Along with the rest of the 1975 RRMC recruits from the Edmonton area, I got off to a bad start by showing up late, missing the whole first day of recruit camp.  We had all arrived at Namao at the appointed time to catch the service flight to Comox, only to be advised that it had left several hours earlier.

It turned out that the local recruiting office had given us all the departure times in GMT, rather than local time, so we were about 7 hours too late.  Somehow a flight was arranged to get us to Victoria after midnight the same day and then we were bused to Royal Roads where we were met by a thoroughly unimpressed CWTO, Mike Secord.  The first thing he wanted to know was if it was our fault we were late.  Fortunately, he seemed satisfied with the reason and we were promptly escorted to our rooms.  While many of our group stumbled in on sleeping roommates, who may have provided some useful info on what to expect in the morning, my roommate, Todd Moxley, was on the same flight, so we went to sleep not sure what to expect the following day.  I guess we found out soon enough.

The first day of recruit camp is disorienting enough, but showing up after everyone else had gone through initial orientation, haircuts, uniform issue and room assignments, to name but a few, made that first exposure to military college a bit of a shock, to say the least.  Based on some of the photos taken that day, I wish I had been able to see my new classmates in their 70s-era civvies before the barber had gotten to them.