Circular Trajectory

Somehow, the original blog post I'd made for this entry was corrupted and replaced with another post dealing with an entirely different topic. I had no choice but to delete that and start again but not remembering word-for word what I'd previously written and having in the interim discovered things I hadn't known when I wrote the the article for the first time, I decided instead to simply re-write it. 

The story begins in 1968, when I was six years old and my father took me along on one of his assignments, which was to shoot photos of a provincial shooting competition that was being held between members of all three branches of the Cadet Movement, plus members of the Boy Scouts of Canada. The competition was held in the Cote-des Neiges Armoury. The story ends with my unexpectedly being assigned to shoot the same organization (cadet movement) engaged in the same activity (shooting competition) in the same physical space (floor of the riding rink) in the same building (CDN Armoury) 45 years later, (March 2013.)  I carried the memory of the event albeit a very fragmentary way for 45 years. Notwithstanding, the memories I carried, turned out to be very accurate, with the only inaccuracy being that I had believed for decades that the event took place in 1967, though the photographic evidence, once the negatives were dug up and digitized proves the event took place in the late winter or early spring of 1968. Still, this was before the first manned Apollo launch, before the Beatles broke up, before Bobby Kennedy was assassinated, and before the 2nd Field Regiment moved into the Armoury. 

In those days, cadets shot Lee-Enfield No7 .22 training rifles and to facilitate large numbers of people competing at once, a temporary backstop of angled steel plates supported by a wooden frame would be set up at the back of the armoury, up against the back wall. This was before the structures housing the 7th Bty offices or the classrooms at the very back of the building were built.  Those who don't believe that live ammo was used on the floor of the armoury need only look at the photos, though it's hard to imagine this sort of thing being allowed today.

On March 16th of this year, the cadet movement as having another shooting competition.  3BAM on the other hand, had a very busy weekend as it would support the cadets on the 16th by firing a starting gun for the competition, then feeding them a hot-dog lunch, while maintaining and preparing the guns and vehicles for the next day's participation in the St-Patrick's day parade. My plan for the day had been to shoot some video of the starting gun for inclusion in a later, as yet undetermined video project before shooting a few stills of the preparation for the parade. I was still recovering from a very nasty throat infection that had plagued me for weeks and wanted to make a short day of it, particularly since the next day was to be a long one and the weather forecast was for a very cold day. Our Sunray, CWO (ret) Gilles Aubé was a bit late in arriving and so I waited for him in the stands near the cadet offices along with Lcol (ret) Yvon Bégin and Gnr André Coulombe of 3BAM. We immediately noticed that a shooting range of sorts had been set up on the parade square, though we were quite puzzled as the backstops were way to flimsy to stop even a .22 bullet and to boot, the stands were right behind the range. I was still believing at this point, albeit completely incorrectly that cadets were still shooting.22 caliber rifles and that the shooting would take place inside the armoury's indoor range. I knew it had been condemned in 1991, but figured that in the interim, they might have fixed the ventilation problems. In fact, as I was shortly to discover, cadets today use Daisy air rifles, not Lee-Enfield No7 rifles, so the backstops don't have to be all that heavy and there are no safety issues firing on the parade square.

When Gilles showed up a few minutes later, he informed us first that there would be no starting gun this day as an unforeseen problem had made it impossible for our artificer and driver, WO (ret) Gilles Pelletier to attend, and so he asked me if I could
shoot photos of the cadet shooting match instead.  Gilles had no idea, nor I think did anybody else really, but the reality that I was about to repeat the very same assignment my father had in this same building 45 years earlier--the assignment that brought me to this very spot for the first time in my life-- hit me on the head like a 16 ton weight.  This was beginning to look and feel an awful lot like an episode of the "The Twilight Zone." In fact, I could almost hear Rod Serling's voice in the back of my head, tugging at my subconscious.

"Our lives are like projectiles, moving through time and space on constantly changing trajectories. Each and every other trajectory that randomly intersects our own affects it and alters its direction, often in unpredictable new directions. Directions that sometimes lead us right back to the point of origin; back to the Twilight Zone."

