The Cammo Cup

The CF's Operation Connection at the Grey Cup:

The Canadian military put on a spectacle to rival the Grey Cup itself yesterday, as a 46-tonne tank crushed a car, parachutists fell from the sky and field guns shook the earth outside Winnipeg's Canad Inns Stadium.

All week, the Canadian Forces have been prominent at Grey Cup events. They greeted the players at the airport with a Navy band, drove them to their hotels in armoured fighting vehicles, and carried the Grey Cup around on a Griffon helicopter.

It was all in the name of raising the profile of the Canadian Forces and connecting with the public, but it was not, the military insisted, a recruiting campaign.

And yet, recruiters were on hand all day outside the stadium, where a small military village was set up to attract the crowds as they headed to the game. Officers and enlisted men chatted with the public, handed out toy footballs and encouraged anyone interested in a military career to visit the Winnipeg recruiting office...

It's part of Operation Connection, a $1.5-million initiative driven by Chief of the Defence Staff General Rick Hillier. The Grey Cup is this year's seventh and final major public event with a significant Canadian Forces presence. The others were Quebec City's Carnival, the Nova Scotia International Tattoo, Canada Day in Ottawa, the Calgary Stampede, Vancouver's Pacific National Exhibition and Toronto's Canadian National Exhibition...