April 3 was an important day for Chief Petty Officer Second Class Ryan Buckley and the cadets of 131 Kootenay Royal Canadian Sea Cadets.
This was CPO2 Buckley’s last day as a Sea Cadet as he was about turn 19 and retire from the corp.
Buckley joined Sea Cadets in May 2012. Since then he has attended five summer training courses ranging from two to six weeks in duration. The courses were General Training, Basic Band and three sailing courses. He also spent one summer working as paid cadet staff at Cadet Summer Training Centre Quadra where he was a Divisional Petty Officer responsible for the cadets on the Basic Sail Course.
He has been a valuable member of the Cadet Sail Centre in Nelson were he instructed and supervised the cadets on their sail weekends.
Buckley graduated from JL Crowe last year and has been attending courses at Selkirk College this year. He will be returning as a Civilian Instructor to work at both 131 Kootenay and the Sail Centre in Nelson.
Also on April 3, CPO2 Buckley turned over his position of Coxswain to the newly promoted CPO2 Naomi Savage. The Coxswain is the senior cadet of the corps and part of the unit’s leadership team.
“Cadets has been a great experience for me. I am looking forward to continuing to help the youth of the area as an adult instructor,” says CPO2 Ryan Buckley. “I am also lucky that I can use the sail qualifications that I earned in the cadet program outside of cadets.”
CPO2 Buckley is a prime example of what a young person can achieve in the cadet program, said Lieutenant (Navy) David Cherrington, Commanding Officer of 131 Kootenay.
“It has been a pleasure having CPO2 Buckley in 131 and we continue to provide this level of training to other youth in the community.”
131 Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Corp Kootenay always welcomes new cadets who are between the ages of 12 and 18.
Adults who would like to volunteer with Corp or its civilian sponsoring body are also welcome.