From the Annals of Whiskey Flight (12190)

Amongst the various recruit flights that graced Point Frederick in August, 1975 there was one, for a variety of reasons, which seemed to march to the beat of their own drum.  In fact, it could be argued that they viewed the whole recruit term with a certain kind of disdain for all that was happening around them.  Besides they had their own agenda of things to accomplish and ways of going about their business.  A case in point was their idea of a skylark.

To the recruits of MacKenzie Squadron/Whiskey Flight, a skylark wasn’t about playing juvenile tricks or trying to bring attention upon themselves for the rest of the Wing to marvel at.  Instead, it was about doing something to make their lives more enjoyable, if not necessarily easier.  So, with this thought in mind, it was not long before Whiskey Flight came up with the idea for their beer brewing caper.

Whiskey Flight was fortunate to have in our midst a resident ‘brew master’ in the form of Rick Cope.  Rick, who was a transplanted Brit with a love for Guinness, had acquired a do-it-yourself beer kit and brought it with him to RMC.  He also arrived a few days ahead of the rest of us which gave him the time to scout out various locations where some beer could be brewed unseen by the rest of the College and, in particular, the ever present 4th Years.  It turns out the attic of the New Gym provided the solace and quiet required to allow beer to properly mature.  A large plastic garbage pail coupled with a new green garbage-bag liner made the perfect receptacle for the illicit hooch.  Some water and a few clandestine midnight visits to check on the state of affairs for quality assurance purposes resulted in a keg of beer available for consumption a couple of weeks into rook term.  All that was needed now was an opportunity to enjoy the results of our labours.

The opportunity presented itself when our Recruit seniors agreed to give us an hour of free time one warm night out in Fort Frederick centred on Kye time.  It was just us -- with no seniors present.  How or why they thought this was a good idea is still a mystery to me.  I believe they thought this hour of reflection might help us buy into the whole event occurring around us.  

We seized the opportunity, retrieved our own sudsy Kye, and rendezvous-ed in the Fort.  The brew master was concerned that the beer was past its ‘best by’ date and not up to his usual standards - this military stuff was definitely proving a bit of an impediment to the more important things in life. We all commiserated with him and nodded wisely as he spoke while at the same time filling our cups and jars with another round.  To be fair, it was a bit flat but tasted absolutely wonderful nonetheless.  After an hour a ‘Senior’ arrived to collect us and asked if Kye had been satisfactory.  We assured him all was well as we hiccupped our way back into Fort Haldimand.

From the annals of Whiskey Flight (12190)