the
415 Alumni to be kept informed on matters of mutual interest and to
participate in activities that will maintain the Swordfish spirit and
sense of pride in the Squadron’s accomplishments”.
Obviously to achieve our mission statement a
significant amount of work was and is required to catalogue Squadron
artifacts and to ensure our Squadron History is brought up to date. A
number of Association Committee members have taken on these tasks and
are doing a first rate job to ensure that in all respects our Squadron’s
history is preserved. On the other hand we are working diligently to
grow the Association and we have set as our goal to double our
membership over the next year. This goal can be easily achieved with
your assistance. Many of you have maintained contact with former
Swordfish. To spread the news about our Association it would be a
simple matter for you to pass along this Website address when you next
meet them or in your annual Christmas card or letter. It is as simple
as adding www.415sqn.com
As you will have noticed, there have been a few
changes to our home page. Our Web Master, Bert Campbell, has divided
the home page in half thereby bringing to your attention the activities
which relate to the Association and those which relate historically to
the Squadron. While the Website is still under construction most of
the information areas contained on the sight have been populated.
Committee members are continuing their efforts to constantly
improve/upgrade the content. As stated in the opening paragraph, most
of the initiatives undertaken at our last Association meeting are meant
to enhance this Website so as to keep you informed on our progress
towards our next Squadron Reunion and enlighten others concerning the
achievements of the Squadron. A summary of the initiatives currently
underway are contained in the Record of Decisions from our last
meeting.
To keep you informed on Maritime Air issues from
time to time I will be soliciting articles from various military
sources. This past summer I requested that the Directorate of Air
Requirements provide an update on both the Aurora Incremental
Modernization Project (AIMP) and the Joint Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
Surveillance Targeting and Tracking System (JUSTAS). To this end we
have been provided with a short but precise
Update on AIMP from LCol Marc Ferron,
as well as an interesting article written by Maj P MacNamara on the CF’s
initiative to field
UAVs as part of an overall ISR
capability. It is hoped that you will find these articles of interest
and that they will keep you apprised of on going developments that
affect our Long Range Patrol Community in Canada. If you have any
suggestions for future articles, or if you are prepared to forward a 300
to 500 word article, please do not hesitate to contact any member of the
Committee.
In closing, I wish to thank Capt Serge Parisien,
Capt Jeff Stover and Capt Thorbergson for their assistance during the
first year of the Association. I would also like to welcome Capt Jr
MacKinnon as our new Secretary and Maj Chris Larsen as the new
Alumni/Membership Coordinator and full time Historian. We have been
very fortunate to have these Swordfish volunteer their time and talent.
If anyone else would like to join the Committee, please contact me
directly or through any other Committee member. With a full Executive
and Committee, I feel confident that we can achieve our membership goals
and further enhance this Website.
Ad Metam
Chris Henneberry
Association Committee Chairman
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