WATCH: Dignitaries and community members from Calgary where in Victoria Friday celebrating the 20th anniversary for HMCS Calgary. Dallas Flexhaug was on-board.
CALGARY –A unique celebration was held Friday to commemorate the 20th anniversary of a Canadian-designed frigate named for the city of Calgary.
HMCS Calgary is one of twelve helicopter-carrying vessels crewed by members of the Royal Canadian Navy. It recently returned to duty after undergoing modernization upgrades.
On Friday morning the Canadian frigate left Her Majesty’s Canadian Dockyard in Esquimalt, B.C for a one-day celebratory voyage.
WATCH: Peter Bissonnette, Shaw Communications President and Honorary Captain in the Royal Canadian Navy, spoke with Dallas Flexhaug at the celebration of HMCS Calgary.
More than 150 stakeholders and community members were on board for the trip, including Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi and Shaw Communications President and Honorary Naval Captain Peter Bissonnette.
“This is a very important ship in terms of what its role is. It looks after the sovereign of the seas for Canadians. It ensures that there is safe transport for any of the ships that are going back and forth, doing trade with Canada, so it’s a very important role,” said Bissonnette.
Those on board were given a tour of the vessel as well as a flying demonstration by a CH-124 Sea King helicopter.
READ MORE: Sea Kings mark 50 years of service in Canada
HMCS Calgary, Halifax, Winnipeg and Fredericton are the first four Halifax-class navy frigates to be modernized under a government program to retrofit the vessels with new radar, command and control systems, and radar and missile capabilities.
HMCS Calgary was the first Canadian ship from the west coast fleet to fire the new evolved Sea Sparrow missile in 2007 and was part of a force that sailed to the Persian Gulf in July 1995 to enforce sanctions on Iraq.
It is the second vessel to bear the name HMCS Calgary. The first was decommissioned in 1945
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