From this point on, it was as much an exercise in determinism as it was in photography.  Even the motto of the Army Cadets, "Acer Acerpori" (As the maple, so the sapling) fit this Serlingesque story with creepy perfection. For those who don't know me or don't know me well, you might find it interesting that I had never in my father's lifetime planned to take up photography and only did so after his death in 1998. I also spent more than 20 years avoiding CDN armoury after leaving the regiment in 1991 and only discovered the existence of 3BAM as a result of an interesting coincidence. Nor did I initially have any plans to get involved with 3BAM as a photographer or in any other capacity.

 But back to our story. I shot the assignment and even managed to get a photo at Gilles Aubé's promting perhaps the only photo ever taken, of a lieutenant-colonel cleaning a gun like an ordinary gunner! In 3BAM, everyone rolls up their sleeves and works! (Everyone but me, at any rate.)

Some things were of course different from one shoot to the other. I shot the photos with a state of the art 36MP Nikon D800 camera and a fabulous 24-70mm f.2.8G lens; technology that couldn't be dreamed of in 1968. It was no problem for me to crank the ISO up to 1600 for some shots and still have very clean, relatively noise-free photos. My father by contrast, shot his photos with a 1948 vintage Graflex Crown Graphic press camera, (with a different flash than the one seen in the picture).  His camera was already 20 years old at the time and worked off a film magazine that held a total of six 4 x 5" negatives that had to be manually advanced between shots, while the shutter had to be manually cocked between each shot as well. These were not fast cameras to use, though once upon a time, it's what all the press photographers in North America carried. The only lens was a 127mm (wide angle in this format) Kodak Ektar f.3.7 which lets in just over half as much light as my 24-70mm. Probably the highest speed film available back then was 400 ASA (what they used to call ISO), which was nowhere nearly fast enough, and so it had to be underexposed during the shoot and then overdeveloped by a good two stops in the darkroom after the shoot. The graininess of the images attests to the push-processing to at least 1600ASA. This also explains why he chose to shoot the photos with the old Graflex clunker instead of one of his Nikon 35mm's or one of his Rolleiflex medium format cameras. Using either of those formats at those film speeds would have only magnified the graininess of the images whereas with the large format camera, he still got some passable images. I'm also sure the reason there's so much more motion blur in his photos than mine is that my lens is almost twice as fast as his. The one thing that's depressing in all of this is that his camera, though dated, was still useful 20 years after being introduced while 20 years from now, my beloved D800 will long have been consigned to the junk-heap of obsolescent electronics.

Anyway, when I got home I wanted to sleep, having spent a largely sleepless night, still coughing from my throat problems, but I was so freaked out and pumped by things that I had to go and dig up the negatives from my father's shoot to have a look at them. Fortunately, I'd found them years earlier and had set them aside with some others that I had thought I might one day want to digitize. I selected four of them, initially missing the one proving that I was also present, which is why it didn't appear in the original version of this post. Had I looked more carefully, it would have because as it turns out, it IS the one that nails down the exact year in which the photos were shot. There was some debate, as the firing line photo, when blown up, reveals the presence of two, more likely three individuals wearing the new CF uniform and it was difficult to believe that anyone might have been wearing so soon after unification, but again, the photos don't lie. I am six year old in the photo, so it was shot in 1968. Had my idiot father dated his negatives, as I date my digital files, as opposed to merely numbering them, we would even know the exact date.

In closing, I'm told the cadets from the Black Watch won the competition this March 16th. I don't know who won in 1968, whether it was done by team or part of the selection process for the annual Bisley matches that were held every year in England and in which we sent teams to participate, but I do know from the kilted figure that can be made out when the opening photo in this post is blown up, that the Black Watch participated, so it's not impossible they won back then too. Wouldn't it be completely freaky if they did?

Ubique! 

