A solemn farewell to 416 Squadron

[medicineman]

I was in Cold Lake on my QL4's in late 1990 - part of my schooling was vaccinating 416 Sqn during their DAG for Desert Storm.

MM

 

[Sigs Pig]

Or we could move them to British Columbia, and call them the 420 "Munchies" Squadron.

Sorry to say, 420 is taken, and they like 'snow'  ;D
"Snowy Owls"

ME

 

[Transporter]

Checker, Checker, Checker...

 

[captloadie]

I don't think any pilot will tell you it's a bad idea.

You are probably right, but ask the guys trying to support you and you might get another story. There are barely enough qualified techs with the proper signing authorities to get enough aircraft up, what happens when you split and have to share that one MCpl who can sign off the checks.

 

[Tank Troll]

It would be nice to see 416 come back (i know this is weird for an army guy) I grew up in northern NB and use to watch 416 Voodoos fly over head playing war games with the Americans out of Loring AFB. I started out in air Cadets because I wanted to fly Voodoos. Our sqn would take a trip every year over to CFB Chattem to the air show and we would be allowed to get in them. I always thought 101s look way cooler then the 104s

 

[Quirky]

Just to add, along with 409, 425 in Bagotville will also be split. There will be 4 fighter squadrons come July.

 

[monkey777]

De-amalgamating 409 should not affect serviceability that much in that 1. the establishment is smaller and more importantly 2. the sqn will not be handicapped by having jets in the Q all the time. When we amalgamated into 409 (i went from 416 to 409 in '06) i distinctly remember though we had more jets and people, having a noticeable drop in serviceability for quite a long time. The value of not having to be in the q all the time, as well as having a smaller tight knit sqn, i think has been underestimated by some in the forces. THe reason we were forced to amalgamate squadrons was due to our requirement to provide officers for the creation of the CFAWC in Trenton, while keeping the systen PY neutral. As a result, we needed to free up Maj and LCol positions to staff the AWC. Lack of these Maj and LCol positions also has hurt the FF in terms of succession and career planning eg there are no positions for our pilots these days. As for reopening 421 Sqn , I don't see the 'Red Indians' opening up with the political landscape that exists in Canada these days...