The Battle Of Chateauguay, 200 Years Later

The Honour Guard

It seems that every time I make the effort to spit shine my boots  or press razor-sharp creases into my uniform in advance of a 3BAM event, it rains throughout that event, and my efforts  essentially are for naught. This October 26th, when 3BAM accompanied by the 2nd Field Regt's RSM, CWO Joao Barros helped the armed forces, re-enactment groups and various government officials, VIP guests and local citizens commemorate the Battle Of Chateauguay, which took place exactly 200 years today.

Depiction of the battle.

Every school child in Quebec was taught about this when I was a kid, I think in 5th Grade. Unfortunately, the government-sanctioned version I was taught in the early 70's was pretty much what Naploeon would have called "a set of lies, agreed upon."

In this version, the gallant Lieutenant-Colonel de Salaberry with a force of only 300 men sent an an American army of over 7000 running for their mothers by shooting at them from behind rocks and running around in the woods making native war-cries that frightened the inexperienced American troops as they blundered about in the woods, lost and confused, much like the British regulars had at Monongahela (Fort Duquesne if you are French or a Canadien) 58 years earlier.

Canada's First Nations were represented at the ceremony.

There's probably a little bit about this that is true; de Salaberry is credited by many sources as having used deceptions, and he did have 180 fierce Mohawk warriors in his force, but his total force numbered around 1,600, not 300 and the American force under General Wade Hampton numbered more like 2,600 troops, not 7,000. Even today, Oct 26th, the Montreal Gazette continues to report the myth, rather than the facts, claiming de Salaberry had 300 men versus 3000. When the legend becomes fact, you print the legend, you print the legend, right?

Neither did the Americans scurry home in panic as I was taught.  They retired the next day in good order, and without pursuit,  reporting a total of 23 killed, 33 wounded and 29 missing. Canadian losses were 2 killed, 16 wounded and 4 missing. The Battle of Chateauguay when you boil it down, was more of a skirmish than a pitched battle.

Reenactors depicting de Salaberry's Voltigeurs. .

The feat of arms remains impressive in the sense that de Salaberry was nonetheless badly outnumbered and could have been defeated had he not commanded his little force with far more skill his opposing number.  General Hampton convinced as he probably was that de Salaberry disposed a somewhat larger force than he actually did, and convinced that he could not possibly carry the position by renewing the attack the next day, decided instead to withdraw back to Four Corners, NY.

Even a defeat however, would probably not have resulted in the capture of Montreal by the Americans, as Hampton had received an order from the Secretary of War on the eve of the battle, ordering him to put his force into winter quarters on the Saint-Lawrence. Battle or no, there would be no attempt to capture Montreal for the rest of the year. Hampton only committed to battle because prior to receiving this order, he'd  committed a brigade of 1000 men to attempt a flanking movement against de Salaberry's position and to have withdrawn on the 25th would have left them exposed and without support.

American re-enactor

De Salaberry of course knew none of this, and the American mismanagement of the entire campaign does not in any way detract from his reputation or from the the bravery and dedication of his outnumbered command.  He disposed and commanded his forces with skill and guile and won the day. If he is not quite David defeating Goliath, he is still a national hero and rightly so. Vive la Canadienne!

As much as I complain about the rain taking the crease out of my trousers and the shine out of my boots, everyone I was wearing an old Cold War era Canadian winter parka over my WWII era DESERT uniform, as were most 3BAM members present, if our dress was anachronistic in the extreme we were probably also among the most comfortably attired of the uniformed participants in this event. The poor blighters in the honour guard were were stuck standing in the rain in their service dress uniforms without overcoats the whole time.


Unlike our last mission, things went smoothly. We were not beset by mishaps, breakdowns or dud rounds. We were even provided with a collapsible white tent to place over the gun, looking for all the world like a chuppah, as if we were about to conduct a Jewish wedding ceremony rather than a gun salute. When finally the time came to fire, we fired our two shots without SNAFU, somewhat shocking some of the onlookers who because of perhaps inadequate planning on the part of the organizers, were standing a bit closer than we would ordinarily like them to be.

The detachment fires the gun from under the "chuppah" while RSM Barros looks on diligently.