Gary Menten

Photographer

Change Of Command

Every now and again, when shooting an event photo, my least favorite sort of photographic assignment, I do something correctly and I have to say that this photo of the 2nd Field Regiment's new commanding officer LCol Richard Garon, is the one that for me, makes it worthwhile to have spent as much time as I have Saturday and Sunday covering the event. I think that I can speak on behalf of all 3BAM members congratulating him on his new command, and that we all look forward to continuing our support of the regiment now that he has been appointed it's commanding officer.

We wish all the best also the regiment's outgoing CO, LCol Parent, who's commanded the regiment these last five years. As mentioned last night by General Jeffrey, five years a long to to command a unit, and let's face it, it's a tough job. I'm afraid I never had the chance to get to know Colonel Parent since I only got involved with 3BAM last September and spent most of the last 22 years keeping away from the military regretting for most of it that I had ever left. Perhaps I can atone for this mistake by being around a little more in the future, which is likely given how active 3BAM is and the close connection between 3BAM and the 2nd Field Regiment.

Still, commanding a regiment is one of the best jobs in the army as a regiment is something with a life of its own. In our army, commanding the fierce individual loyalty it does from it's members, it's both a family and something akin to a tribe. No matter how long you've commanded it, turning over your command to someone else must be a difficult thing.  It cannot possibly be easy.

To support the regiment during the ceremony, 3BAM fired four gunshots, one to honour the Colonel Commandant of Artillery, LGen (ret) Michael Jeffrey, and the other three as a salute to the LCol Parent as his former command offered him three cheers under it's new commander. Oh, and I almost forgot (not really ;o) that 3BAM's photographer was tasked to cover the event as the regiment's own in-house guy was unavailable. It was of course my honour to help out though I'm not trying to steal anyone's job. The other 3BAM members who participated today were CWO (ret) Aubé, LCol's (ret) Borne and Bégin, Capt (ret) Noreau, Capt Ayoub,  OCdt's Champagne and Ouellette, WO (ret) Lepage, and Bdr (ret) Rocheleau. 2Lt Bélec's Cadet Corps 2719 also had a detachment on the parade.  Once again, apologies to anyone I've omitted or whose name I've misspelled or whose rank I've gotten wrong.
 
Though I won't veer off into politics I can't be a witness this sort of event without remarking on how very saddened and shocked I am by the very small size of the unit I saw on parade today. I'd been fairly warned sometime ago by Gilles that these days, parades were small and so this was no surprise, just another reminder how much things have changed in the more than two decades that I've been a civilian. I had more men just in my troop when I was Firing Troop TSM 22 years ago I'd be willing to bet there were more people at the mess dinner last night than on the parade square today. I can really only hope that this is a low point and that there are better days ahead for the regiment. Perhaps this is all the more reason for 3BAM to be as active as possible within the community, helping to preserve the traditions of the artillery and I hope raising awareness as to the general existence of our corps and maybe in the process, helping the regiment to gain some recruits.

I will close by saying that despite all the work it involved and the time it took up, it was a pleasure and an honour to participate in some small way in this weekend's change of command activities at the regiment. I had the opportunity to see and spend time with old colleagues and mess-mates, some of whom I haven't seen in many years. I know from the many thanks I received from General Jeffrey on down, from the comments I've received on photos and the many visits to the blog, that my presence and effort were appreciated right through the ranks. For being present, I have a better grasp of the challenges that lie ahead for the 2nd Field Regiment, and a better appreciation of how close the connection is between the regiment and 3BAM.  I wish the best of luck to LCol Garon as he takes the reins and takes on the many challenges that a commanding officer faces, and I am confident that he will do an outstanding job. For now however, I have to put down this blog and look after Bogart, my attention-loving pet cat who's feeling much neglected after I've spent the last two weekends neglecting him and a myriad of housekeeping duties shooting photos around CDN Armoury or posting blog entries.




Ubique!

Gary Menten
Photographer

Mess Dinner

When a change of command occurs within the regiment, it's traditional to hold a mess dinner to bid the outgoing CO farewell and welcome the incoming CO.  After five years in command of the regiment, LCol Parent is to be succeeded by LCol Richard Garon, formerly of 6RAC. LGen (ret) Michael K. Jeffrey, the Colonel-Commandant of Artillery was the guest of honour for the event, which was of course supported by 3BAM.

