A race against the clock for Op Reassurance Roto 13

With the arrival of July and the return to work of the vast majority of CFB Bagotville personnel, the pace of personnel preparation for the deployment of Op Reassurance Roto 13 is greatly accelerated.

For the mission planning officer for 3 Wing, Major Renaud Durand, the race against the clock officially started on June 1st as the staff confirmed that the Royal Canadian Air Force would be traveling again in Romania next August.

"With the health situation related to COVID-19, we had started preparation, but we did not yet have official confirmation. In early June, we were given the green light. We had to establish the accelerated preparation schedule taking into account health constraints, ”said Maj Durand. "We had to make plans quickly and make sure that the authorities in Romania and the United States are in agreement with these plans, especially with regard to the quarantine that precedes departure," added the official.

As of August 15, the vast majority of the 130 participants in this mission will therefore be confined to the base in Kingston, Ontario for a period of two weeks before departure, scheduled for the end of August for Mihail Kogalniceanu air base (MK Air Base), in Romania.

The Air Task Force (FOA), which will be in place until mid-January 2021, will be almost 70% made up of CFB

Bagotville members, who will be joined by soldiers from five other Canadian bases.

Once there, the Canadian contingent will have to respect the sanitary measures put in place by the Romanian authorities. Even if the host country is in the process of deconfinement, the military is unlikely to be able to leave the base in the first few months. This measure will be adapted according to the evolution of the pandemic.

Until the members are gathered in Kingston for quarantine before the official departure, there is still much work to be done and the FOA Commander, LCol Dave McLeod, thanked all of the units at CFB Bagotville who help prepare the contingent.