Joignez-vous a la 3e Batterie de campagne Montréal

Par l'Adjuc (ret) Gilles Aubé et le Sgt (ret) Gary Menten

Il y’a un vieux dicton dans l'artillerie ; “Une fois un artilleur, toujours un artilleur."
La 3e Batterie de campagne Montréal ( BAM) est la preuve vivante de la véracité de cette déclaration. Fondée il y’a plusieurs années par l'adjudant-chef à la retraite Gilles Aubé, un ancien SMR du 2e Régiment d’artillerie de campagne (2ARC) et prenant son nom d’après un des anciens noms de la milice à Montréal. La 3BAM est un organisme sans but lucratif, voué à honorer les anciens combattants militaires, le maintien et l'enseignement de l’histoire, des traditions de l'Artillerie royale canadienne et le soutien des corps de cadets.

3BAM entretient et opère deux anciens canons de 25 livres et deux camions de modèle militaire canadien Chevrolet (CMP ) de la Deuxième Guerre mondiale. Bien qu'une grande partie des membres se compose d'anciens artilleurs, notamment du 2ARC.  Il n’est pas obligatoire d’avoir servi dans l'artillerie pour en faire partie. Deux membres sont d'anciens officiers du R22eR . Un autre est un vétéran de l'Artillerie française. Quelques-uns n'ont pas de service militaire préalable, mais par contre un lien personnel ou familial proche d'un autre membre de la 3BAM et ils ont rejoint leurs rangs. L'adhésion est ouverte à toutes les personnes de bon esprit prêts à porter l'uniforme et à maintenir la tradition. 

Le 7 novembre, la 3BAM a contribué à un événement de la Compagnie Canada (CC). La CC est une œuvre de bienfaisance enregistrée ayant comme but de tisser des liens entre les dirigeants militaires et ceux du monde des affaires. Leur but est de s’assurer que les hommes et les femmes en uniformes militaires et leurs familles reçoivent le plus grand appui possible, dont la reconnaissance et les soins qu'ils méritent.  En vendant le droit de tirer le canon, elle a permis d'amasser des fonds pour cette cause.  Un total de six coups ont été tirés avec grand enthousiasme par les artilleurs honoraires. L'invité d'honneur pour l’événement était le Bgén Jean-Marc Lanthier, commandant de la 2e Division du Canada.

Mais la 3BAM est très demandée durant le weekend du jour du Souvenir et a été appelée à tirer, le samedi 9 novembre des saluts à Terrebonne et Ste-Thérèse, dimanche le 10 à Montréal-Est, à Mascouche, et puis avec le 2ARC à l'Université McGill lundi le 11. C'est beaucoup de travail pour un petit groupe de volontaires, mais la devise de l’artillerie est " UBIQUE" qui signifie "partout" et la 3BAM et ce petit groupe de bénévoles bien motivés fait toujours de son mieux pour justifier cette devise. Ayant de plus en plus de demandes pour la participation de la 3BAM aux événements militaires et communautaires, la 3BAM est toujours à la recherche de nouveaux membres et toutes personnes intéressées à se joindre peuvent contacter adjudant-chef Aubé directement au: (514) 249-6164 ou à: adjucgaube@hotmail.com.




L'article ci-haut fut publié dans "Servir" au mois de décembre.





Ubique!

St-Barbara's Dinner with General Roméo Dallaire at The Atwater Club.

General Dallaire poses with the colonels.

The 2nd Field Regiment, RCA held it's annual St-Barbara's mess dinner this past Dec 7. The event was heavily attended by the entire gunner community in Quebec, with delegations from 5RALC, 6RAC, 62RAC plus a solid contingent from 3BAM. The guest of honour was also an old gunner and true Canadian hero, Senator and retired Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire, who I will simply refer to as General Dallaire hereafter.

General Dallaire addresses the guests.

Now there were a lot of other Canadian heroes in the room; men and women wearing Afghanistan or UN service medals and I don't want to slight any of them by suggesting that General Dallaire was the only hero present. The fact is you couldn't throw a stone in this room without hitting one, but General Dallaire is without cavil, the best known among them, and rightly so.

In 1994, he was the UN's top man in Rwanda, a country on the verge of sliding into genocide. Knowing what was about to happen, he made plans to seize the weapons cache's of the Hutu militias that were about to carry out this crime against humanity. He was ready to act, but when he informed his superiors in New York of his plans, a bunch of clowns who couldn't tie their own shoe laces, much less find their asses with both hands decided that disarming the militias just wasn't part of the UN mandate and they tied his hands. 800,000 (possibly more) people died for this bit of stupidity and UN inaction.  General Dallaire himself paid a heavy personal price for having been forced to stand by while the slaughter took place.  Though his forces were still able to protect and save 30,000 plus lives in Kigali, both the UN and the world failed Rwanda in the implementation of what should have been the UN's most important mission. 

Col Tom Stafford, General Dallaire, and my first CO, Lcol Steve Goldberg

General Dallaire and Lsgt Gallant of 3BAM

But enough of politics. General Dallaire as an old gunner and former CO of 5RALC is well-known to many in the 2nd Field Regiment who are old enough to have served in those days. Being on private commission for the occasion I was instructed to stick close to the general and photography pretty much everyone he shook hands with. There were a lot of old acquaintances--I was surprised by how many--and many whispered something in my ear as I was shooting. "I knew him back in (insert time and place here) when I was just a (insert rank here) and he was (insert position here). Make sure you get a photo of us together." Surely the best photo I got that evening was of a moment shared by General Dallaire with former 2RCA commander, Colonel (Ret) Tom Stafford, who as always it seems, was the most animated guest at the event.

Lcol Garon and General Dallaire at dinner.

Another 2RCA alumnus who had path had previously crossed General Dallaire's back in his 5RALC days was William Gallant, now a member of 3BAM. Will waited patiently by my side as a snapped photo after photo of the general greeting senior officers and captains of industry, but jumped in to introduce himself and shake hands with the general as soon as the opportunity presented itself.  I shot so many photos of General Dallaire greeting so many people in fact, that it's difficult to decide which ones to include in this post and which ones not to, not wishing to offend anyone of course, for not including their photo. But I guess that's what the regiment's FB page is for!

As I pointed out earlier, there was a significant 3BAM presence among the guests, including our Sunray, retired CWO Gilles Aubé, Lcols (Ret) Yvon Bégin and Jaques Borne, MWO (Ret) Tom Savoie, WO's (ret)  Michel Lepage and Gilles Pelletier, and Lsgt Will Gallant. I myself was present of course, but was private working for the regiment's honourary colonel rather than shooting for 3BAM.

Always the tallest guy in the picture, Colonel Dave Patterson.

It was a great opportunity to see many old faces, including my first CO, Lcol (ret) Steve Goldberg, who commanded the regiment when I joined in 1982.  I have not seen him in perhaps 20 years. The district commander at that time was Col (Ret) Tom Stafford, Col (H) de Kovachich was regimental adjudant at the time. Col Dave Patterson, also present, was a lieutenant then, a Col Pronkin was then a major and my BC in 7th Bty. All were present for the event. Colonel Patterson was another popular guest that evening and was kind enough to pose for photos with a good many different people. He's so damned tall however, that it's often a challenge pose him with other individuals.

Well, that about wraps it up. The evening was a smashing success with about 180 guests, all it seems having a good time. I was fun to be there, even though event photography is not and never will be my personal cup of tea. It was an honour to be asked to shoot the event, and a greater one still to be introduced to and shake hands with General Dallaire.

Ubique!


Gary Menten
Photographer and,
Blogmeister, 3BAM, etc, etc.