I'll be honest and say that though they play an important role in the social lives of regimental members, mess dinners were never my particular cup of tea, and my inclination today is to generally avoid them, at least as a guest. However when the regiment's honourary colonel specifically requested in person that I personally shoot the photos for the dinner, it's very difficult....er pretty much impossible to say "no." Aside from being a colonel, Charles de Kovachich recruited me into the regiment in 1982 and was my course commander on my gunner's course. Put in this way, it's an honour to be asked to photograph the event and one should not decline such an honour. Quite frankly I enjoyed photographing the event far more than I'd have enjoyed being a guest, so things work themselves out.

The guest of honour was LGen (ret) Mike Jeffrey, Colonel-Commandant of Artillery. He gave quite a good speech, taking pains to mention the contribution that 3BAM was making within the world of Artillery, specifically thanking CWO (ret) Gilles Aubé for efforts of our organization, and to which our Sunray replied quite frankly that 3BAM is a team effort. Let's be honest, it is. Beyond these things, the event gave me the opportunity to put into practice those "fly-on-the-wall" shooting skills I usually neglect by working in a studio under controlled circumstances, with carefully controlled lighting. Eschewing flash for a lot of the event, particularly during the speeches, I cranked up the ISO on my trusty D800 and fired away at f.2.8. Shutter speeds were quite slow leading to a lot of motion blur, but sometimes it worked out quite well. What a wonderful piece of technology the D800 is, even if it wasn't built with this sort of work in mind. I did find myself wishing for image stabilization on my 24-70mm f.2.8 lens though.  I digress.

Among the guests was Colonel David Patterson, a former CO of the regiment and my former battery commander in days gone by. It was Colonel Patterson who enlightened me as to 3BAM's general existence all the way from Afghanistan where he was stationed at the time, in response to a Facebook post I had made the first time I saw 3BAM's FAT and one of its 25pdr guns being brought up the mountain on the back of a flatbed. Without this, I would not likely have ever come into contact with 3BAM and someone else would be shooting their photos and writing this blog. That's the electronic age for you! As I'm writing this blog, it's not 08.30 in the morning the day after the photos were shot and I am able to tell just how many 2RCA/3BAM members have already looked at the selection of photos I posted on the 2RCA FB page last night. I guess everyone checks FB in the morning right after turning on their computers. Phew! And here I was thinking it's just me! I digress. Colonel Patterson's chest full of decorations is testimony to a lifetime of service to country. I wish I had had the chance to speak with him a few minutes, but I was quite busy, and from what I could tell, so was he. Maybe another time.

To my surprise and delight, Capt Joe Tufenkdjian, RCAF was also in attendance. Joe is another former member of the regiment whom I have not seen in over 20 years. Though he was an instructor on my gunner's course in 1982, now he's a wing-wiper and aircraft commander, flying the C130J all over the world it seems, including missions to Afghanistan and Libya. Joe already had a pilot's license when he was in the regiment, so it seems logical that one day he would flying aircraft in Her Majesty's service.

MWO Laurent Guyon who also served with me in the regiment, but now serves with 30th Field in Ottawa was also present. I usually see him once a year or so at Magnan's Tavern in St-Henri when the old farts from a particular era get together for aneveing of food and drinks, usually in August. Laurent was severely wounded by an IED in Afghanistan several years ago, nearly losing a leg in the process. The Taliban however did not get the last word, and Laurent continues to serve our country and do an excellent job in his current regiment. He remains a very technical guy (Hey! He's an engineer, right?) and always has a lot of interesting things to say when we get together at Magnan's. Uusally, I don't have much to talk about at these things, other than old, old stories or new ones that usually involve a camera and some pretty girls, so mostly I just sit and listen. Just as well. A photo says a thousand words and I prefer to do most of my talking with a camera these days anyway.

