2007 Year in Review

January 7, 2008

January

• Heavy windstorm damages married quarters near Royal Roads University forcing the family to evacuate.
• CFB Esquimalt Men’s Tritons Basketball team wins the Pacific Regional Basketball Championships for the third straight year.
• Fleet Dive Unit tests the abilities of the Interim Remote Minehunting and Disposal System, a semi-submersible that can detect underwater mines.
• Rick Mercer is named an Honourary Colonel of 423 Maritime Helicopter Squadron.
• HMCS Ottawa escorts US submarine USS Newport News through the Straits of Hormuz following the submarine’s collision with a Japanese supertanker.
• Exercise Final Stop tests the ability of the base and local civilian emergency crews to respond to a disaster in the form of a simulated helicopter crash.

February

• The Naden Band has a special United Way award named for it — the Naden Band Spirit of Excellence Award — for their exceptional generosity during the campaign.
• Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor announces the purchase of the C-17 Globemaster III from Boeing.
• HMC Ships Vancouver and Protecteur travel to Hawaii to exercise with American submarines as part of the US Submarine Command Course.
• Maj Dee Brasseur is inducted into the Women in Aviation, International Pioneer Hall of Fame.
• The National CF Men’s Soccer Team places second at the CISM America’s Football Championship in Brazil, qualifying them for the 4th Military World Games.
• Singer Loreena McKennit is named Honourary Colonel of 435 (Transport and Rescue) Squadron at 17 Wing Winnipeg.

March

• Extra lights are added to CFB Esquimalt’s shoreline between the Base Information Services building (D99) and the Admiral’s Residence as a means to deter trespassers.
• HMCS Malahat hosts “Be a Sailor for a Week,” giving high school students the chance to see what life is like in the naval reserve.
• HMCS Ottawa returns home after a six-month deployment to the Persian Gulf.
• HMCS Oriole gets back on the water with a refinished mast, new rigging and brighter lights.
• CFB Esquimalt men’s and women’s volleyball teams win the Pacific Regional Championships.
• Lady Patricia Brabourne, Countess Mountbatten of Burma, steps down as Colonel in Chief of the Princess Patricia’s Light Infantry after 33 years.

April

• Local sailor PO2 Marc Ouellette is selected to lead sentries in the Battle of the Atlantic Ceremony in Ottawa.
• Capt Ken Zinck, a Senior Watch Officer at the Regional Joint Operations Centre Pacific receives a CDS commendation for helping to car accident victims while on vacation in Africa.
• Comox hosts Arctic SAREX, a tri-national exercise designed to test responses to a major air disaster in the North.
• Artist Doug Bradford donates 15 paintings inspired by HMCS Calgary to the Canadian War Museum.
• HMCS Vancouver rescues a hypothermic kayaker near Lantzeville.
• CFB Esquimalt hosts the Squash and Badminton National Championships.
• CDS Rick Hillier announces the creation of the CDS Military Families Fund to be sustained by private donations.
• Veterans receive their own Bill of Rights and Ombudsman from the government.
• A pair of breeding Osprey are relocated from the top of the former HMCS Huron’s mast to a platform atop of an 80-foot pole located near D Jetty.

May

• The former HMCS Huron serves as a target for Canadian and American aircraft and ships during Exercise Trident Fury. HMCS Algonquin delivers the final blow that sends its decommissioned fellow destroyer to the bottom of the ocean.
• Bernard Brown, a long-time navy supporter, dies of cancer.
• CFB Esquimalt tug boat Glendyne takes the People’s Choice award during the Seattle Maritime Festival.
• JTF(P) embarks of Operation Pontoon, a contingency plan for responding to a Fraser River flood. Luckily the waters don’t rise above their banks.
• CWO Gord Johnson, who died of cancer in 2006, has his name added to the Chiefs and Petty Officers’ memorial wall.
• Snowbird pilot Capt Shawn McCaughey dies during a training flight at Malmstrom Air Force Base near Great Falls, Montana, when his plane crashes into the ground.

June

• Victoria hosts the Canadian Women in Aviation Conference. Sgt Stacey Haggar of 443 MH Squadron chairs the event.
• The Military Police host the Vancouver Island Visually Impaired Activity Day to celebrate 50 years of the Military Police Fund for Blind Children.
• 423 MH Squadron Sea King Pilot Capt Kevin Howe wins HGTV’s Handyman Superstar Challenge, earning his own TV show called, “Howe to do it.”
• Veterans gather in Victoria for the BC/Yukon Command Provincial Legion Convention. The 450 attendees don red shirts and march through Esquimalt to show their support for troops overseas.
• HMCS Nanaimo celebrates its 10th birthday.
• Cmdre Nigel Greenwood takes command of Canadian Fleet Pacific from RAdm Bruce Donaldson.
• Base firefighters assist in an unsuccessful attempt to rescue of a seven-metre long grey whale that beaches itself near Albert Head Lagoon.
• Satellite launching pad Odyssey and its accompanying ship Sea Launch Commander stop in Victoria for repairs to damages from a failed launch. Sea Launch is the only satellite launching company in the world.
• HMCS Vancouver retraces the voyage of Capt George Vancouver from Vancouver, WA, to Vancouver, B.C. to mark the historic sailor’s 250th birthday.
• Robert Keith Grainger, CD, dies. Grainger served Canada’s Navy for 40 years.

