In For The Long Haul

Group photo of all the participants at the end of the 2nd day.

Bogart the Cat

I have to admit that I approached the mission to Fort Ingall with mixed feelings. On the one hand, we were trying many new things for the first time, and a number of these were quite dear to me. I wanted to see how well 3BAM could carry it off. On the other hand, Fort Ingall is in Cabano, Qc, pretty damned close to the New Brunswick border and a hell of a long drive from Montreal. I knew it would not be an easy mission and it would take me away from Bogart, my attention-craving kitty  for much longer than he or I would like. Bogart does not like to be far from me, and even as I write this, he is curled up on the chair beside my own, never wanting to be too far from Poppa. He does not like to be left alone all day, and even though I had someone look in on him a couple of times every day, he was very happy to see me get home.

Lunch on Friday

I digress. I knew it would be a demanding mission, but I also knew it would take as many people out there as possible. Sunray couldn't be there in person because he was marrying off his youngest daughter, and so WO (ret) Gilles Pelletier was in charge. That was an enlightened choice. Gilles put in a huge amount of personal effort, while at the same time letting everyone else do what they do best. I gotta say that stress levels were pretty damned low the whole damned weekend. This helped make up for the long ride there and back, the massive amount of work and the bloody hot weather, to boot. Our biggest enemy was flies, who though absent on the first day, came out in force and were omnipresent on the second.

Oh! and there were no damned ice cubes to be found anywhere in the fort for my (after hours) Crown

Sign at the Motel Jasper.

Royal on the rocks which along with having to share an 1830's style barracks room with several loudly snoring participants the first night, the lack of sleep we incurred because of this, and the gallons of sweat we put out because of the late summer heat, was enough to convince Lcol (ret) Bégin and myself to sally forth and find air-conditioned motel rooms with showers at the end of the first day. We were lucky and found reasonably priced rooms in highway motel 15 minutes from the fort. We were worried we might have to drive all the way to Riviere du Loup, but fortunately, finding a place so close to Cabano, allowed us to join the others who were either staying in the fort or had found hotel rooms in Cabano for supper at a pub by the waterfront in Cabano. I'm glad we did because we had a really good time there.

Denis Dumas and Monique Champagne share a laugh.  

The post commander questions his men.

But on with the mission! I have to say that from my perspective, everything went really well. Everyone present put in a great deal of effort and everything new that we tried out for the first time; bringing a decomissioned Lee-Enfield rifle, a little sound system to sync with my iPhone to play military an period music, soliciting donations in return for firing the gun, having field telephones to play with...all turned out to be good ideas which I believe we will expand upon in future missions of this nature. Spirits were high the whole weekend and there were no mishaps whatsoever that I witnessed. Also...I know where to rent a hotel room if I return next summer. Plus, I think we made a few new friends along the way.

Vintage Tannoy mike and switchboard.

What more could I have wished for? Well, more spectators for one thing. That was the one downer of the whole mission; we were promised a lot of spectators and there just weren't an awful lot on either day, though more than on Saturday then on the Friday. Still, given how long a trip we made to get there, it was pretty disappointing to see so few people turn out for the performance. It's also the second long trip we've made this summer for a demonstration with not a lot of spectators. The other was the trip to Levis-Lauzon. So while I think everyone did an excellent job, I'd have serious reservations about returning next year if asked. That decision--whether 3BAM returns or not-- is not mine to make however. Sunray will decide this, and while I speak only for myself and no other member, it will take a lot of convincing to persuade me to return should the invitation come up again.

Perhaps I should close on a more positive note, remarking that despite the generally disappointing turnout, we did make some new contacts and I hope some new friends among the participants. 3BAM member Tom Savoie is in fact an Acadian himself and met among the participants, in this case, the Micmacs, people who were acquainted with his relatives. (I'd have to go all the way to Belgium for that...) That has to be fun. Lcol Bégin, being a very sociable guy who likes to talk to just about anybody, spent the better part of both days touring the other camps and chatting with members of the various other groups participating. I didn't get to spend quite a lot of time talking to others, except perhaps when I was

Tom Savoie dusts off the post commander's tunic after he fired a shot.

giving explanations of our equipment or artillery methods, but towards the end, just as we were getting to leave, one of the fellows from the Régiment de Languedoc commented to me on how well-organized we appeared to be. This was a real compliment as far as I was concerned, and one I had to pass on to Sunray when I got home. We don't come at all close to the reenactment groups when it comes to the historical accuracy of our personal kit and much of our equipment. This is understandable because we aren't really reenactors ourselves. Still, having a degree in history, I wish we could come closer to their standards. But where we excel, being mostly ex military, is organization. have to say from my own observations of the weekend that I thought pretty much everyone went right about their jobs without having to be told what to do and that is another thing I will be passing on to Sunray.

A few other things that need to be commented on before I end this post. Where on most long events, our numbers tend to decline after the first day as we all have personal lives and can't always give up entire weekends, during this event, not only did no-one have to leave before it was over, but we were

Tom Savoie shares a word with Michel Grenier.

actually reinforced on the second day when Lcol Borne, Ocdt Robert Ouellet, Sgt Marc Castonguay and his son Bdr Francis Castonguay were present along with Michel Grenier, a new member, dressed for this occasion in an RCAF uniform, having as of yet no other.  Marc Castonguay, full of energy and laughs jumped into the spirit of things immediately, often donning a helmet and picking up the Lee Enfield to carry out what he called "patrols" but were in fact charm offensives designed to bring young ladies onto our position. He and Lsgt Denis Dumas both spent a bit of time doing sentry duty by the fort gate, on their own initiative, beside the fort's own guard. Now that was cool! We also had a lot of fun playing with the field phones, pretending to order (or be trying to order) pizza or Chinese take-out. A favorite line of mine when answering was "Non Madame, ce n'est pas la Boucherie Sanzot." You might have to be a "Tintin" fan to get that joke however.

Marc "Casanova" Castonguay was a hit with the ladies.

What could we have done better? There were probably a few things like not waiting until it started to rain to set up the awning beside the FAT which was supposed to have been set up for shelter from both the SUN and rain right from the start and the trip up, and the fact that we traveled in separate groups at separate times illustrated the need for better communications between the group. Usually this isn't a problem because Sunray is more often present then not and he has everyone's phone number, but he wasn't present and this led to some anxious moments for Col Bégin and I on the trip up as we tried to contact someone to make sure we could get into the fort at our 01:30 ETA.

I also don't see the point of members being told to wear their medals (as opposed to their service ribbons) on any occasion where we set up a camouflage net and the sort of gear that would only be used in the field. It not only looks silly, it's a good way to soil or even ruin your medals. Sunray is fond of saying that 3BAM is 100% ceremonial and that's why, but in my opinion, that's simply asurd. If it were true, we should have been there with swords and white belts instead of cam nets, field phones and artillery table. 3BAM is 100% about performances and entertaining the crowd with cannon shot. Sometimes the context is ceremonial. At other it's more historical, and at others still, such as when we fire the starting gun for some race or other, it can't really be said to be either. Macbeth and Hamlet are both excellent plays but it's madness to recite lines from one when performing the other.  These are things that warrant more discussion within 3BAM.

Ubique! 

Gary Menten,
Photogapher and Blogmaster-General
Once a sergeant....