A retiring navy captain who grew up in Powell River was greeted with some familiar faces from childhood at his recent retirement celebration.
Captain Kurt Salchert, who joined the Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Corps Malaspina when he was 12 years old, has retired after 31 years of naval service. A retirement celebration was organized for him on HMCS Venture, the naval officer training school in Esquimalt, on October 23.
When Malaspina Corps’ commanding officer, Lieutenant Dave McLennan, heard that Salchert’s farewell party was being organized he hatched a plan to surprise his friend by taking some of his old cadet buddies to the party. McLennan asked the party organizers to add him and two others, Glen McCallum and Ken Stewart, to the guest list as anonymous guests.
“It totally blew him out of the water,” said McLennan.
McLennan explained that he, McCallum and Stewart arrived early for the lunch barbecue and were laying in wait at the back of the gunroom when Salchert entered with his mother.
“I’m so glad we went—just to see the look on his face,” he said.
Salchert saw his old friends but their faces did not register right away. “He stopped and looked again,” said McLennan. “That’s what I wanted.”
McLennan estimated that there were approximately 100 people attending the event.
Former Powell River resident Commander Kevin Greenwood, who currently teaches on HMCS Venture, also attended.
After Rear Admiral Bill Truelove, commander, Maritime Forces Pacific and Joint Task Force Pacific, discovered that a Powell River contingent would be in attendance, McLennan was able to read City of Powell River Mayor Dave Formosa’s letter of congratulations to Salchert.
Salchert enrolled in the Canadian Armed Forces in 1982. Over the course of his career he held a variety of seagoing and joint staff appointments. His operational tours included deployment in the 1991 Gulf War, two deployments to Haiti, an appointment as a United Nations military observer in Cambodia and a member of the Canadian Forces liaison team to the United States. He served back-to-back commands on HMCS Vancouver and Venture. His most recent role was to serve in Washington DC as the Canadian liaison officer to North American Aerospace Defense Command.
After lunch was served, speeches were given and Salchert gave an autobiographical PowerPoint presentation with pictures from when he was a baby all the way up to his first time in a sea cadet uniform and then to his inspection of the Malaspina Sea Cadets in June, 2013, said McLennan.
“It was the complete circle from Sea Cadet to his last real official function which was inspecting his old corps,” he said.