July

• MCpl Colin Bason, a reservist with The Royal Westminster Regiment based in New Westminster, is killed in Afhanistan when the armoured vehicle he is traveling in hits a roadside bomb.
• CFB Esquimalt runs Exercise Plateshift, a three day test of the base’s ability to respond to a natural disaster.
• HMCS Calgary is crowned the 2006/07 Cock of the Walk Champion. The ship’s crew won four of the nine events and finished second in three others.
• Crew members of HMCS Ottawa receive the key to the City of Ottawa on behalf of the ship.
• One hundred fifty local CF members receive the Kuwait Liberation Medal for their participation in the Gulf War of 1990 to 1991.
• Prime Minister Stephen Harper visits CFB Esquimalt to unveil his plan to maintain Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic.
• Local news anchor Hudson Mack is named Honourary Colonel of 741 (Victoria) Communication Squadron.
• CFB Esquimalt wins the Pacific Region Championships in men’s and women’s slo-pitch, and men’s soccer.
• HMCS Protecteur wins the Cock of the Walk trophy for Soccer and Golf.
• The CF wins the award for best static display at the Calgary Stampede.
• CPO2 Darrell Colwell, a bomb squad technician from Fleet Diving Unit (Pacific), receives a U.S. Army Commendation for intelligence work he performed while serving in Afghanistan.
• Local sailor, Natalie Anderson, becomes the highest ranked female boatswain in the regular or reserve force.
• Hallmark movie “Memories of Hollis Woods” is filmed partly at CF Health Services Centre (Pacific).
• RAdm Tyrone Pile takes command of Maritime Forces Pacific and Joint Task Force (Pacific) from RAdm Roger Girouard, who retires.
• CFMETR rescues three recreational fishermen from their overturned boat.

August

• CFB Esquimalt revives the Navy 10K in support of the Canadian Cancer Society.
• The CFB Esquimalt Naval and Military Museum unveils its “What Did You Bring Me?” exhibit, a collection of memorabilia military members have collected during their travels overseas.
• Prime Minister Stephen Harper appoints Peter Mackay as the Minister of National Defence, replacing Gordon O’Connor.
• Lt(N) Mark Ashley, HMCS Calgary’s Above Water Warfare Officer, is killed in a hit and run during a port visit to San Francisco.
• The book “Notes From Home” tours the country gathering messages from Canadians to soldiers serving in Afghanistan.

September

• Lt(N) Mitch Rivest creates the charity “Goal: Aid in Afghanistan,” and embarks on a fundraising motorcycle tour around the world.
• DND leases Lampson Street School for the Base Language Training Centre and a daycare operated by the MFRC.
• MWO Todd McGowan cycles 220 kilometres from Esquimalt to Comox to raise money for Boomer’s Legacy Fund, a charitable organization created in honour of Cpl Andrew Eykelenboom, who was killed by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan in 2006.
• HMCS Ottawa makes a stop in Prince Rupert to show the navy’s support of the new Fairview Container Terminal, a key link between Asian and North American markets.
• Victoria and Ottawa host hundreds of foreign military dignitaries during the NATO Military Committee Conference.

October

• Langford hosts its first Red Shirt Day Parade.
• USS Abraham Lincoln makes a port visit to Victoria.
• HMCS Toronto rescues survivor of volcanic eruption on the island of Jazirt Atta-Ir in the Red Sea.
• Local reservists Lt(N) Kay Donaldson and MS Albert van Akker place 19th in the sailing competition at the World Military Games, held in India.
• Lt(N) Kathryn Ward competes in Ironman Canada, finishing in 14 hours.
• Honourary Captain Sonia Bata of the Bata shoe empire joins HMCS Ottawa for a daysail.
• Cpl Shayne Brodeur, of HMCS Vancouver’s air detachment, rappels down Victoria’s CIBC building after raising more than $1,000 for the B.C. Lions Club Easter Seals Charity for Children.
• PO2 Heidi Twellman of the Naden Band is named Maritime Command Female Athlete of the Year and is nominated for National Female Athlete of the Year for her achievements in volleyball.

November

• HMCS Calgary fires an Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile as part of Task Group Exercise 3-07.
• HMCS Brandon entrusts its ship’s bell to City of Brandon Mayor Dave Burgess while the Maritime Coastal Defence Vessel enters a year-long maintenance period.
• Six sailors from HMCS Winnipeg run across Manitoba to raise money for the Fire Fighters’ Burn Fund.
• Divers from Fleet Diving Unit (Pacific) travel to Australia to take part in a submarine rescue exercise using a live submarine.
• Members of the 443 MH Squadron Pipes and Drums joined a thousand veterans and cadets in a salute to veterans during a B.C. Lions game.

December

• LS Jason Sarrazin, an electrican in HMCS Ottawa, receives the Vital Links Award from the B.C. Ambulance Service for performing CPR on a man who collapsed on the street.
• CFB Esquimalt raises more than $679,000 for the United Way of Greater Victoria.
• The Christmas Tree Growers Association donates Christmas trees to families of deployed members.

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