CAF Story: Major Thackorie tells young women ‘do what you want to do’

Video / March 13, 2017

Major Thackorie: What is this for again?

Off camera: This is a CAF Story.

Major Thackorie: Oh right, ok.

Off camera: You’re a CAF Story.

Major Thackorie: Cool.

Major Indira Thackorie, Public Affairs Officer for the Canadian Armed Forces Snowbirds. I’m an army Public Affairs Officer, but our trade is so versatile that we can work with any aspect of the military. So being an army officer with the Snowbirds is not a hindrance at all, it’s actually pretty awesome. I did…I am wearing a brown t-shirt so I like to highlight the fact that I am an army officer and so it goes along with the team representing all three elements of the military. I transit with the eleven and ten jet, so my jet is the eleven jet. We arrive two hours ahead of the nine ball, and we coordinate everything the Snowbirds do while they’re in that location.

So it’s been pretty good, it’s kind of fun being up there in the air chasing the clouds. It’s pretty cool, I’m a bit of a G-Monster myself. At nineteen years old I was a volunteer with the Canadian International Air Show in Toronto. I’m still a volunteer with the Canadian International Air Show. I’m actually also the only female Air Show announcer in North America. So on the side I’m an air show announcer. I’m also the vice-president of the North East Council of Air Shows, which is the governing body for all Air Shows in the eastern seaboard.

I joined the Canadian Army as a reservist when I was seventeen years old back in 1996. So I’ve been in both industries for a really long time. And having been in the Air Show industry for so long, I had the opportunity to work with the Canadian Forces parachute team, the SkyHawks, for two and a half years. And of course the only thing better than being a SkyHawk is being a Snowbird.

My particular goal is actually to get little girls involved in aviation. And so having the opportunity to go out there and meet little girls and tell them that anything they want to do is possible. Even if that means that you want to fly an airplane, then you should definitely do that. The whole goal of the team is to inspire kids to do whatever they want to do. Whether they want to be a doctor or a pilot or they want to fix airplanes. We’ve got a ton of aircraft mechanics on the team that are amazing and if little girls want to fix airplanes, that’s what they should do, and that’s what we’re there to tell them.

My favourite thing is watching the shows with kids at the Air Show. So this is a wonderful opportunity to represent my country and my military and really be out there meeting people and talking about the great work that we do here.

I really like air shows!