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| In Waterloo Qc, two of the "usual suspects" are joined by CWACS Louise Chapdelaine and Josée Daigle |
Rounding Up The Usual Suspects
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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:
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| 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.
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| Da Boss! |
Recruiting Round-Up.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Mbdr Dumas serving as part of the detachment in Waterloo. Lsgt Rocheleau is #3 and Lsgt Gervais-Hotte is #2. |
Restaurant Round-Up
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| 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.
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| Dining Room at Tremblant B&B. |
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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.
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| 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
