Canada Ping!
Posted on 10/07/2014 10:51:23 AM PDT by Squawk 8888
If Justin Trudeau wants to see how big Canada’s CF-18’s really are, just look at what those who pilot and support them are achieving in the world these days.
Amazing things. Big things.
Monday was no exception as new NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg shook hands with our own CF-18 pilot and RCAF team leader in Lithuania, Lt.-Col David Pletz.
Stoltenberg wanted to thank Canada for what a great job our team is doing patrolling the Lithuania airspace and protecting it from potential Russian planes coming into NATO-protected airspace.
But it’s more than that. The pat on the back was also for just how human Canada has been in its missions in the Baltic region.
Liberal Leader Trudeau’s comments about the prime minister “trying to whip out our CF-18s and show how big they are” and that Canada should be more involved in “humanitarian” missions will not get any comment from military men and women on the ground.
They are too busy for that. Very busy in fact.
A total of 77 CF-18 Hornets are patrolling in many locations — including in Canada’s north.
They don’t do politics. They go where they are told to go and they do us proud. How they comment is in how much they are doing on the ground in the places they are stationed.
In fact, while Parliament was debating on whether or not to send a squadron of CF-18s to help take out ISIS in Iraq, our men and women were working in Lithuania policing the skies.
But the Sun has learned they are also heavily involved in helping those in an orphanage in Lithuania. Canadian pilots and crew have been building beds, rooms, doing repairs and providing toys and games.
“They have been helping them learn English and playing with the kids. They are doing what they can,” said Pletz, whose handle is Super Dave. In Romania, the same flight group also built a house for a family.
“I am so proud of them,” said Super Dave.
Pletz is also proud of the work they have been doing policing the region as well.
“We had our first intercept of a Russian fighter Sept. 15,” he said, adding work like this in the air also helps provide “an environment where we can do humanitarian work.”
Newly appointed Stoltenberg wanted to personally meet the Canadians and asked Pletz to fly over to Poland Monday.
Pletz admitted that while he and his team are focused on their mission, it’s not lost of them that some of their fellow pilots and crew members may soon be on their way to deal with the Iraq mission.
If Parliament votes in favour of going to war against ISIS in Iraq and perhaps later in Syria, it will be historic for Canada since it did not participate in the two previous American military sojourns into Iraq.
If the vote, scheduled now for Tuesday, goes the way Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his majority government would like it to, Canada’s CF-18s would be part of the air campaign to help take out ISIS installations and strongholds.
And Pletz does not pull any punches when he says fighter pilots and their service crews by their very nature all want to be part of the action ahead.
“Obviously you want to take part in it,” he said. “And not just the individual but the whole team. This is a team thing. We spend so much time training for missions that when you get a chance to go to the playoffs, you want to be there.”
But whoever is chosen to complete the mission, he said, the others are 100% behind them.
“It is a small community and it’s a brother’s-in-arms thing. I know they will do a great job,” said Pletz. “It’s one family and we all support them in any way we can.”
Whether it’s in the air keeping people safe or on the ground making lives better, Justin Trudeau was right about one thing.
Those who serve in Canada’s fighter jet community are in fact very big and accomplishing even bigger achievements.
Canada Ping!
Justin Trudeau is a Conscientious objector just like his old man and an Obama want to be
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