An interview with Colonel Maggie Jacula, CD, Campaign Manager, RCAF 2024
Q: To start off, can you please tell me a little bit about yourself and what brought you here?
I am an aerospace engineer by trade. I joined the military in 1995 as an army reservist while I was in high school in Kingston, Ontario. My dad was in the army, and my mum was in the Air Force, so I knew I wanted to be in the military, but my uncle was also an aerospace engineer, and he sort of guided me towards the light.
I went to RMC for my undergrad and then had the opportunity to do my postgrad in the U.K. The first several years of my career were spent working with the Aurora, a long-range maritime patrol aircraft, in different jobs in Greenwood, Nova Scotia, and Ottawa.
From there, I was rewarded with a posting to Comox as the Senior Aircraft Maintenance Engineering Officer at 407 Sqn, which was amazing. After that, I was posted to Toronto, Borden, and Winnipeg before returning to Comox. The second posting in Comox was rewarding because I was more focused on search and rescue activities, being involved in the preparations to bring the Kingfisher on board, and ensuring we had the right maintenance structure, which was interesting.
I decided to retire from the Regular Force in 2020 for family reasons. My husband is also in the military. He was very busy, we had two small kids, and life was getting a little hectic. Then fate intervened, and the opportunity to be involved in the Centennial came up, and so for the last four years, I’ve been working in this Centennial team, and today, I’m honoured to be the RCAF 2024 Campaign Manager. There’s a team of nine reservists working on the Centennial, so we’re a small but mighty team.
We have been very blessed to have support from the Canadian Force’s Morale and Welfare Services (CFMWS) organization. The intent of the Centennial is to celebrate our history and heritage while inspiring future generations of Canadians to take an interest in Air and Space writ large, and we have been enabled to do many of the things that we want to do because CFMWS has helped us organize the RCAF Run for the last three years as well as the RCAF Ball – and through those events we have generated the non-public funds that have allowed us to support different activities.
Another initiative is the documentary that Canadian Geographic is doing about the last 100 years of the RCAF. This documentary, Wings of Honour, is really exciting because it discusses the technological innovations that have come out of the RCAF, like the G suit, some advances in plastic surgery, and much more. It has been really rewarding to be able to put that together with a great team.
We’re also focused on youth and STEM engagement. This year, the Canada Wide Science Fair has a new challenge: the Air and Space challenge. Kids across the country at their regional or provincial science fairs held Air and Space challenges, with the National Canada Wide Science Fair taking place in Ottawa at the end of May. We’ve also worked with many other youth and STEM organizations like INDSpire, an Indigenous youth empowerment group, the Black Aviation Professionals Network, Elevate Aviation, and the Urban Pilot Network. We’re also introducing Air and Space STEM content into the Personnel Support Programs Summer Camps across the country. So, there are all these different initiatives going on to recognize the Centennial, and it’s exciting because we’re able to teach Canadians about the RCAF.
There are two reasons why we wanted to put all this effort into celebrating the Centennial. Primarily, and most obviously, it’s the Centennial of the RCAF, and we have a proud heritage. But there are also so many untold stories out there. When you think of World War Two, you hear of the pilots and the planes that they flew; clearly, those are very important things. But right now, in the RCAF, there are 75 trades supporting operations. There are so many other stories to be told, and that’s what we’re trying to do through the Centennial. The documentary Wings of Honour talks about the ground crew, navigators, air traffic control personnel and loadmasters. And, of course, we have all the administrative support personnel. Many people make the Air Force what it is. It’s great to be able to tell those stories.
Q: Once the Centennial is over, is there going to be a follow on or next step?
That’s one of the things that we’ll be looking at – how we can keep some of those things going. Our friends at CFMWS are fully on board with making sure that things like the RCAF Run keep going, and we want to keep that engagement. So, it’s just identifying the right folks within the Air Force who can take those things on. In 2022, I believe it was, we did a public opinion research poll to get a sense of what Canadians were thinking about the Air Force and about the Centennial. One of the things that we learned was that only 16 percent of people who had seen the roundel could identify it as the RCAF. Most thought it was either a political party, airline or hockey team.
One of the big motivators that we’ve been focusing on during the Centennial is the awareness that this is your Air Force. That’s why the tagline for the Centennial is Your Air Force. We are together. We wanted to bring out that sense of camaraderie and foster belonging, because as the Centennial was kicking off, we were still in the pandemic. People had retreated into their homes, and we really wanted to bring them back together.
But Your Air Force also applies to all Canadians because we are the Air Force of Canada, and the men and women of the RCAF are there to support Canadians, be it responding to forest fires, flooding, and other disasters.
Q: Canada’s invested a lot into the RCAF. Is there anything that the Centennial is planning that touches upon these investments?
Definitely, that’s part of this initiative to inspire future generations. Often, when Lieutenant-General Eric Kenny talks about the Centennial, he focuses on modernization and all the investments that Canada has made in the RCAF. So, between the F-35, the P-8A and many other investments, the RCAF is in a wonderful place. As you look forward to the future, there’s much to be excited about.
We tried to capture this in the three coins we released as part of our collaboration with the Royal Canadian Mint. There is a gold coin with a Tiger Moth on it, which really tries to capture our history. There is also a silver dollar that is a collage of the present day. The third coin alludes to the future, and that’s why it has the F-35 on it, which speaks to modernization.
We’re also very fortunate that many defence industry representatives are getting involved in the Centennial. On April 1, we launched a campaign to try to illuminate the world in blue. We sent that out through social media, and there were over 500 locations in 27 countries where people illuminated landmarks – everything from the Peace Tower to Vimy Ridge to Niagara Falls to Royal Canadian Legions and even people’s homes. It was exciting, and we saw some of our partners, like L3, illuminate their headquarters in blue. We’re really trying to highlight that because we didn’t get to 100 years in a vacuum. Many industry partners helped the RCAF get to where we are.
Q: Are there any other activities planned we should know about?
Something is exciting that we’re planning for Canada Day, but we are still dotting our I’s and crossing T’s. We hope to have a mass fly past over Parliament and LeBreton Flats for Canada Day, including past, present and future aircraft. I encourage folks to keep an eye on the event page of the RCAF Centennial website: rcaf2024arc. This summer’s air shows are also going to be amazing. The Italians are bringing their air demonstration team to participate in several air shows, including Bagotville and Trenton, while the Red Arrows are also coming over from mid-August to mid-September to participate in air shows with us.
Q: This all sounds very exciting. Is there anything else you wanted to add?
I want to say how very grateful we are to the defence industry for all their support of the Centennial.
From the folks involved in the illuminations to the different companies participating in the RCAF Run to the folks coming out to the RCAF Ball, we’re really grateful for that. You know the strong relationship between the RCAF and the defence contractors and the support and enthusiasm they’re showing for the Centennial. Our team is doing a lot of work, but when you see these other folks get involved and celebrating the Centennial, it just means a lot.