Along For The Ride

Sometimes the best part of the mission isn't the "boom!" It usually is to the people who we are shooting for, and surely for our VIP gunner but when you fire so many salutes in a month, and June was very busy for us, not every mission can have the same impact on you. Friday, June 14, 3BAM fired a salute at a golf club in St-Colomban to mark the opening of an R22R Old Timers golf-tournament, and for me at least, it was a mission for which the comparatively long ride to get to the event was the most interesting part of the mission, not what we did when we got there.

From Left to right, Lcol Borne, Mgen Forand, Capt Noreau and MWO Savoie

I speak strictly for myself of course, and no-one else. Both Lcol Borne and Captain Noreau who were instrumental in arranging our presence at the event are themselves former Van Doos so they are naturally and understandably delighted to be doing this for their old regiment. There is nothing wrong with that of course. Old regimental affiliations die hard, if at all. I can't imagine that one ever stops being a Van Doo any more than one ever stops being a gunner, and one of my best friends from high school days, George Vladisavljevic spent 20 years in that very same regiment. Vive La Canadienne!

Eric Lapointe

But on with our story. Our first VIP gunner this day was Maj-Gen (ret) Alain Forand who not surprisingly a former Van Doo and the current Colonel of the regiment for the R22R, a post having a similar function to one of Honourary Colonel of our own regiment. Our second VIP gunner, was retired CFL running back Eric Lapointe, who played for a number of teams, including our own Alouettes before retiring in 2006.

Just like army days

Before firing, we were treated to a quick breakfast at the clubhouse, but it had to be a quick one as we had departed the armoury and arrived somewhat later than anticipated. Breakfast kind of reminded me of me of army days: it was late, served out of trays, and we didn't have very long to eat it! It was also damn nearly 12:00 when we finally got a chance to eat it, so it was breakfast in menu only. Again...sort of like old army days.

MWO (ret) Tom Savoie brings up a point at breakfast

The rides to and from St-Colomban took their time too as our 70-year old FAT wasn't exactly built for modern highway speeds. It was along the ride back, as we were nearing the barn that Gilles Aubé, after we'd been talking much of day, thanked me again for all the work I was doing to promote 3BAM told me that he was very happy to have me as a friend, and that was the best part of the day for me. Lasting camaraderie, the thing I miss most about my old days in the regiment, is far more important than the  flash and bang of a gun, which are done and over with in a fraction of a second.

The long rides, as it turns out, were for me the most interesting part of Sunday's mission. With Col Borne and Capt Noreau meeting us up at St-Colomban, and Tom Savoie and Gilles Pelletier riding up in the FAT, it gave me a fair amount of one-on-one time to chat with our Sunray, Gilles Aubé as we rode up together in his vehicle. He'd just earlier this week had a meeting with the regiment's new CO, Lcol Garon and the Colonel de Kovachich, our honourary colonel and I was dying to know how it went. Apparently, it went quite well, and what was related to me confirmed what I had already suspected, chiefly that Col Garon is taking a very keen interest in 3BAM including our appearance, and from what I can gather, plans to make the maximum use of 3BAM to promote the regiment and the corps. Just the sort of thing I wanted to hear! Ubique!

WO (ret) Gilles Pelletier, our driver and artificer.

It was also a good opportunity to bring up new ideas I had about increasing 3BAM's visibility as cheaply and effectively as possible, not to mention keep discussing a lot of older ideas not yet implemented for lack of time. One of the new points I brought up though, is that 3BAM needs more gunners, and by gunners, I mean new members. One of Colonel Garon's points was that he didn't much like seeing captain and colonel's serving as gun numbers when we shoot, which is unfortunately an expedient of necessity at times as no member is available 100% of the time. The truth is that  sometimes of late we've have more forage caps among the detachment than berets. One possible solution would be temporarily demote the captains and colonels by removing their caps and slip-ons if they have to fire the gun, but a better one in my opinion is to recruit more new members to serve as gun numbers.

WO (ret) Pelletier and Eric Lapointe

I will take a moment here to state that to join 3BAM, you don't need to have served in the artillery at all, nor even the Canadian Military. One our members, Lsgt Fredéric Lanoés, served in the French army. In fact you don't need to have served in the military at all. All you need to have is the right spirit, a commitment to honouring our veterans and promoting the traditions and history of the artillery, be willing to wear a uniform (which I got away without doing for about 8 months) and of course be willing to devote a certain amount of your time to what we do.

So I resolved on Sunday that soon, there would be a link on the blog to a permanent section on recruiting, and that reaching out to potential recruits would be a major objective of the blog and that I will have achieved my stated goals when Sunray starts getting phone calls or emails from people seeking information on how to join. I also resolved that there should and will be an introductory message from our Sunray greeting new visitors to this blog. Developing the idea a bit further, I also resolved later that night that I should find some way of asking both the commanding officer of the regiment, Lcol Garon and the honourary colonel, Colonel de Kovachich to also draft short welcoming messages to be permanently posted on this blog.  If you are reading this post good sirs, please start thinking about what to write!

All this exchange of information and ideas was possible largely because of the long ride, and having the chance to do so made the ride worthwhile. It reminded me very much of my days as TSM of 7th Bty when on return bus rides from Valcartier, I would often have an hour or more to discuss new ideas for training the battery with our BC, (then) Maj David Patterson. I really believed then as I do now that these relaxed and informal chats are very useful when it comes to setting goals and figuring out ways of achieving them. As we have a much longer drive to Mont Tremblant coming up next weekend, I may have to come up with a few more talking points!

Ubique!


Gary Menten
Photographer-Correspondent,
3BAM