The detachment was commanded by WO (ret) Michel Lepage, and included Lcol (ret) Jaques Borne, Lcol (ret) Yvon Bégin looking after security, MWO (ret) Tom Savoie, WO (ret) Gilles Pelletier, Mbdr (ret) Denis Dumas, Ocdt Robert Ouellette, and making her first uniformed appearance, our newest gunner, Gnr Nathalie Millette. As previously mentioned, we had the honour to be accompanied by RSM Barros of the 2nd Field Regiment and in case you haven't figured it out, I was there in my usual capacity of photographer.

Voltigeur 2Lt watches the rehearsals

Given the number of military participants involved in this event, it's hard to imagine why this mission wasn't tasked out to the regiment, but it was an honour and a pleasure for 3BAM to fire the salute.  This is what 3BAM is all about, and of course, we always attract attention and questions at events like this, which I always view as central to our objective of teaching the history and tradition of the Royal Canadian Artillery. As always, I relish in explaining how artillery works and I try to pretend that I'm sort of like the Carl Sagan of artillery, explaining our methods to non-gunners the way Sagan used to explain science and the scientific method to non-scientists, but without the "BILLIONS."
A particularly fun moment came when two young members of the R22R came up to me as I was waling around, camera slung around my neck and asked me politely but with keen interest, to what regiment we belonged.

"We don't belong to any regiment," I explained. "We're a bunch of old soldiers who who had such a hard time dealing with civilian life that now we dress up in WWII uniforms  and do this SH_T for free. We're mostly old gunners, but hell, we even have a couple of ex-Van Doos within our ranks. We take ANYBODY"

I didn't really use exactly those words, being a bit more diplomatic, but the gist was pretty much the same. 3BAM stands out among the crowd and these guys were curious and full of questions, and I was glad to answer them. Now to figure out ways to get more people to ask us more questions because WE NEED RECRUITS! 


Ubique!


Gary Menten
Photographer-correspondent,
Blogmeister,
Sgt, (ret), etc, etc.

Dimanche Noir Pour La 3BAM

Voici un résumé de cette journée que je ne suis pas près d'oublier!!!!!!

L'Adj Pelletier explique qui a preparé la munition.

Arrivée à la caserne, problème de transport.  Nous devions prendre les deux obusiers de 25 lb pour saluer le navire coréen Dae Jo Yeong entrant dans le port de Montréal. Je ne voulais pas prendre de chance, si il y-aurait un problème avec un obusier on transfère la munition a l'autre.  Mais on a dû se contenter du pick-up du bon Lcol Borne car nos deux FATs n'ont pas démarré. 

En chemin avec notre seul obusier, après un arrêt brusque l'extincteur de 5 lb se vide dans la caisse du pickup, tout, mais tout est blanc neige.  On prend place près de la vieille Horloge pas de problème. Le bateau tire ses 11 coups:  à nous de jouer.  Pas de problème jusqu'au 8e coup. Nous avons subits un raté, et par malheur toute la Marine est là avec commodore  en tête. La procédure de sécurité est enclenchée, 30 minutes plus tard on découvre que le raté a été causé par l'absence de poudre.  Celui qui avait assemblé les douze douilles avait oublié de mettre de la poudre dans celle-là. 

Leçon tirée de cet évènement: À partir de maintenant, celui qui remplira les douilles devra être
À part cela tout a bien fonctionné.

PS: J'oubliais celui qui a rempli ces douilles c'était moi!
accompagné par un autre membre pour vérification.


Adjuc (ret) Gilles Aubé



Black Sunday for 3BAM
What follows is a recap of our mission and I am certain never to forget it! No sooner had we arrived at the armoury then we found we had a problem with our transportation. We had planned to take both 25-pdr howitzers to salute the Korean destroyer Dae Jo Yeong that was visiting the port of Montreal that day. I wanted to take no chances whatsoever; if we had a problem with one gun, we could transfer the unfired ammo to the other one. Unfortunately, as neither FAT wanted to start up we had to content ourselves with using Lcol Borne’s pick-up as a gun tractor, meaning we could take only one gun. En route with our lone gun, the 5lb fire extinguisher in back of the truck went off as a result of the truck braking too suddenly, leaving a snowy white coating of dry chemical powder over EVERYTHING.

