Press Release
It was a good weekend, with the potential for more to come, for members of the 908 Rainy Lake Royal Canadian Air Cadet Squadron’s marksmanship team.
On Saturday, Feb. 25, the team joined three other cadet units competing in the Stage II Zone Marksmanship Match in Vermilion Bay.
All four units—three Air Cadet squadrons (Fort Frances, Vermilion Bay, and Kenora) and one Sea Cadet corps (Red Lake)—were competing to see who would advance to the Stage III Regional Marksmanship Match in Winnipeg on April 14.
“Marksmanship is one of the core components of cadet training,” noted Capt. Andrew Saciuk, Commanding Officer, 908 Rainy Lake RCACS.
“It teaches discipline, focus, and patience—and it’s a lot of fun!
“Several of our cadets have earned their expert marksmanship badge,” he added.
The course of fire for the Stage II match is very straightforward: each member of the five-person team shoots four targets for a total score out of 400 (each shot being scored out of 10).
The top four individual scores are used to calculate the overall team score, which in this case is out of 1,600.
Daisy 853 air rifles are used to fire from the prone position at a target 10 metres away.
Cadets can use specialized shooting jackets, slings, and gloves but are restricted to iron “peep” sights—and the bull’s-eye is only slightly larger than the period at the end of this sentence.
It’s very challenging!
When the dust cleared at the end of the day, the 908 Rainy Lake RCACS found itself in second place, scoring 1,274 to the 1,373 posted by host 906 Machin RCACS.
Individually, team members performed very well. F/Sgt. Oryn Albanese and Sgt. Keddie Brow claimed second and third place, respectively, in the open individual competition while Cpl. Mat Nowak earned second place in the junior category.
Sgt. Brow also shot the high target of the match—a 94/100.
“It was a long day with all the driving, but we shot well and had a good time,” said F/Sgt. Albanese, a Grade 11 student at Fort Frances High School.
“Sgt. Brow and I competed at the Stage III match in Winnipeg last year so we’re really hoping that we’re able to advance again this year.
“It would be great for the whole team to advance as we’ve never done that before,” he added.
The squadron has to wait until mid-March to see if any team members advance to Stage III.
F/Sgt. Albanese and Sgt. Brow are well-positioned to earn a return trip to Winnipeg, and likely will have Cpl. Nowak to keep them company.
To make the waiting even more exciting, there’s a decent chance the entire team may advance as a wild card, too.
The 908 Rainy Lake RCACS always is looking for new cadets!
If you’re age 12-18, or know someone who is and may be interested, call the squadron at 274-1365 and leave a message.
Someone will call you back.
