There’s a new commander in charge of 15 Wing Moose Jaw.
Col. Dan Coutts officially took over the position during a change of command ceremony at the O.B. Philip Complex on Friday morning, taking over from the outgoing Col. Jonathan Bouchard.
The ceremony marked the first public change of command since the pandemic, with Bouchard taking over in a low-key event back in July 2021.
Col. Coutts becomes commander at 15 Wing after most recently serving at 1 Canadian Air Division Headquarters in Winnipeg over the past year and managing the Royal Canadian Air Force’s global operations the previous two years.
“I’m super excited to be here and I’m looking forward to it,” Coutts said shortly after a special flypast by a trio of Hawk trainer jets. “It’s a team sport and I’m looking forward to working with a wonderful team as we recover from the pandemic and also look at increasing the throughput we have with both of our schools here and in Portage la Prairie.”
Coutts will also oversee the 431 Air Demonstration Squadron -- also known as the Snowbirds -- as they finish off their 2022 season and prepare for their centennial anniversary celebrations.
“It’s going to be important for the 100th anniversary as they showcase the excellence and precision we have as aviators in the Air Force,” Coutts said.
Brig. Gen. J.J. Alexander was on hand to serve as the reviewing officer for the changeover.
Coutts started his career as a helicopter pilot with 427 Squadron in Petawawa, Ont. and eventually advanced in his career to become the commanding officer of 2 Expeditionary Readiness Centre and 2 Air Expeditionary Squadron out of 2 Wing in Bagotville, Que.
Prior to taking over RCAF global operations, Coutts served as the deputy commander of the Canadian Aerospace Warfare Centre in Trenton, Ont., followed by acting commander of 1 Wing Kingston from January to May 2019.
Coutts feels taking over as 15 Wing commander will draw on many of his previous skills in addition to offering plenty of new challenges.
“It’s certainly more than a staff job because you’re in a leadership position, and I like to think of it as an inverse triangle,” he said. “The leaders at the bottom try and help people do what they wouldn’t be able to do outside of what their normal duties would be. As they run into problems and difficulties, that’s where I come in to try and help them.
“Most of the folks here have an immense amount of training and professional experience, hundreds of years of military experience. They know what to do, they deliver excellence day in and day out and my job is to enable them and just watch good things happen.”
A major part of that work will revolve around helping 15 Wing continue to get back to 100 per cent after the pandemic and while also enabling further development of training programs.
“Certainly helping the RCAF do reconstitution and improving the training systems (is a main goal),” Coutt said. “I also want to focus on setting the conditions for the future of the air crew training program, which we should hopefully hear about in the coming months or so, as well as helping where I can through cultural or organizational tweaks to improve our throughput. They already do an excellent job, but with new technologies and new challenges, we still have to adapt, so there will be things we have to adjust for.”
Col. Coutts had nothing but kind words for his predecessor, especially when it came to navigating the absolute quagmire that was COVID-19.
“For anybody, navigating how to keep people safe in the workplace, when you can bring them back and when the risk is at an appropriate level to have full-time operations again… that was all a challenge and they navigated it amazingly well,” Coutts said.
“It was an immense challenge for them to get through the pandemic, the instructors have knocked the rust off and are getting back to work and it seems to have already picked up. There is still a core team on the ground that was helping, and that team remains between the civilian employees and our military contractor partners. They supported him through that and so many challenges and did a fantastic job.”
Coutts also looks forward to being part of the community in Moose Jaw, especially with all the positive things others have had to say about Canada’s Most Notorious City.
“I’m looking forward to being back in Moose Jaw, I was last here in 2000 at the beginning of the NFTC program, so it’s changed a bit over time,” he said. “But everybody I’ve talked to, they’ve really enjoyed living here, they said it was some of the best times they’ve had with their family living here, and others said it was wonderful to drive across town and get to sports and be involved with kids. So I’m definitely looking forward to getting out in the community as time goes on here.