Arriving at the port, we took up our place near the old clock tower, thinking our problems were finally over. The ship duly arrived and fired its allotted 11 shots and it was our turn to reply. Again, no problems until the 8th shot was loaded and the firing lever pulled. We had a misfire right in front of the navy boys with Commodore Craig at the head of the delegation. We had no choice but to enact misfire drill and 30 minutes later, upon examination of the misfired cartridge, that the cause of the misfire was a complete absence of gunpowder in the casing. The person who prepared the 12 cartridges obviously forgot to load the powder into that one.

The lesson drawn from this event: from this moment on, the person preparing the ammo will always be watched over by another member when preparing the ammo.

Aside from these little problems, everything was fine.

P.S. I forgot to mention that I am the one who prepared the ammo.



CWO (ret) Gilles Aubé

Ships Ahoy!

ROKS  Dae Jo Yeong

I have to confess that I've always had a great deal of respect for those in peril on the sea. In my youth, enamored of tales of submarine warfare in WWII, I had mostly wanted to serve in the navy rather than the army. I obviously didn't and served in the finest arm of service in the army instead, but I still carry great respect for seafarers and consider it an honour that 3BAM had the opportunity to engage in an age old naval tradition of firing a salute when foreign warships, in this case the Korean destroyer ROKS  Dae Jo Yeong and the combat support ship ROKS Hwa Cheon entered the Port Of Montreal this October 13th.  Maybe we should have looked at the date a little more closely.

The number 13 is considered unlucky in western culture. I don't know why, but it is and if I weren't a skeptic, disbelieving in all things supernatural or that can't be explained by science, or at the very least by careful examination, I'd be sorely tempted to believe there was something to this or that we were cursed. From the beginning, nothing went according to plan this day, including my participation in the event which was only made possible by the cancellation of a boudoir / pin-up shoot which was supposed to have taken place at 11.000 AM. Good for 3BAM, bad for me.

Our gun tractor.

But this isn't about me; it's about the mission. The mission however, just didn't go according to plan. We had planned to have two guns for the salute. We actually had enough personnel present to man two guns, but as luck would have it, both FAT's had mechanical problems that day and we were forced to use only one gun and tow it behind Colonel Borne's red pickup truck. In retrospect, it was a good thing that we had decided to have it present to serve as a support vehicle. If not...we'd have had major problems.

Cmdre David Craig, RCN (right) and Lcdr Geoff Hamilton, RCN (left)

On the way to the Old Port, one of the two fire extinguishers in the truck back of the vehicle somehow "went off," making what looked like smoke and prompting those of us in the other vehicles to think the brake on the 25pdr had not been properly released or had somehow become engaged, causing it to overheat and smoke. That wasn't the case, but all of our stores were now covered in fine white dry chemicals. The gun too, come to think of it. At this point in the game, one might be tempted to think that we'd had our quota of screw-ups for the day, but as I will shortly explain, the best was still to come. Needless to also say, as soon as we got to the Old Port, I realized that the sun would be in entirely the wrong place for good photos of the ship, creating severe contrasts and creating yucky hard shadows on everything. But as I've learned...this is pretty much par for the course in 3BAM and hardly worth commenting on.

Capt Richard Ayoub "hoists" our "colours" so to speak. 

This being a naval event, steeped in naval tradition, there was of course a naval delegation present, headed by Commodore David Craig, RCN. Also present, Lcdr Geoff Hamilton, CO of HMCS Donnacona, our local naval reserve unit, currently located just a few blocks from where I work in St-Henri. It was from Commander Hamilton that I finally obtained the names of the ships that were coming into port. Tall and very athletic looking with a commanding presence, he reminded me somewhat of Colonel David Patterson, late of our own regiment, the 2nd Field Artillery.

Crew members of the Dae Jo Yeong rendering a salute from the stern as she passes by us.

There was time to rehearse a few times, chat with the naval delegation and the forces photographer, go over the routine, safety procedures and make sure everyone had earplugs, and we were joined by a small Korean diplomatic delegation, and frankly, I thought nothing else could possibly go wrong. The lead ship, the Dae Jo Yeong arrived on time, it's officers and crew lined up on deck in their blue uniforms and it fired the planned 11 shots from some small unseen saluting gun forward of the ship's 5" gun, and 3BAM got off 7 rounds in return before the SH_T hit the fan and we had a bloody MISFIRE! Short of the gun exploding and wiping out the detachment, there wasn't a whole lot that could have gone more wrong.

