North Bay Armed Forces Day to celebrate the Snowbirds’ last season

Thousands of area students will attend North Bay's Armed Forces Day event June 10. (File)

Armed Forces Day in North Bay, Ont., Canada’s largest Armed Forces day event, will be held June 10, bringing the Snowbirds, Skyhawks and military displays back to the Lake Nipissing waterfront and Shabogesic Beach.

Tuesday morning, city and military officials detailed the day’s schedule, which is free to the public.

The 22 Wing band will play music and there will be military static displays highlighting the Algonquin Regiment of Canada, 33 Service Battalion, the military police, the Canadian Forces Museum of Aerospace Defence and the United States Air Force.

It’s expected that about 2,500 students from area schools will attend, all wearing red.

The Royal Canadian Air Force is celebrating 75 years of 22 Wing/Canadian Forces Base being located in the city.

It opened Sept. 1, 1951, part of Canada’s new national air defence network, built in response to the Cold War threat from the Soviet Union. And in 1963, Canada’s North American Air Defence Command (NORAD) underground complex also opened in the city.

The underground complex was engineered to withstand a four-megaton nuclear explosion -- 267 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb -- and keep operating.

The station was renamed CFB North Bay in 1963 and at one time was the world’s most advanced air defence flying training school.

In 1992, CFB North Bay became the only air base with no aircraft or airfield.

In 1993, it was renamed 22 Wing/Canadian Forces Base North Bay, commonly referred to as 22 Wing. In 2006, the new Sgt David L. Pitcher Building replaced the underground complex. It had state-of-the-art air defence computers and electronics.

In 2014, 22 Wing began space surveillance, connecting to Sapphire, Canada’s first military satellite. Sapphire is a contributing sensor to the United States Space Surveillance Network.

Sapphire looks for ‘Resident Space Objects”’ orbiting at an altitude of 6,000 to 40,000 kilometres. In its first year of operation, 22 Wing saw 1.2 million space objects.

At one point, the Canadian government considered moving the base to another city. Former MP Bob Wood played a key role in keeping the military base in the city.

“Now we see the fruits of that hard work that he did back then, with the base being a solid player in strategic defense of North America,” Mayor Peter Chirico said Tuesday.

Currently, there are about 400 Canadian Armed Forces personnel and 25 USAF members, as well as about 200 civilians stationed at the base.

“It’s just getting out and among the community, being visible. Here in North Bay specifically, we’re kind of cloistered away up on the hill. But we’ve been part of this community,” said 22 Wing/CFB Commander Col. Shawn Guilbault.

This Armed Forces Day will also mark the last time North Bay will get to see the Snowbirds’ aerial show in its current iteration.

The Snowbirds will be grounded until the 2030s after this summer’s airshow season as Canada moves to retire the aging CT-114 Tutor jets

The federal government said the aircraft have reached the end of their operational life, with engineering challenges forcing an earlier-than-expected retirement despite previous efforts to extend their service.

“We had the Snowbirds here last August and they flew in their air show here and they’re coming back again for another demonstration,” said Hon. Col. Scott Tod, Armed Forces Day’s committee chairman.

“I think that shows the commitment of the snowbirds to the City of North Bay.”

Festivities on June 10 begin at 10 a.m. and run until 2 p.m., weather permitting. Memorial Drive will be closed from 7 a.m. until 4 p.m. to accommodate the event.