Always On Hand

A Tale Of Two Salutes

One thing about 3BAM's Sunray, retired CWO Gilles Aubé is that he that he takes 3BAM's motto "Always On Hand" very seriously and makes sure we live up to it. On June 1st, while smart people our age were staying in the comfort of someplace with working air conditioning or perhaps sipping pina colada's and margaritas by the swimming pool, we took it upon ourselves to dress as if we were chasing after Rommel in the desert and fire salutes at both Longue Pointe and the Old Port. Gilles had really hoped to have two detachments available because Longue Pointe had wanted us to shoot in both the morning and afternoon, but unfortunately, on this occasion we could only muster enough personnel for one detachment (plus me). 

Col de Kovachich on the bateau-mouch

Present were Lcol's Jaques Borne and Yvon Bégin, Capt Richard Ayoub, Ocdt Robert Ouellette, CWO Aubé, WO Gilles Pelletier, myself and Bdr Sylvain Bouchard and his son. The regiment's honourary colonel, Charles de Kovachich was also involved somewhat in the day's second shoot in

Up-amoured Leopard 1 tank

the Old Port, where he served as our liaison to the navy and got to ride on a boat, while the rest of us had to watch from the shore. To be fair however, he was much more uncomfortably dressed than we were. But I'm getting ahead of myself here. back to CDN for a minute where the day started with Gille's Nissan Quest suffering a mechanical breakdown in the parking lot right after he arrived at the Armoury. That's the day starting off in a familiar army way; with a problem. Luckily now, there weren't too many of us needing to get to Longue Pointe. Sunray and I clambered into Gilles Pelletier's vehicle while the rest of the detachment met us at the base, where our FAT and gun had spent the night since 3BAM had fired a salute there on Friday as well. I couldn't show up for that one as I still have REAL job on weekdays. Anyway, things at Longue Pointe went pretty well, though the organizers printed some signs for us to hang up identifying us as the 3rd Field Artillery REGIMENT.

Our gunner of the event was a young female lieutenant with a logistics cap badge, who seemed to take enormous pleasure at being chosen to fire the gun. Let's face it, it's not often these rear echelon types get to fire a howitzer, even one loaded with a blank shot. The smile on her face in this photo and the others tells the story. She really enjoyed it. As much as we were a hit with the audience, my smart new khaki drill bush jacket was a big hit of the day with 3BAM members; at least the ones wearing pips and / or crowns on their shoulders. It's only the second time I show up for an event in uniform and for some it was the first time seeing me decked out in my new kit. It sure as hell looks better than the Aertex desert shirts the rest of the outfit wears, though obviously not as well ventilated. Notwithstanding, these were worn all over Africa, India and Burma, so they are well suited to the heat. Much as I'd predicted in the previous post, now that they've seen mine, others want one.

Salute at Longue Pointe

Our second shoot of the day was in the Old Port where we fired in support of a ceremony commemorating the sacrifices made by the Royal Canadian Navy and Merchant Marine in the Battle Of The Atlantic.  I can't overstate the importance of what these brave fellows accomplished. Had we lost this desperate fight, and we very nearly did, the Allies would have also lost the war. It's that simple. The world would be a very different place.

We arrived in the Old Port and set up with plenty of time to spare, our lunches having been made and packed my Mrs Aubé. We actually had quite a bit of time in the Old Port waiting to fire the salute, which was at 14.00 hrs. In the meantime we strolled about a bit in our desert uniforms, as though we were on leave in Cairo in WWII, and needed to find a hotel to have a drink in. Surprisingly, not a lot of people came to ask us questions or pose with the gun or truck during that time, though once things got under way and it was evident we were going to shoot, they started popping up coming dangerously close to the gun with their ears unprotected as we were about to shoot. It's a public place, so you can't avoid this, but we didn't have enough people present to be as effective at security as we usually are. Ocdt Robert Ouellette was #3 on this salute, firing his first shots as a member of 3BAM.

Salute by water's edge

At 13.45 the bateau-mouche being used for the ceremony maneouvered  into position nearby and a ceremony was held with speeches, a prayer and three rifle volleys from a firing party assembled on deck. The Last Post was played, and as soon as the last note played, we fired our two shots at a two minute interval after which the detachment formed up by the railing at water's edge and saluted once more.

 

A Tale Of Two Breakdowns
 

And with that, the ceremony was over and we packed up and left, with the members who came in their own cars heading for home while Gilles Pelletier drove the FAT back to the barn with me riding shotgun and Gilles Aubé taking up the rear in Pelletier's truck. But if the day began with a breakdown, it also ended with one as the 70-year old FAT broke a fan belt as we were driving along the Decarie Autoroute. This was really beginning to feel more and more like a real army weekend. Gilles Pelletier however had everything on hand in the truck to replace it, which took us about an hour or so, an it was in the process of doing so that a passerby stopped his car and came out to see what was happening. I didn't recognize him at first; it's been decades since I'd seen  him but it was Maj (ret) Marty O'Hara, late of the 2nd Field Regiment, and was DCO when I joined back in 1982. We chatted for a bit as Gilles Pelletier worked diligently on fixing our truck, and then good major went off on his way, and eventually, so did we, tired sweaty and with another two salutes to fire the next day. At least it didn't rain.

Ubique!


Gary Menten
Photographer-Correspondent
3BAM