The last shot before we misfired.

The combat support ship ROKS Hwa Cheon

Cmdre Craig thanks Quebec's only "freelance" gun battery.

The misfire drill is very clear and so the last four rounds went unfired as the ship sailed right past us. There wasn't much to do but stand there and salute in silence. Had we ben able to bring along two guns, there would have been no problem as the other gun could have fired the remaining rounds; We had prepared a spare and could still have fired 11 shots. But it wasn't so.

My mind raced back to an incident in 1986 where a salute had been fired at Quebec city by 6RAC for a visiting Japanese vessel bearing a Japanese royal family member and in which the officer in charge (not to mention his TSM) had miscounted the number shots fired and fired only 18 or 19 of the requisite 21. A formal diplomatic protest had been filed in this incident, and the officer in charge, a 6RAC lieutenant ended up with rather a long spell as duty officer at Camp Farnham that summer.

Sunray douses the dud before examining the charge.

I digress. Misfires are a part of life in the artillery, especially when your guns are 70 years old and you load your own ammo. And therein lies the simple truth of the matter. For when the mandated thirty minutes were up and we unloaded the unfired cartridge from the breech, we could clearly see the primer had been fairly struck. The round was doused in a bucket of water, thoroughly soaked as per our procedures, and though found to have more than sufficient wadding, properly tamped down, there was not an ounce of powder behind that wadding. We had built, loaded and attempted to fire a dud round. Worse still, the culprit in this case, was our Sunray, CWO (ret) Aubé who had prepared all the ammo by himself. To his credit, he made no effort to mitigate it or blame it on circumstance, though I have never seen him so down as after he discovered the cause of the problem. Though one might be tempted to say we were cursed that day, that nothing went right because it was the 13th, the truth is that human frailty, not curses or demons or unlucky numbers were to blame for this mess.  Move on and learn from your mistakes.

The navy of course, was still very appreciative and Commodore Craig came over and said a few kind words of thanks. We had done our best for them when no-one in the regulars or the reserves had been available or had the budget or whatever to come out this beautiful autumn day to come keep up this important tradition. But maintaining tradition is what 3BAM is all about. We'll do better next time.

Ubique!

Gary Menten
Photographer-Correspondent,
Sgt (ret)
Blogmaster-general, etc, etc

Contributors Wanted! / A La Recherche De Contributeurs.

The reasons for the existence of 3BAM are to honour Canadian veterans, teach and promote the history and traditions of both the regiment and the artillery in Canada, and to support the cadets who are an important source of recruits to the regiment. The purpose of the blog, by extension, is exactly the same except that it’s done by relating events as seen from one point of view. Though I’m usually writing about some 3BAM mission, it’s really for and about the entire regimental family.

I not only welcome, but desperately want editorial contributions from other members of that regimental family who are interested in sharing their photos and gunner experiences on the blog. I have a few simple rules; try to keep it about the artillery, keep it clean (no foul language), no politics, and no badmouthing anyone.  Try also to write in the first person from your personal perspective.

If you write something, it would be great for you to send me a few photos from the event. It doesn’t

Your editorial contributions can be emailed to garymenten@videotron.ca

Instagram Photos are completely acceptable. Les photos sont acceptables

matter if you have a decent camera or not, or how good a photographer you are! Just send the photos. Yes, I carry a very expensive pro camera and lens when I go out with 3BAM, but I also shoot photos with my iPhone when by Nikon is packed away in its case or simply when I want to be inconspicuous. Often I use one of the great retro filters. You won’t often hear me admit to this, but when telling a story, even a crappy photo is better than no photo. So…..send me what you have.

Francais
 
Les raisons de l'existence de 3BAM sont de rendre hommage aux anciens combattants canadiens, d'enseigner et de promouvoir l'histoire et les traditions du 2e régiment et l'artillerie au Canada et à appuyer les cadets qui sont une source importante de recrues du régiment. Le but du blog, par extension, est exactement le même, sauf que c'est fait en rapportant les événements comme vu d'un point de vue subjectif. Même quand je racconte l'histoire d'une mission 3BAM, c'est vraiment pour toute de la famille régimentaire.

