Building base connections

BY SARA KEDDY

Kings County Register

14 Wing Greenwood Commander Col Derek Joyce is taking a message of sustainability and a call for support on the road.

He visited Berwick town councillors March 25 as one stop on a spring tour of Valley councils and organizations.

“It’s a way to touch base, and tell you what’s going on at our base,” he said. “And, of course, the issue of stability is always a question: what direction is the government going in?”

Joyce was happy to repeat the December announcement on the continued modernization of the Aurora planes to extend their life to 2020: “We couldn’t have asked for anything better, and what’s also part of the plan is a replacement plane.”

The base is also in a position to host the anticipated unmanned aerial vehicle unit as it grows over the next few years. Canada is using UAVs in Afghanistan now, and they’ll be replaced with modern equipment and used in new roles here at home.

“They need to be based somewhere, and their personnel - why not here? Greenwood is very strategically placed, for all the same reasons we do Atlantic and Arctic surveillance,” fisheries, drug, pollution and immigration patrols; “and we have the trained personnel.

“That would be great news.”

In the meantime, the base is fielding 51 servicemen on deployment today. Between 20 and 60 personnel could be drawn to support UAV operations in Afghanistan in the spring of 2009. With the extension of Canada’s role in Afghanistan, Joyce expects a second rotation of 100 base personnel will be deployed in support roles - as in 2006 - by the end of 2009.

“You take a 100 people out of the base - we feel it; and, 100 families are a part of that,” said Joyce.

“What can you do for us? Not much, other than offer support. We love the support we get here in the Valley.”

He mentioned Red Fridays, the base’s Military Family Resource Centre’s activities and the Military Families Fund as visible ways communities can connect with the base.

Future potential partnerships he also outlined associated with $76.5 million in approved infrastructure upgrades, and another $93 million still to be addressed, include off-base housing, a community arena and a health care clinic.

“The base is a conduit for federal funding to a community - that’s all we have, and you need it,” he said, referring to the Berwick area’s campaign for the Apple Dome community facility.

“There’s the potential to work more, build more and attract more.”

Berwick Mayor john Prall thanked Joyce for his presentation.

“It looks like it’s time we started communicating more often - come back.”