Fort Erie cadets take part in rare joint survival exercise

Fort Erie air cadets learned army survival skills alongside three Niagara army corps at a rare joint camp in Stevensville last weekend, a break from decades of each cadet branch training on its own.

More than 75 cadets from Fort Erie’s 337 “Allan Troup” Air Cadet Squadron and 2966 Army Cadet Corps, joined by army corps from Niagara Falls and Beamsville, camped at Stevensville Conservation Area from October 23 to 25.

Captain Harry Sully, the air squadron’s commanding officer, told Fort Erie Radio that cadets from different branches rarely trained together when he was a cadet in the 1980s, so they had little chance to learn each other’s skills.

“The opportunity to meet cadets from other branches is fantastic, because you can learn from our differences,” said Sully.

Sully saw that divide fade at Blackdown Cadet Training Centre near Borden in 2024, when his two best instructors were sea cadets.

Many first-year cadets spent their first two straight days outdoors at the camp and slept in canvas tents on yoga mats through cold October nights.

“Anything we can do to get them to put their phones down and pay attention to what’s going on is a win,” said Sully.

Older cadets now teach younger ones across the cadet program, and Sully said that experience prepares teens for public speaking, which he called the most common fear among adults.

“If you’re 16, 17 or 18 and you can get up in front of a group of 100 people and give them directions, you’re pretty much set for life,” said Sully.

Sully hopes to hold the joint camp every year and bring in sea cadets next year to teach knot-tying, their specialty.

Army cadets will return to the conservation area in February for a winter survival exercise in five-person tents with stoves, and Sully hopes the army corps invites his senior cadets.

Three days after the camp, the air squadron celebrated its 83rd birthday at its annual mess dinner on Wednesday and honoured Captain Mark Taylor, a longtime volunteer whose own instructors were Second World War veterans.

“We need to recognize these people before they’re not around anymore,” said Sully.

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