The five-day search and rescue exercise (SAREX 2025) that brought 19 teams from around the world to Vancouver Island’s 19 Wing Comox base wrapped up Friday with a dramatic mock rescue in the waters off Air Force Beach adjacent to the base.

The mass casualty exercise revolved around a Canadian Navy ship that caught fire forcing crew members to abandon ship.

“Today is a culmination of everything we’ve been putting our participants through, testing them and evaluating them this whole week, so today’s exercise is a mass casualty event that will bring it all together,” said Lt.-Cmdr. Billy Martin of the U.S. Coast Guard, currently an exchange officer based at 19 Wing Comox.

The exercise included victims who made their way to shore with various injuries including a severed leg.

Other crew me

See Full Page