On January 30, 1996 Lanark Branch was awarded the warrant for NLCC Carlplace #181. At that time there were 13 cadets and 3 officers parading. The branch appointed SLT (NL) Roy Watson as the commanding officer. NLCC Carlplace was now one of 4 corps under the then called Riedeau Squadron. Reideau Squadron consisted of the following corps. NLCC Cataraqui, NLCC Trentonian, NLCC Vice-Admiral Kingsmill. NLCC Carlplace held their first Annual Inspection in April of 1996.

In September of 1996 we started our first official "training year". Now with a growing complement of cadets we started participating in many different events. The cadets participated in two Tag Days during the year. They also did remembrance day parades in Almonte and Carleton Place. The cadets liked doing parades so much we put them in the Carleton Place and Almonte Santa Clause parades and the Ceremony of the Bells parade in Almonte. Being new the our squadron we participated in different competitions. Our first one was First Aid hosted by NLCC Trentonian in Trenton Ontario, we placed 3rd. Next we went to a Seamanship competition hosted by Vice Admiral Kingsmill another 3rd place finish for us. NLCC Carlplace hosted its first squadron competition, we hosted Semaphore and placed 2nd place things were starting to look up for us. The final competition was drill hosted by NLCC Cataraqui in Kingston Ontario. We worked hard for this competition and again we placed 2nd. We were a becoming a force in Rideau squadron.

In January SLT (NL) Roy Watson stepped down as the Commanding Officer and SLT (NL) Pat Riopelle took over.

The cadets got an opportunity to go on field trips they went to the National Defence Maps and Charting Section as well as going to Mont Cascades Water park for our year end trip. The cadets also went on a winter camp at Lanark Children's Haven. This was a warm up camp to the summer camps in which the cadets were looking forward to.

At the end of our second year we had our annual inspection and this time we had Capt (N) J.E. Croft, CD has our reviewing officer. After our annual inspection the cadets were off for the summer and there summer camps. Some cadets went to Camp Val des Bois hosted by Vice Admiral Kingsmill, while others went to Camp Schofield hosted by NLCC Trentonian.

In September 1997 we began our second full training year. The corps slowly started to grow as we were now averaging 25 cadets on a training night. Now having some returning cadets and officers with experience it was time to start the training for all of the competitions again. In November the cadets again competed in the First Aid competition and this time placed First. We hoped it would be the first of many for the training year. This year we hosted the Semaphore and Semanship competitions both at the same time. Although the competition was a success overall our corps did not achieve our goal of first place. We finished off our year with only the one first place position however the cadets and officers all gained more experience.