Present Day

The concept of an airfield engineering squadron is not new to the engineers. An airfield engineering squadron was first formed at CFB Lahr in response to the NATO requirement for Airfield Damage Repair (ADR) capabilities.

As a result of closures in 1993, the AES concept and equipment was relocated to 4 Airfield Engineering Squadron in Cold Lake as headquarters element and training unit. Since the formation of the contingency capability Airfield Engineering support to operations is in the form of two Airfield Engineering Squadrons. CE personnel are grouped at Wings in shadow Airfield Engineering flights for the purpose of training and deploying on operations.

The airfield engineering mission is to deploy and provide force beddown, sustainment, survival to operate and general engineering support to air force operations worldwide. Airfield Engineering missions involve support not only to the air force but also to NATO and United Nations operations as well as provision of humanitarian assistance.

Recent Airfield Engineers missions include Hurricane assistance in Florida, humanitarian Relief in Haiti, Flood Assistance in Manitoba and Quebec, Ice Storm assistance in Ontario, OP in the Golan Heights and on going support to NATO in Bosnia as well as more recently in Macedonia.

Copyright:  From the series "Military Engineers in Canada"
                     Volume III: The History of the Canadian Military Engineers
                     LCol K.J. Holmes CD (Retd), Author
                    J.R. Newell ndc, Editor
                    Military Engineering Institute of Canada, Publisher
                    ISBN 0-9682063-0