26 July 2006 Vernon

Saturday, 26 July 2008 (12 photos)

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Clean up of Vernon Creek in Winfield. Charlie Company community project

(VACSTC, Wayne Emde)

Cdt Debert with her medals all achieved during a recent shooting competition (VACSTC, Capt Karl Kopan)

KAMLOOPS ARMY CADET RETURNS FROM NATIONALS WITH MEDALS
By Capt. Karl Kopan

Aimee Debert is on target for big things. The 15-year-old youth from Kamloops, B.C. just returned from the Canadian National Smallbore Championships in Beachburg, Ontario wearing a neckful of medals.

The medal count is as follows: Bronze - Sporting Rifle Grand Aggregate Marksman; Silver - Sporting Rifle 3P Marksman; Silver - Sporting Rifle 3P Lady, Gold Ladies Marksman Air Rifle, Silver Junior Intermediate Sporting 3 Position, Gold – Sporting Rifle 3P Team; and (Plaque) Gold – Sporting Rifle Grand Aggregate (1st Lady).

Hosted by the Shooting Federation of Canada, the nationals are an important step in rising to the highest levels of the sport of marksmanship. It is how the national shooting teams, which lead to World Cups: Junior, Developmental, National ‘A’ teams, are chosen in both match and air rifle. It’s also a way the Federation assists in selecting shooters to represent Canada at the Junior Commonwealth Games to be held in India in October, as well as the Commonwealth, Pan American Games and the Olympics.

Although competition is why she went to compete in the first place, Debert says the experience was anything but cutthroat.

“It’s a really friendly sport,” she commented in an interview shortly after returning to Vernon Army Cadet Summer Training Centre where she is taking the CLI Rifle Coach Course. “It’s like a big family basically. It’s very competitive in certain aspects, but there is also a huge amount of support.”

While the medals she proudly displays from her neck are a source of pride, it is a plaque for the Grand Aggregate Ladies she is most proud of. Scoring is determined by the average of the targets shot from the prone, kneeling and standing shooting positions.

The air rifle she uses is called a Feinwerkbau .177 calibre, which propels the pellet just below 500 feet per second. In Canada a projectile over this limit is deemed a firearm. She also target shoots in Smallbore competition with an Anschutz .22 calibre target rifles, which are configured differently, for Match Rifle and Sporting Class competitions.

Cadet Sgt Debert is also a cadet with 2305 Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps (Rocky Mountain Rangers) in Kamloops, B.C. Ten days at the competition illustrated to fellow cadets what can be accomplished with a desire to succeed and three years of practise under one’s belt.

Debert passed on some words of advice to cadets hoping to achieve the higher levels of marksmanship both within and outside of the cadet program.

“As with any sport, practise is all it takes. No matter how high you get, the basics are always something you want to go back to every now and again. The basics aren’t too small for anybody,” she explained.

Recalling each relay she took part in at the competitions, the young marksman keeps running through her mind how she could have done some things differently. Words uttered in a practise by her shooting coach Captain Wayne Corbin likely came to mind.

“He actually introduced me (to the sport outside of cadets) and told me to try out civilian shooting,” explained Debert. “Year after year… and now, here I am.”
In Vernon, her home corps’ shooting coach was still all smiles a day after Debert returned from the competitions.

“I remember the first time she walked through the range door,” explained Corbin. “Her, and her girlfriend showed good signs of being excellent marksmen.”

The pair joined the Kamloops’ cadet corps shooting team and attended provincials that year. While they made a good showing, Corbin says, they weren’t into the medals. There was more learning to be done at home. Debert has been part of the corps’ marksmanship program for three years. Captain Corbin believed Aimee could improve with one-on-one coaching from the local shooting club.

Her cadet coach believes there is such thing as natural ability when it comes to shooting. “There are some who can walk through the door and the first time they shoot they can just make a little hole (a tight grouping of several shots) and usually they are females,” explains Corbin.

While he has seen former cadets reach high levels of competition it is the first time one has made it to the national level outside the cadet program. The army cadet program’s best fullbore shooters travel to Bisley, England each summer to compete against others who have achieved a high level of shooting.

As for his role at summer camp instructing cadets to get the basics of the sport down, Corbin hopes they will go home, shoot some good targets and inspire a new generation of cadets to take up marksmanship.

“They are good rifle coaches when they come here but they’ll be better when they leave,” Corbin assured.

Aimee’s mother Bernice knows all to well what it takes to grasp hold of the basics. She was once a cadet learning the ins and outs of the marksmanship program.

“I shot as a cadet but didn’t get into the big competitions like she does,” she stated, adding her family is supportive of Aimee’s goal of someday making it to the Olympics. “If she’s happy doing that, then that’s what we do.”

But it won’t come without some work. She explains her daughter practises twice, sometimes three times a week, for four hours a session.

In the meantime Debert will be passing on tips and best practises to fellow cadets who are working to complete their summer training while finishing her rifle-coaching course. They are indeed fortunate to have someone with her experience just a few shooting mats down.

Cdt Debert at Canadian National Smallbore Championships in Beachburg, Ontario (courtesy Canadian National Smallbore Championships)

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Guard Coy - in Camp

Trg Support Group (Adventure Platoons) - 5 Pl in Camp, 6 Pl in Camp

Bravo Coy - in Camp

Charlie Coy - in Camp

Delta Coy - in Camp

Echo Coy - in Camp

Foxtrot Coy - in Camp

Today's weather: Max Temp. 31c Min Temp. 15c sunny

This day in Canadian Military History...

26 July 1686
English traders at Ft. Albany surrender their fort to Canadian raiders after withstanding a twenty-four hour bombardment.

26 July 1759
The French garrison of 450 men at Ft. Niagara surrenders to an overwhelming British force of 5000 men.

26 July 1943
Sixty-six bombers from the RCAF's No.6 Group join a raid on the German city of Essen, which is pulverized for the loss of only two aircraft.