Je suis présentement a la recherche contributions éditoriales des autres membres de cette famille régimentaire qui sont intéressés à partager leurs photos et leurs expériences de canonnier sur le blog. J'ai quelques règles simples, essayer de parler de l'artillerie, garder votre langage propre (pas de langage grossier), pas de politique, et de ne dénigrer personne. Essayez aussi d'écrire à la première personne de votre point de vue personnel.

Si vous écrivez quelque chose, ce serait formidable pour vous de me faire parvenir quelques photos de l'événement. Ce n'est pas grave si vous avez un appareil photo de qualité ou que vous êtes adepte come photographe! Il suffit d'envoyer les photos. Oui, je porte un appareil de premiere gamme  quand je sors avec 3BAM, mais j'ai aussi prendre des photos avec mon iPhone quand par Nikon est rangé dans sa boite ou simplement quand je veux être discret. Souvent j'utilise un des fabueleux filtres rétro disponibles avec les apps d'iPhone. Vous n'entendrez pas souvent en avouer, mais en racontant une histoire, même une photo médiocre, c'est mieux que pas de photo du tout. Alors ..... envoyer-moi ce que vous avez.

Vos contributions éditoriales peuvent être envoyées par courriel à garymenten@videotron.ca

Assemblée annuelle.

Samedi 14 septembre 2013, à 13 :30, la troisième batterie d’artillerie de Montréal a tenu son assemblée annuelle.


En sus de la 
routine habituelle, nous avons eu le plaisir de recevoir le Lcol Richard Garon, commandant du 2RAC,  qui est venu nous assurer de sa collaboration, avec la 3BAM, afin de favoriser les contacts entre le Régiment et notre organisation.

Nos véhicules

Des ententes ont été prises avec différents membres pour l’entretient de nos véhicules et de nos canons, y inclus notre nouveau Jeep-ambulance pour lequel nous sollicitons l’aide financière de nos membres et collaborateurs.

Notre organisation va bien, et nous sommes de plus en plus reconnus et recherchés.

Lcol  Yvon E. Bégin,  CD, retraité;
Directeur, 3e batterie d’artillerie de campagne de Montréal (3BAM)

Better Late Than Never.

The newly promoted CWO Barros issues his first order.

 

WO (ret) Gilles Pelletier brought us up to date on the vehicles.

Sometimes, things are kind of late to happen. Take for instance, 3BAM's annual members meeting, which was supposed to have taken place in April, but because we were too damned busy all spring, only took place this past Sept 14th in the officers mess at CDN Armoury. It's not really very exciting; just a lot of really boring stuff gets discussed like the state of finances, what needs to be done on our equipment to pass government inspection, are we shooting a photo for a Christmas card this year? Oh...and a rather heated if somewhat pointless discussion as to the proper designation of our newly acquired M38 jeep.  Not really a snoozer, but I wouldn't want to go through this more than once a year. Probably the high point of the meeting was when the CO and RSM came to talk to us a for a few minutes.

The meeting was attended by most of the usual suspects, and it was the first time I had seen any of them since the beginning of July when we stood down for a month.  I didn't participate in any events that took place in August, so it was good to see everyone again.

Craig Berendt, Rob Larivée, Will Freedman, Frank Baker

Way more important than 3BAM's annual meeting however, was RSM Joao Barros's long-deserved promotion to CWO. Long deserved in many ways, I should add. Joao is not only the longest serving member of the regiment, (he joined seven years before I did and has stayed twenty-two more since I left) but he's been RSM without the rank that goes with the title for a few years now. It's about bloody time he got the recognition! Congratulations, Joao!

Derek Bayliss

The occasion of his promotion brought together many old members of the unit, and I frankly haven't seen so many of my old regimental friends gathered together at the same place and time in many years. Two former RSM's-both memebers of 3BAM- were present; Gilles Aubé and Normand Roberge.  Also present were fomer members Laurent Guyon,  Tom Savoie, Gilles Pelletier, Ambert Fong, Rob Larivée, Sébastien Picard, Bob Hotte, Frank Baker, Ben MacNeil, Will Freedman, and Derek Bayliss.

Normand Roberge, Laurent Guyon, Philippe Dalphond. 

