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15 years ago today........

15 years ago today I was co-driving the last load of CF equipment from Akwesasne to CFB London following the closeout of Op FEATHER/AKWESASNE.

We had left Cornwall early that morning, in freezing rain, not knowing what was going on outside the cab of our 5/4 ton truck.  Just outside of Milton we stopped at a truck stop for a coffee and a pee.  An old man came up and started yelling at us for the illegal war we were in.  We told him we weren't in any war and we drove off.

When we arrived at Wolseley Barracks it was hard to find anyone.  We went by the CQ's lines and I found the CQMS of Charles Coy, an old friend, furiously packing "for an op", I was told.  I also found out that he was to get the contents of our truck the next morning.  So we left it with him (Locked of course... Old friend or not, he's still a shady Infantry CQ after all), got our room keys then went to the mess.

In the Sgts Mess we found the majority of the battalion's WOs and Sgts crowded around a TV set watching the war unfold on CNN.  They quickly brought us up to speed on what we'd missed by being trapped in an SMP truck with no radio.
 
Watching it in the Nuke bunker in Borden.

It was only Barracks avaialbe that weekend for ISCC....I was in my underwear prepping a lecture with the rest of the gang with the TV on and cheering...

Then it was off to bed to make sure things were ready for inspection....


 
Hey Toad!
    Well there we were all set up in an overwatch posn above the Pat Bay highway in our TOW carrier (55E IIRC) on a Pl level ex.  We had permission to use private land and we were set up on a farm property just outside of Sydney.  We were doing veh patrols and area security low lvl type stuff.  We return to our posn and the property owner comes over and informs us that it's started.  I can only imagine what the locals thought when we were driving around that night as they were watching it on the news and the M113's were burning around their sleepy little neighbourhood.  Later that night the old farmer set up a TV in his barn and we supplied the refreshments.  From out of the hay-loft he produces an old bar that had once been in his rec-room and boom there we were...  Propped up on the bar, Having a cold one watching the world explode on CNN, critiquing the AAA and cheering the hits.
:salute:

As for the derailment issues....

I vaguely remember watching helos being pushed into the sea on the news.

I do remember the failed mission in Iran from the news as well and I was in high school itchin to join-up during the Falklands campaign.


 
"critiquing the AAA and cheering the hits."

- You were cheering the AAA hits?

;D

Tom
 
15 years ago... in the 5 Sqn common room at CMR, watching a snowy TV tuned to CBC news, and wondering if that meant I was going to go right to war after graduation.

I remember a lot of heated discussion with my friends over just how long it would take. Much emphasis being placed on the sheer size of the Iraqi army, and the fact they were equipped with nearly-modern Soviet equipment. None of us ever expected the answer to be "three days".

We had a similar poor record with the consequences of the fall of the Berlin Wall. I remember a heated argument between Kurt Hoppe and Kevin Luke, with Kevin arguing vehemanetly that the Soviets would never allow reunificatiuon to happen, and that invasion of West Germany was imminant right after the wall came down. Wrong!

Now the funny CMR story is about the Vandoo Major, tasked with seeing to the defense of the college grounds, whose plan included 50 cal HMGs on the roof of the Vanier building (for AA fire) and a dug-in emplacement at the marina on the Richelieu (we will fight them on the beaches...) and armed groups of OCdts patrolling the perimeter 24 hours a day.

As I recall, the commiissionaires started checking ID cards. :D

DG

 
Upon re-reading the post I realized that I should have clarified my statement.  We were critiquing the AAA and cheering the smart bomb hits we saw through the night vision camera shots.  By critiquing the AAA I mean to say we laughed uproarsly when we saw the tracers swaying back and forth in the air in random patterns.
;D
 
Like at least one other member in here, I was in Lahr and went to the Gutenburg school at 4 am for about three weeks with a couple of other guys and checked out the outside of the school, checked out cars parked in front, sent two guys into the school to look for anything suspicous and then deploy across the street, behind the school, and by the entrance and waitrd for the kiddies to arrive. One soldier in the bus would come out first, look around, get the nod and rush the kids inside. We stayed outside and watched out for them when they came out for recess. It was a tasking I felt was important and worthwhile, after all, Sadam had threatened to harm us, and these were Canadian kids. 
 
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