The Numbering of Squadrons

[Astrodog]

433 TFS was merged with 425 TFS.

Grrr.. I knew that! My mistake, thanks for the reply Inch.

 

[x-zipperhead]

A Slight hijack here, When 439 and 425 merged they kept the 425 name.. I Understand this was due to 425 being a historic french-Canadian squadron.. Now when 441 and 416 came together, would it not have been a better cost-saving measure to keep one of the squadrons active and have them consolodate into an existing squadron? 409 seems to be an odd choice, especially the motto of 'midnight is our noon' being a little odd for a non-night fighter specific TFS squadron. If I am not mistaken when the east coast CP-140 Squadrons merged they also kept one of the existing squadrons active, can anybody comment on this?

You are correct 415 MP and 405 MP Sqn amalgamated in the summer of 2005, keeping 405's name and all that goes with it.  I have heard that 415 was actually just zero manned but I may stand to be corrected on that.

 

[mover1]

A Slight hijack here, When 439 and 425 merged they kept the 425 name.. I Understand this was due to 425 being a historic french-Canadian squadron.. Now when 441 and 416 came together, would it not have been a better cost-saving measure to keep one of the squadrons active and have them consolodate into an existing squadron? 409 seems to be an odd choice, especially the motto of 'midnight is our noon' being a little odd for a non-night fighter specific TFS squadron.

Then you would have had a whole lot of animosity between the loosing squadron and the remaining gaining unit. Better to make new one than to pro-mogulate ( I hope thats the proper use of the word) any bad blood and unit rivalry that may exist between the two....like the time a pig was let loos in the 416 office area by members of the 441 elite...there was some hell to pay for that.

 

[x-zipperhead]

I have never noticed any animosity or bad blood since 405 and 415 amalgamated, keeping 405's name and history.  Most guys just accept it and get on with it. 

As an aside 405 was kept over 415 due to seniority, albeit only 4 months worth.  405 was formed 23 Apr 41 and 415 formed on 20 Aug 41, making 405 the senior Sqn and the one to survive the amalgamation.  Sounds like reasonable logic to me and I was 415 (only for  about 10 months)  at the time.  Maybe others were more bothered by it, but I never heard much grumbling really.

 

[mover1]

:warstory:
In Cold Lake there was a lot of Rivalry between 441 and 416.

 

[aesop081]

I have never noticed any animosity or bad blood since 405 and 415 amalgamated, keeping 405's name and history.  Most guys just accept it and get on with it. 

Thats because, my fellow Swordfish, 405 and 415 always worked together so much that they were called "820" sqn  ;D

 

[x-zipperhead]

Thats because, my fellow Swordfish, 405 and 415 always worked together so much that they were called "820" sqn  ;D

True.  Between the two of them in the later years they really only amounted to a single Sqn anyway.

:warstory:
In Cold Lake there was a lot of Rivalry between 441 and 416.

No doubt. 

I know that going through the archived pictures and scrapbooks and stuff, it appears that 405 and 415 had their share of rivalry, with the kidnapping of mascots, practical jokes and all the fun stuff that goes with it.  I think it was all in fun and no one took it too seriously.  But, alas, that was before my time so I couldn't say for sure.

 

[hank011]

Maybe they realized it only took one squadron to fly one mission a day  : Now they have double the ground crew to sweep and mop the hangars. :dontpanic:

 

[x-zipperhead]

Maybe they realized it only took one squadron to fly one mission a day  :

No shortage of missions.  Often a shortage of airplanes.

Now they have double the ground crew to sweep and mop the hangars. :dontpanic:

The number of groundcrew never changed as they are their own unit, 14 Air Maintenance Sqn.  The size of the fleet was unchanged, the number of aircrews was unchanged and the number of missions was unchanged.  The only thing that changed was that now instead of having 2 smaller Sqns we now have one larger one.  14 AMS are a group of hard working professionals who face many challenges in keeping our fleet servicable.  They do much more than sweep hangars.

Since your profile is blank, I am curious where you get your knowledge of Aurora operations.

 

[hank011]

As an ex-avs tech. Best thing I ever did was get out of that make work program masquarading as a trade. 

 

[mover1]

14 AMS....yeah great bunch....I really hate it when they show up late with no chocks