by Ian Elliot
Northern News Services

NNSL (Nov 07/97) - When Yellowknife's army cadets begin their all-night vigil on Monday, they will be the only ones in Canada keeping alive a 75-year-old ritual.

Standing sentinel at the cenotaph on the night before Remembrance Day used to be standard operating procedure for cadet corps across Canada, but it has gradually died out.

As far as anyone can determine, Yellowknife is the only community in which the practice is still observed.

"I like to think it's the young people standing vigil over the memory of the vets," says Lt. Al McConnell, commanding officer of Yellowknife's 2387 Army Cadets.

Thirty-two of those cadets, with a few invited air cadet guests, will stand vigil beginning at 6 p.m. on Nov. 10.

The vigils began after the First World War as a symbol of the last night of battle, but anti-war sentiment in the 1960s, declining cadet numbers and the sheer amount of work involved in staging them drastically reduced their numbers.

By 1983, Yellowknife and Stonewall, Man., were the only communities still staging vigils and the Stonewall cadet corps has since disbanded.

McConnell, who brought the idea with him from Stonewall when he moved here 14 years ago, said it is a way of honoring the war dead as well as being something special for the cadets to take part in.

"Most of Canada remembers the veterans for a few hours on Remembrance Day, but here we do it all night, starting at 6 p.m."

The cadets usually stand 30-minute shifts, he said. Although when Yellowknife winter hits with a vengeance, those shifts can be as short as 10 minutes.

Cadets deal with the weather with tents equipped with heaters. They also wear Arctic-issue boots and parkas, if need be. They conduct regular frostbite checks on exposed skin when it is particularly cold -- McConnell said the coldest vigil ever saw temperatures of -47 C. But that doesn't bother the cadets.

"The kids are really into it, so much that they complain when you want to shorten the shifts," McConnell said.

"They tell you it's not that cold and they can go a half-hour."

Other members of the armed forces have not overlooked the cadets' efforts.

"Yellowknife is a unique community," said Maj. Daniel Drew of the Canadian Forces Northern Area.

"I think it's a great symbol, not only of the kids' dedication to remembrance, but also of citizenship."