Features

19 Wing Public Affairs, Captain Cheryl Robinson

19 WING COMOX - Over the course of 16 years in the military, 19 Wing's Cpl Kelly Olsen has met three prime ministers, a prince, a princess and the Queen.

But on May 30 he stood in the House of Commons to represent all Air Force Junior Ranks, the Prime Minister and the country will be meeting him.

Olsen, an aviation technician with 19 Air Maintenance Section, is one of just three Air Force members chosen to represent the Canadian Forces on Armed Forces Day on June 5. Remarkably, he will be accompanied by another Comox member - 19 Wing engineering officer Capt Audrey Murphy.

For Olsen, who served as a sort of footman to Prince Charles and Princess Diana during Expo 86, being the centre of attention will take a little getting used to. "I've never been one to stand in the limelight," he laughs. "I'm the guy who holds it for others. This is going to be a little different experience - it's going to be shining on me."

Recognition in Parliament is a relatively new feature of Armed Forces Day. It is intended both to highlight Canada's soldiers to the public and to reward some of its very best.

In addition to the Air Force contingent, Canada's Army, Navy and Reserves each send three members. Each was permitted to bring one guest. In addition to their appearance in the House of Commons, they attended a ball held by the Governor General as well as a special swearing-in ceremony of new recruits at the Canadian War Museum.

The Air Force's Officer representative, Capt Murphy, is hoping the various activities will show the public the new face of the CF. At six months pregnant, she certainly wasn't be hard to miss. People had to look a little closer at her maternity dress, though, to get the full message - she be wore two medals earned on recent operations.

Murphy earned one for a seven-month deployment to Camp Mirage, Canada's Southwest Asia staging base. The other is for service in Kandahar, where Murphy recently commanded a team of 38 deployed personnel as they prepared the Afghan air base to house its current contingent of more than 2,000 Canadian troops.

"I don't necessarily fit the stereotype my mother's generation may have had of a typical soldier," she says. ""The average military person is no longer a poster child of the ‘50s. We come in all shapes and sizes."

Kelly Olsen isn't sure why he was picked for the once in a lifetime trip to Ottawa. "I often ask myself ‘Why?' I didn't save anybody's life or anything," he says. "Maybe I represent not so much someone special, but everybody, people who do their job and a little bit more.

"I don't know why I'm going," he adds. "But I've known since I was 10 that I belong inside a uniform. I know without a doubt I belong in the military. I'm very, very proud to be in and to be selected."

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For more information please contact the 19 Wing Public Affairs Officer, Captain Cheryl Robinson (250) 339-8201