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Kortytoh
NCdt Lucas Vivas

I first took on the title of “cadet” in 1997, with NLCC KINCARDINE in Kincardine, Ontario. A small corps with very little activity outside of the sleepy town it was in, KINCARDINE was always at risk of folding, and suffered from a chronic shortage of adult volunteers. It was in those formative years that I developed a sense of “ownership” for the cadet corps that I would carry with me into the Sea Cadet and CIC organizations; in a way, I felt that if I didn’t take some ownership for this small but worthwhile program, my first foray into serving the community would be a false start. I left KINCARDINE upon turning 13, moved to a new city, and forgot about the cadet program… for a while.

More than a year later, and 300 kilometres away, two of my friends invited me to watch their Air Cadet squadron’s ACR. The sights and sounds of the cadet organization, and all the good experiences they brought to memory, led me to RCSCC IRON DUKE’s doors on the 7^th of June, 2001. Quickly settling into a ship’s routine that I had never forgotten, I slipped into the Sea Cadet organization like a fish back into water. Providence smiled on me that summer, and with less than a month under my ill-fitting tunic belt (on a hurriedly-issued used tunic) I found myself on Gunnery TGI at HMCS ONTARIO. I came back to IRON DUKE as an OC with guns on his sleeve and a head full of ambition and high goals.

I am getting the opportunity to answer the question “If I could do it all over again, what would I do differently?” I am happy to say that, despite all the obstacles and difficulties, I can answer: “I would change nothing at all”

My years at IRON DUKE afforded me innumerable moments of happiness, friendship and adventure. Trips throughout Canada and the United States, competitions in every skill and discipline practiced in the program, and the experience of being part of the well-oiled machine that was the corps, were things that I can never forget. My parting gift from IRON DUKE, the opportunity to sail aboard HMCS CALGARY for a week and a half, solidified my opinion that there is no program in Canada that can hold a candle to the CCM (it also convinced me that I never, ever should join the Regular Force as a Boatswain).

Perhaps the defining event in my cadet career was my involvement with the Athletics Instructor Course, starting in the summer of 2003. The love for the human body in motion, and for physical activity, that this course created in me, has persisted to this day and has led me to a course of studies and activities even beyond the sphere of the CCM. The “School of Athletics” gave me a new entity to take ownership of, another team and mission to be proud of. In a way, I think that this is the ultimate benefit of the cadet program: youth taking ownership of a small thing in their life, learning the skills that will one day allow them to take ownership of their community and their country; that is where the true value of the program lies.

The School of Athletics served as a breeding ground for new ideas about leadership and the role of physical activity in the cadet movement. Over my four (soon to be five) years there, I have become ever more aware of the need to truly incorporate fitness, in all its forms, as an integral part of our cadet program. The School continues to this day to foster this vision and it is slowly but surely turning into the 365-days-a-year enterprise that such a body should be. I look forward to the day – whether it will eventually come or not, I cannot know – when the sailing, gliding and music schools find themselves side-to-side with a regional or national council to promote physical activity for all the youth of our program, and not just those lucky enough to have staff with experience in the field.

On June 7^th, 2006, exactly 5 years (almost to the hour) after joining the Sea Cadets, I was enrolled in the CF as a CIC Officer and began the third part of my continuing journey. Now an Officer with RCSCC OAKVILLE, I find myself where I began – a small, fledgling corps with few resources and far to go. In a way, it seems I have come full-circle, and I am getting a chance to apply everything I learned over the past 10 years to the same issues I faced as a much less prepared, much less aware, and perhaps much less jaded young cadet. I am getting the opportunity to answer the question “If I could do it all over again, what would I do differently?” I am happy to say that, despite all the obstacles and difficulties, I can answer: “I would change nothing at all”.