Vanguard Magazine

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 re- servist while I was in high school in Kings- ton, 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 post- grad in the U.K. The first several years of my career were spent working with the Au- rora, a long-range maritime patrol aircraft, in different jobs in Greenwood, Nova Sco- tia, 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 ac- tivities, being involved in the preparations to bring the Kingfisher on board, and en- suring we had the right maintenance struc- ture, 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 Centen- nial 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 Centen- nial, so we're a small but mighty team. We have been very blessed to have sup- port from the Canadian Force's Morale and Welfare Services (CFMWS) organi- zation. 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 dif- ferent 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 techno- logical 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 coun- try 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 Net- work. We're also introducing Air and Space STEM content into the Personnel Support Programs Summer Camps across the coun- try. So, there are all these different initia- tives 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; RCA F 2024 C E N T E N N I A L R C A F 100 T H A N N I V E R S A RY 26 JUNE/JULY 2024 www.vanguardcanada.com AN INTERVIEW WITH Colonel Maggie Jacula, CD, Campaign Manager, RCAF 2024 B Y T E R R I PAV E L I C

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