 |
| General Dallaire poses with the colonels. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The 2nd Field Regiment, RCA held it's annual St-Barbara's mess dinner
this past Dec 7. The event was heavily attended by the entire gunner
community in Quebec, with delegations from 5RALC, 6RAC, 62RAC plus a
solid contingent from 3BAM. The guest of honour was also an old gunner
and true Canadian hero, Senator and retired Lieutenant-General Roméo
Dallaire, who I will simply refer to as General Dallaire hereafter.
 |
| General Dallaire addresses the guests. |
Now there were a lot of other Canadian heroes in the room; men and women
wearing Afghanistan or UN service medals and I don't want to slight any
of them by suggesting that General Dallaire was the only hero present.
The fact is you couldn't throw a stone in this room without hitting one,
but General Dallaire is without cavil, the best known among them, and
rightly so.
In 1994, he was the UN's top man in Rwanda, a country on the verge of
sliding into genocide. Knowing what was about to happen, he made plans
to seize the weapons cache's of the Hutu militias that were about to
carry out this crime against humanity. He was ready to act, but when he
informed his superiors in New York of his plans, a bunch of clowns who
couldn't tie their own shoe laces, much less find their asses with both
hands decided that disarming the militias just wasn't part of the UN
mandate and they tied his hands. 800,000 (possibly more) people died for
this bit of stupidity and UN inaction. General Dallaire himself paid a
heavy personal price for having been forced to stand by while the
slaughter took place. Though his forces were still able to protect and
save 30,000 plus lives in Kigali, both the UN and the world failed
Rwanda in the implementation of what should have been the UN's most
important mission.
 |
| Col Tom Stafford, General Dallaire, and my first CO, Lcol Steve Goldberg |
 |
| General Dallaire and Lsgt Gallant of 3BAM |
But enough of politics. General Dallaire as an old gunner and former CO
of 5RALC is well-known to many in the 2nd Field Regiment who are old
enough to have served in those days. Being on private commission for the
occasion I was instructed to stick close to the general and photography
pretty much everyone he shook hands with. There were a lot of old
acquaintances--I was surprised by how many--and many whispered something
in my ear as I was shooting. "I knew him back in (insert time and place
here) when I was just a (insert rank here) and he was (insert position
here). Make sure you get a photo of us together." Surely the best photo I
got that evening was of a moment shared by General Dallaire with former
2RCA commander, Colonel (Ret) Tom Stafford, who as always it seems, was
the most animated guest at the event.
 |
| Lcol Garon and General Dallaire at dinner. |
Another 2RCA alumnus who had path had previously crossed General
Dallaire's back in his 5RALC days was William Gallant, now a member of
3BAM. Will waited patiently by my side as a snapped photo after photo of
the general greeting senior officers and captains of industry, but
jumped in to introduce himself and shake hands with the general as soon
as the opportunity presented itself. I shot so many photos of General
Dallaire greeting so many people in fact, that it's difficult to decide
which ones to include in this post and which ones not to, not wishing to
offend anyone of course, for not including their photo. But I guess
that's what the regiment's FB page is for!
As I pointed out earlier, there was a significant 3BAM presence among
the guests, including our Sunray, retired CWO Gilles Aubé, Lcols (Ret)
Yvon Bégin and Jaques Borne, MWO (Ret) Tom Savoie, WO's (ret) Michel
Lepage and Gilles Pelletier, and Lsgt Will Gallant. I myself was present
of course, but was private working for the regiment's honourary colonel
rather than shooting for 3BAM.
 |
| Always the tallest guy in the picture, Colonel Dave Patterson. |
It was a great opportunity to see many old faces, including my first CO,
Lcol (ret) Steve Goldberg, who commanded the regiment when I joined in
1982. I have not seen him in perhaps 20 years. The district commander
at that time was Col (Ret) Tom Stafford, Col (H) de Kovachich was
regimental adjudant at the time. Col Dave Patterson, also present, was a
lieutenant then, a Col Pronkin was then a major and my BC in 7th Bty.
All were present for the event. Colonel Patterson was another popular
guest that evening and was kind enough to pose for photos with a good
many different people. He's so damned tall however, that it's often a
challenge pose him with other individuals.
Well, that about wraps it up. The evening was a smashing success with
about 180 guests, all it seems having a good time. I was fun to be
there, even though event photography is not and never will be my
personal cup of tea. It was an honour to be asked to shoot the event,
and a greater one still to be introduced to and shake hands with General
Dallaire.
Ubique!
Gary Menten
Photographer and,
Blogmeister, 3BAM, etc, etc.