At one point in the evening I was able to get a photo of Sgt-Maj Joao Barros, MWO Laurent Guyon and Capt Joe Tufenkdjian all together, which was nice as all of us served together in the regiment over twenty years ago. I wish I had been able to get a few more people from those days together in a photo, but with everything going on, that isn't very easy.

Another old buddy who was present last night was WO Craig Berendt, who's given the unit many years of dedicated service. Craig and I had the chance to chat a bit before the majority of the guests arrived, and he's seen here fixing a menu that had fallen over. I wish I could say that the photography went perfectly, but it didn't. In part because I spent most of the evening upstairs in the mess shooting photos of the goings on there, I was a bit off my game and not as well-prepared for the gunshots as I have been in the past and didn't have a chance to go over the procedure with the crew firing that night, so that the photos were nowhere nearly as good as the ones I shot back in November during the Canada Company event. In particular, my timing was off; I just couldn't seem to capture the flash as the gun fired, though I used the same technique as previously. No excuse: I was off my game. I'll have to do better this afternoon!

Before closing this post, I just wanted to mention the many 3BAM members who were present to last night to support the event. As usual, CWO (Ret) Gilles Aubé, LCols (ret) Yvon Bégin and Jaques Borne, Capt (ret) Maurice Noreau and his wife OCdt Monique Champagne, CWO Norm Roberge, MWO (ret) Tom Savoie, WO's (ret) Gilles Pelletier and Michel Ouellet, LSgt Marc-Antoine Hotte, Piper Wolf Poll, and Mr. Andrew Gregory. Please forgive any omissions, or mistakes; they will be corrected if brought to my attention. 

I also want to point out that today, March 24th is Sgt Philippe Dalphond's birthday. Philippe is another long-serving member of the regiment; someone I remember from the old days. He is a veteran of Afghanistan, and was in attendance yesterday, still walking on crutches after breaking his foot during his second tour in that far away and very dangerous place. Happy birthday Phil! Thanks for the service to country and we hope that your injuries heal soon.

Every blog needs a parting shot, and when you are a photographer as well as a blogger, this can have something of a double meaning. The work is not over this weekend. Yesterday was a mess dinner, today is the change of command parade and as i write this, I'm looking carefully at the clock, calculating how much longer I can continue writing before having to run off to CDN with my kit once more to finish the job I started yesterday. There goes the weekend! But let's forget that and remember that while everyone was having a good time last night, there are still Canadian troops including current and former members of the regiment, serving in a very dangerous place on the other side of the world. Stay low and keep safe folks!


Ubique!


Gary Menten
Photographer

Erin Go Bragh!

As I was walking beside Colonel de Kovachich while he was leading the 3BAM procession up towards St-Catherine's street, he asked me quite innocently if I had ever imagined when I joined the regiment back in 1982, if I would be one day marching here with him in a St-Patrick's Day parade. The answer was quite obviously, "No!" I'm sure that the thought had never occurred to him either back then. In all truth,  I'd thought my days of shooting photos of parades were over many years ago. I'd shot photos of just about every one in the first years that I was learning photography, eager as I was back then to shoot photos of just about anything, just for the practice. Those however who know my work, know full well that normally shoot photos of what can best be described as a "different nature," and usually under far more controlled, not to mention warmer, circumstances.

In any case, this was only the second time this weekend I was doing something I'd never thought I'd be doing. The first had been to repeat a photographic assignment my father had shot at the Cote des Neiges armoury some 46 years earlier.  (More on this one in a my next post) Back to the issue at hand: St-Patrick's Day. The turn-out was great, the weather damned cold, and the light way too harsh, too blue and too contrasty for my liking. Still struggling from the throat infection I'd caught the last time that CWO (ret) Aubé had offered me a parka and which I had stupidly declined, I graciously accepted the offer of one on this day and happily went about my photographic business, with my trademark once again making me stand out like a sore thumb.

