With thanks to 12218 Wayne Murray

In the fall of 1978, during the wee hours of one morning, a courageous group of 1st year recruits from one of the squadrons quietly snuck up to the third floor of Fort Lasalle and managed to abscond with the scarlets of several sleeping 4th years from Wing HQ.  Since I kept my room locked at night, I was spared the indignity of having my prized No 1 dress tunic taken.  When the morning dawned a couple of hours later, those Wing HQ cadet officers were quite shocked to awake and discover that their scarlets were missing.  Some were initially upset; some were confused and a few more intuitive individuals anticipated that something more was afoot.

Sure enough, at lunchtime on that day, the 1st years’ end game was revealed as they marched proudly into the dining hall accompanied by pipes and drums and adorned in their favourite Wing HQ officers’ scarlets.  This was received with resounding applause from the assembled Cadet Wing, including from even some of the “victims.”  I personally thought this skylark was very well executed and done with taste and style; however even before the 1st years marched in for lunch, I had already decided that we would execute our own skylark in response to this one.  And, fortunately for me, those 1st years had all identified themselves by wearing the “stolen” attire.  So, over the PA system in the dining hall, I sternly announced that in response to the 1st years’ daring caper, they would all be charged with theft.  Needless to say, they were quite shocked by this unexpected turn of events, as were several of my 4th year classmates to whom I responded, “Work with me on this one.  All will be clear soon.”

In the back of my mind, I had remembered with envy the skylark done to us by our 4th years, the details of which are recounted expertly by Bob Hills in “N Flight – When Circles Are Just Not Enough”.  Along the same lines, I concocted a plan to have a dramatic summary trial in the ominous candlelit atmosphere of the New Gym.  With the help of several 4th year classmates, the gym was quickly turned in to a “kangaroo court” setting and the offending cadets marched in. 

After a short, rigged trial, Jeff Switzer, in a foreboding voice, read the verdict - “Guilty, as charged!” Ed Richmond, in turn, somberly imposed the sentence – one lash from a bull whip to be given to each guilty 1st year.  The punishment was to be “administered” to small groups of the guilty in the hallway and out of sight of their unsuspecting co-conspirators who remained in the New Gym. 

The first group was marched in to the hallway and halted, turned left and then were instructed to remove their tunics and shirts.  While these select 1st years admittedly had had some trepidation about what was going on, up until that point they were still trying to figure out our real “end game” and now they were not quite sure.  It was not until Ed smiled and started cracking the whip several feet down the hall from them that they realized what was actually going on and so they quickly played along and gave out “blood curdling” screams as Ed cracked the bull whip proficiently and repeatedly.  This definitely confused the remaining 1st years in the New Gym who were still awaiting their “punishment”, but then the cautious smiles from a couple of them indicated the jig might be up, after they realized some of their 1st year peers in the hallway were really only guilty of “over-acting”!