Canadian Air Force becomes royal

An item from the Legion Magazine.

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Coffee: The soldier’s drink of
‘choice and remembrance’

Story by Stephen J. Thorne

When times are tough and you’re far from home, it’s often the little things that mean the most. You’d be hard-pressed to find a soldier who wouldn’t put coffee near the top of that list.

“Of all the drinks, meals, and other fuels I have experienced in my life as a soldier, it is coffee that stands out as the stand-alone drink of choice and remembrance,” retired U.S. Army colonel Keith Nightingale wrote in Foreign Policy Magazine. “Of all the necessary assets and material, a cup of hot coffee competes with ammunition as a crucial soldier commodity.”

Canadian Air Force becomes royal

Story by Sharon Adams

On April 1, 1924, Canada’s flying service was renamed the Royal Canadian Air Force. Its motto Through Adversity to the Stars is fitting indeed. In September 1914, just one month after entering the First World War, Canada sent one aircraft of the Canadian Aviation Corps to England.

It was only a decade after the first controlled powered flight, and military use of aircraft was still in its infancy. Italy had used aircraft for reconnaissance photography and to direct artillery fire in the year-long war with Turkey ending 1912. They had even dropped grenades from aircraft and are credited with the first military aerial bombing.