3BAM had hoped to have both it's guns and four vehicles on the parade, but an unfortunate run of events limited us to just one tractor, one gun. I suppose there's always next year. But given how much the crowd seemed to appreciate and applaud 3BAM, it would have been just awesome to have had both guns and tractors in the parade. As mentioned, Colonel de Kovachich led the procession. LCol's (ret) Jaques Borne and Yvon Bégin were both also present, as was Capt (ret) Maurice Noreau, OCdt Monique Champagne, our Sunray, CWO (ret) Gilles Aubé, MWO (ret) Tom Savoie, WO's (ret) Gilles Pelletier, Michel Lepage, and Dominic Varvaro. Also present, Sgt Marc Castonguay, LSgt's Michel Lapointe, Bdr's Rocheleau and Coulombe and Gnr Castonguay, and at least two or three others who's names I still haven't learned because I'm quite frankly, a lousy reporter. 2Lt Francois Bélec and about two dozen members of cadet corps 2719 also participated, along with several family members of 3BAM personnel, mostly riding in the back of the gun tractor.

In addition to being cold, it was very windy and at times it was something of a challenge keeping my hat on my head, especially while operating a camera, though once we'd turned onto Ste-Catherine St, the situation improved as we came into shelter from the wind. I'm always surprised at how many spectators show up for this event, despite the cold. There were a lot of people, and as always where 3BAM there was a lot of applause for the old boys with the big gun.

LCol (ret) Bégin probably had the most fun as he got to be the one to stand in the cupola of the FAT and fire off salutes like a conquering hero, but hey! If they had offered me the chance to take his place, I would have jumped on it, though I would have looked a bit silly doing this with my fedora. Sillier still if the wind had blown it off my head while I was standing there. Nope! That's a job for a colonel or someone important, not a humble photographer and one-time sergeant.

In closing, I will say that I was quite impressed that so many not-very Irish gunners would choose to come freeze their buns off today marching in this parade rather than stay in the warmth and comfort of their homes. There are probably as many different answers as to why this as there were 3BAM members and cadets out parading today, but if you ask me, the answer is found in a single word on our badge. It is after all, our tradition in the artillery, to be "everywhere."

Ubique!

Gary Menten
Photographer

Progressive Discovery

When 3BAM deployed in the Old Port on the Labour Day Weekend, I noticed that many of the people walking around the gun platform were just as interested in the No.7 Director, the device we would today refer to as an "aiming circle," as they were in the 25-pdr gun. I actually set it up for 3BAM on the second day that I showed up to shoot photos, and discovered that it was quite a bit harder to level than a modern one, lacking the  the three leveling screws our modern instruments have. Leveling was done entirely through adjusting the legs. It's also graduated in degrees and minutes of angle, just like the No.7 Dial Sight, for those who were wondering.

Anyway, it generated a lot of interest, though people had no idea what it was for and would more often look into the lens rather than the eyepiece, then wonder why all they could see was a cam net and sky. Gilles and his crew were pretty busy just explaining the gun limber and gun tractor, It was time for me to set aside the photographer and slip into "old gunner" mode and help out.

So here I was, in my ubiquitous photographer's black civvies and grey fedora explaining to people what this curious device was and how it was used to orient a battery in what I insisted on calling the "center of arc." Well, that's what we call it today, but the concept didn't exist in the British or Canadian artillery in WWII. Guns weren't recorded on a grid bearing as they are today. They were recorded at "Zero" on a "Zero Line." Nor were the guns given bearings. Directional laying was given a "switch" from the zero line, and further bearing corrections were given as "more" or "less" so many degrees or minutes. There was more. Firing data was mainly generated in the observation post, not the CP in those days, and corrections were usually made on the Battery-Target line, not the Observer-Target line as they are today.

All this I discovered later through internet research well after I'd gone home for the day, having given folks explanations using terms that weren't used in 1943. In some ways it doesn't matter; a zero-line and a center of arc serve exactly the same purpose. What matters is that my interest was piqued and I embarked on a journey of discovery and re-discovery. As Will Durant observed, "Education is the progressive discovery of our ignorance, " and I had just become a little less ignorant. Next time my explanations will be more accurate.


Ubique!


Gary Menten
Photographer