Cadets from 232 Oliver Bighorn, 531 City of Trail and 841 Grand Forks Boundary visited Fairchild Air Force Base near Spokane, Washington. 9 Cadets from Oliver with 2 staff.

The tour began with a mission briefing from Col. Brian McDaniel, 92nd Air Refueling Wing commander, and continued with a tour of a KC-135 Stratotanker static display. Additionally, the cadets interacted with base firefighters, observing their mission firsthand.

“This is an amazing experience,” said Ryan Encina, a 15-year-old cadet from the 232 Bighorn RCAC Squadron from Oliver, B.C. “I have never seen anything like this before. This is what I want to go for in life.”

Both the crew members from the KC-135 and Airmen from the fire station understood the impression they could help to make on the foreign visitors.

“Community relations are a large part of our job and we always enjoy the chance to show people what we do and how we do it,” said Master Sgt. Bryan Webber, 92nd Civil Engineer Squadron fire and emergency services planning chief. “It’s not every day you get to give a tour and answer questions from (RCAC) cadets. It doesn’t matter how old they are or where they are from; getting to play around the fire trucks always makes a pretty good impression.”

The cadets have now completed their training for the year and will start a new training year in September. Over the summer, selected cadets will be attending training courses at Cadet Training Centres located in Vernon, Victoria and Comox, as well as other locations across the country.

Castlegar Source