Richard “Dick” Hilborn, former 2IC of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, died on Tuesday Feb. 21 in Waterloo, Ont. of a heart attack.

Maj. Hilborn was the last surviving officer of 1 Can Para who participated in all of the famed regiment’s exploits during WWII. Maj. Hilborn received a field promotion to 2IC after the death of CO Col. Jeff Nicklin during the Rhine drop in March 1945 at the same time Col. Fraser Eadie assumed command. Col. Eadie died in August, 2003.

Maj. Hilborn remained active in the Association up to the time of his death. The funeral is scheduled for Wednesday March 1 at St. John’s Anglican Church in Cambridge, Ont.

As expressions of sympathy, the family asks that donations be made instead to The War Amps of Canada, 1 Maybrook Dr., Scarborough, Ont. M1V 5K9

Tributes may be made online at www.mem.com.

Last month, WO Rock Lanteigne became the first person to complete 1,000 static line jumps with a round military chute. He also has over 2,500 free-fall decents. Congratulations on an amazing feat, you do us all proud.

The complete article is available in English et Français in PDF format with the full story.

I have finally got off my lazy ass and upgraded the forums to a newer version. Some of you might have seen it closed today, or with default templates, sorry for the hassle.

I did this so that I could enable more advanced new-user confirmation when registering to prevent spam accounts. You need an account to post to this board and we now do more checks to ensure it is a real account, not a spam account.

You need a valid email address to create an account. An email with confirmation will be sent to your account. That email address will never be given out on this site and will only be used to get in touch with you regarding this site.

You also now need to enter letters and numbers from an image to create an account. The letters are case-sensitive and if you see an O, it is a letter.

We discussed adding an Airborne tattoo gallery last year, but nobody sent in any pics of their ink until now. A couple of cherry jumpers beat you guys too it and sent photos of their tats. If you guys want to show ‘em up, send your photos to contact(at)commando.org (replace at with @) and I will get them up with future site updates. If you want to see what is there so far, the album is on page 2 of the galleries.

Some ground rules… The tattoos must be military in nature, preferably airborne. Nothing offensive will be permitted and I will not give the names of the owners with the pics to prevent pissing wars in the forums.

The site has been hit really hard by spammers trying to enter comments on these posts and it was causing the site to be unresponsive. Since most of the discussion on this site is through the forums, I have decided to disable comments from now on. The spammers can take their spam and shove it…

Linda Pannell, a regular of this site, has released her book St. Michael’s Orphans. She worked with several ex-Airborne members and even went out on exercise with the unit to ensure that she could portray an accurate and fair representation of the regiment and the soldiers that served in it. The following description of the book is from the publisher;

Canada is in a state of political suffering and turmoil. Quebec has seceded, and the French Ambassador to Canada and the president of Quebec’s top aide have been taken as political hostages. These events set the stage for St. Michael’s Orphans, a complex, intriguing novel about a military and political conflict that could threaten Canada’s very survival. Die-hard separatists are infuriated by land agreements under negotiation between the Quebec government and Quebec Cree natives, who insist they are still Canadian. In an effort to ensure Quebec remains independent from Canada, these separatists create a conflict for Canada under the guise of a terrorist group. Canada is in dire need of help, but who will they turn to without relying on international intervention?

If you would like a copy, you can buy a copy from booksurge.com or directly from the author.

If you’ve tried to access the site recently or tried to send email in the last week, you will already know that the server has been offline. My ISP was cut-off by Bell last week. I quickly got on with a new ISP, but Bell had to follow procedure and disconnect my line, then reconnect it 5 days later.

Obviously, we are back up and hopefully it will be the last outage for awhile. If you sent email in the last week, it probably bounced and didn’t get through, so if it was important, please resend.

All of our websites were offline from about 6pm Monday until late Tuesday night. Our ISP was cut off by Bell Canada over a legal dispute and are now piggy-backing off of another ISP. I am seriously thinking of switching to another ISP, so the websites and email may go offline again in the next couple of weeks. Please bear with us as we sort this out.

Just a quick, final reminder, The Airborne RV is this weekend in Petawawa. If you need it, you can download the updated schedule of events. You can also find more information on the RV Website.

Have a great weekend.

The Town of Petawawa has invited 2 CMBG to re-new its Freedom of the Town. Accordingly, 2 CMBG will march to the Town Offices and exercise its right to march through the town with bayonets fixed, drums beating and colours flying. The formal ceremony will take place at the Town Offices on Victoria Street at 1100 hrs, 01 July 2005. Spectators are requested to be seated by 1045 hrs.

In commemoration of the Year of the Veteran, the Commander of 2 CMBG, Colonel Al Howard will invite the veterans present to fall in on the right flank and to lead 2 CMBG for a portion of the route. After approximately 750 metres, the Veterans will wheel into a paved area where they will make a left turn. 2 CMBG will then march past them and give them an ‘Eyes Right!’

The 1 Can Para Association will form the core of the Airborne veterans group and will begin to form up at 1030 hrs at the Town Offices. All other Airborne RV participants are invited and encouraged to fall in with this gallant group of soldiers. Ideally, the dress will be maroon blazers, maroon beret and medals but a maroon beret will do or merely an airborne spirit. Please show up and show the spectators “what manner of men wear the maroon beret!”

The Airborne RV Registration Desk will be open throughout the day so that RV participants may register after the parade, if this is more convenient.