Joao and family

But this story is supposed to be about Joao Barros, so let's get back to that. I first came to know him in 1982, not long after completing my gunner's course. He was a bombardier then, and sort of known as "The Animal" of the regiment. Outspoken, profane, and frankly, a bit scary. On the occasion, he introduced himself to us new gunners as "The Animal" and emphasized the point by banging the rust off the tailgate of an old five-quad with a golfing putter. In the time I was there though, I can't remember him ever being lost for words or not having a wisecrack handy, or ever addressing me as "sergeant." But I also can't remember a single time that he ever shirked his job, bullshitted anyone , played politics, or did anything other than lay it straight on the line when his opinion was asked, or even when it wasn't.  I am certain there is no-one who knows the regiment and its men and women better than he, no-one who cares about it more, and no-one who is more deserving of the rank that's finally been bestowed upon him, long after he earned it.

The man of the hour.

There were other promotions being passed out that day, and it's not my aim to ignore or gloss these over, only I most of them, save one, Lt Christophe Leong's, were people I don't know, or at least people who I don't think I know. I got a bit of a surprise Major Sylvie Pelletier came up to me during the reception in the mess and addressed me by name and rank, explaining that she remembered me from way back when, though I had no recollection of having previously met her. I had heard about her in the intervening years however and of her gallant struggle with breast cancer, which disease struck my  mother some years ago and claimed my grandmother a few couple of years later.  I'm pretty sure she would have been CO of the regiment today had it not been for the cancer and Colonel Garon made it pretty clear to me he fully expects her to be the next CO when his term is up. So good luck and good health to you Sylvie, both on behalf of 3BAM and on behalf of someone who lost two grandparents to cancer. I'm sure you'll be the next CO, and I wouldn't be surprised if Joao Barros is still there when it happens!




Ubique!

Gary Menten
3BAM Photographer-Correspondent.

The Big Round-Up

In Waterloo Qc, two of the "usual suspects" are joined by CWACS Louise Chapdelaine and Josée Daigle

Rounding Up The Usual Suspects

Police chief Renault instructs a subordinate to "round up the usual suspects."

June was a very busy month for 3BAM and I haven’t looked forward to a summer vacation quite so much since being in high school. The missions we took on kept me busy every single weekend in a month that both began and ended on weekends. Over the course at of the months, we fired salutes or starting guns for the Longue Pointe base, the navy and merchant marine, D-Day commemorations, The Mascouche Legion,  the R22R golf tournament, The Philippines Independence celebrations in Montreal, the Ironman race in Mont-Tremblant  finally, with separate detachments, Canada celebrations both in Sorel Qc and Waterloo Qc.  I wasn’t with 3BAM a year ago, but Tom Savoie who was, told me on Canada Day that a year ago, we couldn’t possibly have pulled this off. That must mean that we've managed to recruit enough people who attend regularly and who have the right skills and knowledge to make it all come together. I like to call them "The Usual Suspects," after Claude Raines' famous "Round up the usual suspects" line in my all-time favorite film, Casablanca. 

MWO (ret) Tom Savoie: One of the "Usual Suspects."

Tom should know, because he's one of the "Usual Suspects" himself. Whenever we have a VIP gunner, someone who's never fired the 25-pdr, or in most cases, any piece of artillery, Tom is most frequently the one to give that person the instruction he or she needs to fire the gun on command and is usually to be seen right behind our designated gunner, keeping a close eye on things.

Lsgt Jean Rochelau.

 Another usual suspect worthy of special note here is Jean Rocheleau, who received the rare honour of a promotion from Bdr to Lsgt for the extraordinary amount of work he did on our vehicles coming in to do maintenance and other work in between missions. Congratulations Jean, and thanks for all the hard work!  It's great to have to running FATs.

If you've been following the blog, then you'll know that I'm also one of the usual suspects, though I'm pretty sure I shouldn't buck for a promotion as I:

I guess I'm one of the "usual suspects" also.

A. Don't wear any kind of rank  badge on my uniform and:

B. Everyone (jokingly) calls me "General" anyway owing to my spiffy bush jacket and KD service-dress cap.  

I do sometimes wonder however, if my title should be changed from "Photographer Correspondent" to "Blogmaster-General" though I'm not sure what the rank badge for this illustrious appointment should look like or why it would matter.

