19 Wing Comox is located at Canadian Forces Base Comox on Vancouver Island with a squadron located in Winnipeg. It is under the operational command of 1 Canadian Air Division.
Its Aurora crews keep watch over the Pacific Ocean looking for illegal fishing, human trafficking, drugs and pollution in addition to foreign submarines. 442 Squadron also carries out search and rescue (SAR) operations throughout Search and Rescue Region (SRR) Victoria, stretching from the B.C.-Washington border to the Yukon, and from the Rocky Mountains to 1,200 km out into the Pacific Ocean. 435 Squadron’s Hercules crews also support SAR across SSR Victoria and SSR Trenton. Members of 418 Squadron train aircrew and maintainers on the CC-295 fixed wing SAR aircraft.
In addition to its operational squadrons, the Wing is home to 19 Air Maintenance Squadron and a national training school—the Canadian Forces School of Search and Rescue (CFSSAR). 19 Wing also supports cadet training at the Regional Cadet Gliding School (Pacific) and HMCS Quadra sea cadet camp.
The airfield at Comox was opened as a Royal Air Force Base in 1942 and was officially constituted as a Royal Canadian Air Force Aerodrome on 1 May 1943.
Read more about the history of 19 Wing Comox.
