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The Canadian Army Veteran Motorcycle Units (CAV MU) is a riding club, or more precisely an organized association of military veteran motorcycle riders.
Contents
- History
- Fundraising and awards
- Formations and units
- Central Canada
- Eastern Canada
- Western and Northern Canada
- CAV International
- References
The CAV MU is composed of thousands of Canadian Army, Royal Canadian Air Force and Royal Canadian Navy veterans and still serving members of the Canadian Forces, as well as veteran motorcycle enthusiasts from the UK, Australia and USA. Many members have served in regiments, bases and ships both in Canada and in overseas theatres of operations.
The CAV MU attempts to maintain the values of uniformed service; those of integrity, legitimacy, honour and strength in their veteran's duties to their community, and to keep alive the bonds formed during their military service.
CAV members ride motorcycles of different types, including cruisers, baggers, choppers, sport bikes, tricycles (more commonly referred to as trikes), touring motorcycles, and dual-sport and enduro.
History
Started in 2003, two military veteran motorcyclists meeting at a local charity ride, developed an idea that a military motorcyclist organization was needed. The two co-founders, P.M. ’Trapper’ Cane and J.S.Y. ‘Doc’ Lebrun adopted the name Canadian Army Veteran (CAV) and a WWII crest of a despatch rider as their crest, which had been used in a World War II recruiting poster in Canada. The co-founders' inspiration was the continuance of the military comradeship that brothers-in-arms experience.
Within the first five years The CAV had grown by thousands of riding military veterans and Canadian Forces (CF) from across Canada and Canada's North. Now named as Canadian Army Veteran Motorcycle Units (CAV MU) this military motorcycle organization now reflects a more national scope.
As the CAV MU grew so did the organizational requirements, although the emphasis remains on individual units.
Fundraising and awards
The CAV MU, has helped raise funds for international, national and local charities, totalling in the millions of dollars. CAV was the 2007 recipient of the ICROSS Humanitarian Award.
Formations and units
Due to the strong military association, instead of more typical 'chapters', the CAV is organised along military lines, into four formations comprising several units. Each unit is named after or associated with a 'battle honour'. Many units possess a membership in the hundreds.
The CAV has a national headquarters and three formation headquarters (HQ). 1st CAV is based generally on central Canada, including Quebec, 2nd CAV is based on Newfoundland and Labrador and the Maritimes, and 3rd CAV on Western and Northern Canada. A fourth formation, CAV International was developed to provide units to Canadian veterans and CF members in different parts of the world.