Notwithstanding this, the other usual suspects to that made the June schedule possible were Lcol's Yvon Bégin and Jaques Borne, Capt Noreau, Ocdt's Robert Ouellette and Monique Champagne, WO Gilles Pelletier, myself, Sgt Marc Castonguay, Lsgt's Jean Rocheleau, Frédéric Lanoes, Michel Lapointe, Marc-Antoine Gervais-Hotte, and Gnr Francis Castonguay. Nor can we forget the kingpin of the usual suspects mob, CWO Gilles Aubé. 

Da Boss!

Recruiting Round-Up.

Denis Dumas at Mascouche

3BAM picked up a new recruit last month! Mbdr (ret) Denis Dumas was one of the bikers present at the Mascouche Legion shoot organized by Capt Maurice Noreau, and was rather easily recruited by Sunray's recruiting pitch. His first mission as a uniformed member of 3BAM was the July 1st shoot at Waterloo. Denis' recruitment into our ranks is a really good thing for us. He's as strong as a mule, patient, not afraid to get his hands dirty, and seems to have a lot of the sort of connections we could really use in 3BAM. We need more recruits though and I hope we get more guys like Denis.

Mbdr Dumas with us at Waterloo.

I also would like to see more women join. 3BAM is as open to women as it is to men, and I was very pleased to see both Louise Chapdelaine and Josée Daigle dressed impeccably in their smart-looking CWAC uniforms while I was at  Waterloo. I'm wondering where they obtained them or had them made as I haven't seen any from any of the suppliers of WWII reproduction uniforms that I'm aware of. Also, knowing as I do a number of amateur models specializing in 40's retro photos with the correct hair styles etc, I'd love to get my hands on some of the the uniforms, even for just a short while, to shoot some retro recruiting photos, preferably in a studio.

Mbdr Dumas serving as part of the detachment in Waterloo. Lsgt Rocheleau is #3 and Lsgt Gervais-Hotte is #2.

Restaurant Round-Up

Sylvain Daigle gets a birthday cake at Maurice's in Waterloo.

Over the course of the last month, 3BAM members were treated to a lot of free food, ranging from army box lunches to restaurant meals, not to mention a few lunches prepared by Gille's charming wife, Lucette. We never went hungry and never had to pay for our grub.

Dining Room at Tremblant B&B. 

I suppose everyone has their favorite but by far and away the two best meals I had were in Mont Tremblant; the lunch at our hotel on the Saturday and the supper at La Cage Aux Sports later that evening. The meal that reminded me the most of army days however, was on July 1st, where we were served breakfast by the Waterloo Legion (who served about 500 others) and which I decided to eat in the back of the gun-tractor rather than in the tents that had been set up for the purpose, thus putting a bit of space between myself and the irritatingly loud music of a third-rate country band that was fueling a foul mood induced by lack of sleep the night before. But having breakfast in the back of the truck, as every gunner has at one time or another brought me back in time for a bit to my days as a #1 and this helped cool me down a bit though I remained somewhat crabby for the rest of the morning.



Lunch at our Tremblant hotel

There was certainly nothing to complain about food-wise. Sometimes the fair was hot-dogs and served with soft drinks. At others, it was more sophisticated and served with wine. There were several stops at various conveniently located im Horton's along the highways,  but the bottom line is that it was all paid for by 3BAM or others.


Rounding Things Off. 
3BAM now goes into a much-deserved stand-down for a month or so as Our Sundray, Gilles Aubé heads to Sicily for most of the month to participate in celebrations marking the the 70th anniversary of it's liberation. He will be accompanied by Gilles Pelletier and Col Borne a bit later.

Along the way, I made some good money selling 3BAM prints in the last month or so and will spend at least part of the summer break making more prints both for eventual sale as well as some for an exhibition I hope to have at the regiment, which will tell the story of 1 year of shooting photos with 3BAM.

In August, things will start up again, though my own participation in events will be more limited in the coming year than it was in the last year, having learned as I did, that some events have more publicity value than others. My focus in the coming year will be on those events that have the greatest publicity potential and the best potential for bringing in new recruits to 3BAM and I'll leave the reporting and photography of other events to other members, whom I am confident will pick up the slack. Good summer to all, and see you in a month or so.


Ubique!


Gary Menten
Photographer-Correspondent
3BAM

Gunboat Diplomacy

 

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

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.

A lot of wine was consumed.

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.

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.

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. 

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!

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.

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!

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.

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.

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?

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