Snowbirds alumni from across Canada gathered in Moose Jaw from Oct. 20 to 23 to celebrate the team’s 50-year anniversary, causing a proud city to go red and white for a weekend in tribute.
The Snowbirds Alumni Association had approximately 500 guests for the Friday night Flight Suit Party at the Western Development Museum on Oct. 21. Around 450 people attended the formal gala dinner on Saturday, Oct. 22 at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
Dan Dempsey, who founded the Alumni Association in 2013 and remains heavily involved as a director, said that all the reunion’s venues were excellent and welcoming, including Grant Hall, which became the de facto headquarters for the event and hosted the registration, meet-and-greet, and Sunday morning’s farewell brunch.
“Our reunion was a huge success,” Dempsey said in an email to MooseJawToday.com. “We had alumni from across Canada — from Comox, BC all the way to St. John’s, NFLD. Our oldest attendee was 100-year-old Honorary Snowbird Reg Harrison of Saskatoon, who is the last surviving WWII bomber pilot of 431 Bomber Squadron.”
[Editorial note: In LCol (Ret.) Dempsey’s guest column for MooseJawToday.com, published online Oct. 20, he mistakenly reported Harrison’s age as 99. In fact, Harrison turned 100 on Aug. 16, 2022 — we thank Dempsey for the correction.]
Dan Dempsey talks Snowbirds history and reveals planned Friday flyover - MooseJawToday.com
The Snowbirds made several spectacular low passes over the City of Moose Jaw on Oct. 21 to thank the citizens of Moose Jaw for their decades of support and enthusiasm and as a salute to the team alumni gathered for the reunion.
At the flight suit party on Friday evening, politicians including Denise Batters, senator from Saskatchewan, and Greg Lawrence, MLA for Moose Jaw Wakamow, thanked current and former team members for their outstanding service over more than five decades.
Reunion attendees visited 15 Wing to tour the Snowbirds hangar and team lounge, which feature photos and scrapbooks from the team’s history.
“Both (the hangar and the team lounge) proved very popular,” Dempsey said. “At the Saturday night formal gala dinner, BGen John Alexander, Commander of 2 Canadian Air Division in Winnipeg, congratulated the Snowbirds on behalf of the Chief of the Defence Staff and Commander of the RCAF.
“Darryl Shyiak, Chairman of the Snowbirds Alumni Association, thanked his organizing committee for the two years of work that went into the organization of the reunion. Committee members also took the time to individually thank the many sponsors who helped make the reunion a reality.”
Dempsey made the keynote address on Saturday night. His presentation emphasized the team’s numerous accomplishments and contributions to Canada’s heritage of military aerial demonstration.
The highlights of his address include some impressive firsts:
- In 1974, George Miller and his team became the first to fly a midnight show in the land of the midnight sun, in this case at Inuvik, NWT.
- In 1976, the Snowbirds became the first team in the world to set their show to music, eventually highlighting some great Canadian musical talents such as David Foster, Céline Dion, and Steven Vitali.
- In 1988, the Snowbirds became the first military aerobatic team to be awarded the “Art Scholl Memorial Showmanship Award” by the International Council of Air Shows.
- In 1993, Cpl Marlene Shillingford, now Chief Warrant Officer Shillingford, became the first female technician to join the team.
- In the same spirit, another significant milestone was set in the fall of 2000 when Maryse Carmichael became the first female pilot in the world to be selected to fly on a military aerobatic team. Ten years later she returned to command the team, sharing the honour of that first with Commandant Virginie Guyot of the Patrouille de France.
Dempsey noted that CWO Shillingford could not be present for the reunion because she was in Toronto, where she received the prestigious Northern Lights Trailblazer Award in recognition of her outstanding career in the Canadian Forces.
Carmichael was honoured on Oct. 27 with induction into Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame. Dempsey congratulated Carmichael for joining Snowbirds founders O.B. Philp and George Miller in that honour.
“All in all, it was a fabulous affair,” Dempsey reported, “and the big snowstorm that stranded many of the attendees on Sunday, 23 Oct. did not dampen enthusiasm at all. It just added one more day to the reunion for many attendees.
“Our sincere thanks to Mayor Clive Tolley and the citizens of Moose Jaw for welcoming us back home.”
