Colonel of The Regiment Update…
Dear Dragoons,
First of all I would like to wish you all a Happy 122nd Leliefontein. Katrin and I are back home now after a great week with The Regiment celebrating this significant battle from our history. Despite a few COVID challenges that sprung up early this week, the Regiment did us proud with the CO and RSM expertly organizing traditional events including a Regimental Sports Day, Drill competition, a mess dinner and an open parade for everyone on the Saturday. Global warming has a few benefits as the average temperature for the week was an astounding 20 Celsius (most of us remember the -5 C or worse with the blowing snow!) including for the parade on Saturday. Turnout for the parade from our Association and retired Dragoons (including a big contingent from the Holland family) was very good (seven former COs and nine former RSMs/CWOs) and we recognized the retirements of Andrew Lussier and Bill Richards, driving them off the parade square with their families. Thank you to the CO, RSM and all-ranks of The Regiment for an excellent series of events to celebrate Leliefontein. Watch our website for a full article and lots of pictures in the very near future!
Since the change of command parade in June I have participated in a number of Dragoon events including the Bennett Memorial Golf tournament in Gagetown which was an outstanding occasion to meet with our East coast family! I also recently joined the CO and RSM in the field with C Squadron during the Combat Team Commander’s Course and the Regiment’s Exercise CHARGING DRAGOON. Despite some vehicle maintenance issues, morale was high and it was motivating to see both C Squadron and the Regiment conducting high quality collective training. Readiness remains a focus for the Regiment and they continue to strive for excellence with the very good potential of deployments starting in the summer of 2023.
During the Leliefontein parade we awarded a number of bursaries amounting to 10K and for the first time we handed out bursary prizes to three cadets, one from each of our Cadet Corps in Ottawa to assist them with their post secondary goals. The Guild also recognized the distinguished work of BJ Forsyth, Denis Levesque and Cpl Kevin Langille. Our Guild continues to serve The Regiment and Regimental Family very well and I thank you all for your support and contributions. In particular, I would like to thank those contributing to the Guild through our CanadaHelps donation site, which is in essence our retirement version of the Y007. Please consider helping us support the Regimental Family – Jim Follwell has it posted on our website (dragoons.ca) and is ready to help. We also opened our wall of recognition and pictures will be on the website shortly. There are so many that have supported the Guild and Regimental Family so very well, that the wall will fill up in quick time and we would love to see your name there as well!
As you are aware, we will be receiving our new Guidon on 09 December from Her Excellency, The Governor General of Canada. Preparations are underway and this will be an excellent opportunity to gather The Regiment and the Regimental Family for such a milestone event in our history. Details will follow shortly and be updated on the website with the current intent being to have both a pre and post parade reception.
Bold and Swift
Dean Milner
MGen (retired) CMM, MSC, CD
Colonel of The Regiment