Who wants to lie in bed comfortably at 07:00 on a Sunday morning then lallygag about having a leisurely breakfast before turning on the Sunday morning talk shows at 09:00? Apparently, not me, nor any of the usual suspects from 3BAM who evidently thought it would be much cooler to build a
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| The dress for Saturday was "combat." The weather was "wet." |
do-it-yourself gunboat by putting a 25-pdr gun on a steel barge, having it towed out onto Lake Tremblant and firing it. This was something we'd never tried before. It's not that there was a particular problem with piracy on the lake, or that that anyone needed a beachhead softened up with naval bombardment; it's just that the organizers of the Ironman triathlon held there this time of year every year wanted us to fire starting shots for the event as in previous years but wanted to use every bit of available beach space for the competitors, organizers and first responders. So they provided a barge and a tow, and never having done this before, 3BAM took up the challenge with our usual aplomb and had fun in the process. After all, when the badge you wear on your hat says "Ubique," you have to try to live up to it. And in case you haven't figured it out yet, 3BAM is also about having fun.
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| A lot of wine was consumed. |
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| Loading the gun onto the barge. |
It's also hard to say no to an all-expense paid trip to to Mont Tremblant. Add the wet weather, having to get up at 04:45on Sunday, and a lot of "hurry-up and wait," and the camaraderie that naturally comes from hanging around with old soldiers and doing things like this, it was a lot like old days in the regiment, but with better food and accommodations, not to mention free booze. Oh, and I almost forgot...colour TV.
It wasn't all peaches, though. It rained all day Saturday, which though we weren't firing, was the day we had the most work to do, getting ready for Sunday, where we were shooting at 07.00. To make matters worse, we had to spend an eternity, or so it seems waiting on the beach for our barge to show up so that we could load the gun onto it. Of course, we were standing in the rain, and 3BAM is not particularly well-equipped with rain-gear. One again, our Sunray, CWO (ret) Gilles Aubé pulled out his infamous 1950's vintage rain-capes and passed them around. It was just then that I noticed for the first time that the buttons on these early Cold-War memorabilia were all on the wrong side to be men's garments. They must have been made for women and issued to nurses! However as expensive digital cameras and rain do not go particularly well together, I accepted the nurse's cape as a necessary evil to protect my precious gear.
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| La Cage Aux Sports. |
Once we were satisfied that everything was in place and all the gear secured, we repaired to our hotels to dry out a bit, change of clothes, and it was off to La Cage Au Sports for supper. Well,
most of us changed clothes at any rate. The food was pretty damned good, though the place was too noisy for my tastes. Lcol (ret) Jaques Borne, who has a nice bar in his home, not only paid for a large pitcher of beer, he actually bought the dispenser. ( I couldn't think of a better term. See photo) Before loading it into his car however, he managed to get the base changed to a football.
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| Colonel Borne pours a beer. |
Camaraderie. I've said it before and I'll say it again: it's what I miss most about the military and at the end of a long day, it's always nice to get together with the fellas and drink a few and share a laugh. I'm pretty sure that it's why a lot of 3BAM members are part of 3BAM and why it's mostly the same core group - the usual suspects- that show up most often. You either get it or you don't. If you are reading this post, then you probably get it.
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| Diplomacy, 3BAM style. |
But this story was about gunboats. "Gunboat diplomacy" for those who are not entirely familiar witth the term, refers to the old practice of enforcing foreign policy objectives through conspicuous displays of military power. Though 3BAM's objectives are entirely peaceful what we do is to practice a sort of diplomacy promoting our causes; veterans, the artillery, the 2nd Field Regt. I figured, and I think quite correctly that the moment we put the gun on the barge and towed it out onto the lake, we became the most heavily armed vessel ever launched in this lake, this qualified us as a gunboat of sorts.We'll call it the (HMCS) IRONBAM. Ahoy!
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| One of my "nautically-themed" photos. |
I have to also admit to having a bit of a nautical passion, which passion makes many guest appearances in my real (paid) photographic work. (see picture) It was therefore great fun, especially since it was the perfect opportunity to bellow out nautical commands you don't get to use every day. What I didn't think of doing, was bringing some of my nautical paraphernalia to lend that special touch, but we're back in August so there's another chance.
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| My first cup of the day. |
But before the fun, again came some work. Getting up at 04:45 on Sunday morning so that we could be ready to shoot at 07:00 would qualify. And when you get up at that hour, the first cup of coffee that's put before you makes all the difference between coherence and incoherence for the rest of the day. I needed more than one in my case. Breakfast was pretty spartan in this B&B. Toast, bagels, fruit salad, bananas, cereal, coffee, OJ, assorted jam and PB. What was missing were eggs, bacon, sausage...the sort of stuff that people who aren't competing in a triathlon would love to eat when getting up this early. This may explain our stop at Tim Hortons on the way home. But at least there was coffee!
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| Lcol Bégin and Lsgt Lanoes at breakfast. |
With breakfast over, we headed out to the beach, and unlike the previous day, the rain held off and everything ran pretty smoothly. I'm happy about this. I'd have hated to have worn a ladies rain cape in front of a thousand people. The only real fly in the ointment was that for the second weekend in a row, some terribly "misinformed" announcer kept referring to us on his PA system "The Canadian Armed Forces," instead of the 3rd (Montreal) Field Battery. Unfortunately, by the time he was doing this, we were all on the lake and couldn't send anyone out to correct him. Right there was thousands of dollars worth of free publicity flushed right down the toilet. Hey guys! Look at our WWII uniforms and equipment! Look at our mostly grey hair! We are NOT the
Canadian Armed Forces, nor do we have any right to pretend we are.
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| The moment of truth. It wasn't a very big barge. |
But aside from this, things went pretty well, though owing to some miscommunication of intention, there were 14 starts and we fired starting guns for on the the first two. The organizers would have liked for us to fire for all of them but didn't tell us in advance to ammo for all 14, so fired only tow as in previous occasions at this event. Next time (August) we'll bring more ammo whether they ask us for it or not. Nonetheless, we had to stay on the lake until all 14 groups were in the water with 5 minute intervals between each start. Add to that the fact we were in place a good 45 minutes before the first shot, and we were out on the lake more than two hours. As our little gunboat had no deck chairs, it was bit uncomfortable at times. Another thing to think about come August.
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| What it's all about. |
I think that this might be an appropriate time to mention that there were people who are even crazier
than we were on that lake. Those would be the competitors in this grueling triathlon. All day on Saturday, wherever we went, we could not but notice athletes in training, jogging in the rain, pushing themselves, preparing for the next day's grueling events. Why the hell aren't these folks in the army, I wonder?
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| 2nd breakfast. |
Once everyone was in the water, it was time to go back ashore, pack up and get back on the road, destination, Montreal. Like little hobbits, though, we all seemed to crave a second breakfast, which was held in the parking lot of a roadside Tim Horton's, on the trunk of Colonel Borne's car, as Timmy's was pretty crowded inside. That too was reminiscent of army days where I ate many a meal on the hood of a jeep or an Iltis. RECCE PREPARE TO MOVE! The trip back to Montreal was without incident and we were back at the barn by 12:30, with the gun and vehicle maintained and everything secured away by 14:30.
I have to say that it was a fun way to spend a couple of days. If most people go to Tremblant to ski in the winter or swim and jog in the summer, or just to lose money in the Casino, 3BAM goes there to put on a show, maintain artillery traditions, take on new challenges, and just hang out together and have a good time. Anyone can start a race with a starter's pistol, but if you really want to make an impression, put your popgun away and call 3BAM!
Ubique!
Gary Menten
Photographer-Correspondent,
3BAM
