Dear editor,
Re: Letter to the editor "Reintroducing prefix to our military a royal pain" (Record, Aug. 19).
I served as a pilot in the Canadian Forces during the 1990s and I welcome (along with my peers) this correction of a horrible wrong.
I only wish that I could claim to have served in the RCAF rather than that meaningless bureaucratic misnomer of Air Command.
For those who say the now official titles of RCAF and RCN do not reflect Canadian societal values, I would counter with the following argument.
And maintaining the Royal Canadian Mounted Police does? I don't hear anybody yelling about how we have to de-Britishify the RCMP in order for it be be truly Canadian.
Somehow the RCMP, with its British traditions, heritage and Royal title, has managed to become one of our most iconic national symbols, which pretty much destroys the notion that the only true Canadian symbols are those completely devoid of connections to the monarchy and our British roots.
Dan Rawlyk,
Surrey