RIMPAC : a truly positive assessment for The RCAF

The two wings at BFC Bagotville participated in the Rim of the Pacific exercise ( RIMPAC) and managed to achieve all their training objectives, and even more!

For Colonel Molstad, commander of 3 Wing and CFB Bagotville, RIMPAC allowed members of the Royal Canadian Air Force to prove their professionalism and demonstrate their ability to contribute to all kinds of missions with their allies around the world.

RIMPAC was also an important exercise for 433 Squadron; it was the first time the Ti- Pics deployed since the Squadron was reinstated a little over a year ago. The commander of the Squadron, Lieutenant Colonel William Mitchell is very proud of the work accomplished during this exercise.

The 18 pilots from 433 Squadron flew nearly 450 hours during the exercise with an extra 220 flying hours to get to Honolulu and back.

Both Col Molstad and LCol Mitchell were impressed with the exceptional work of the support teams who helped them achieve their objectives by maintaining a remarkable level of aircraft availability.

On the operational and logistical support sides, 2 Wing was responsible for erecting the camp and for providing logistical support for the Canadian Air Task Force; their com- mander was equally impressed with their work. Colonel Luc Boucher stressed the importance of this kind of exercise for his personnel to be able to work with multinational forces worldwide.

For the 85 members of 2 Wing, the biggest challenge was the size of the exercise. It was the largest Canadian air operation outside the country since World War II.

Since their return in early August, lessons learned are being written by the units that took part in RIMPAC. All commanders have expressed the importance of lessons learned from this exercise during their interviews with the Vortex.