Spring 2002 Shearwater Aviation Museum Foundation Newsletter Page
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Page 2 Shearwater Aviation Museum Foundation Newsletter This Issue... SHEARWATER DOOMED? 5 NOBLE TRADITIONS LEAD TO NOBLE DEEDS 6 825 Sqn - A REMARKABLE HISTORY 8 BARTLETT VERSUS SCHARNHORST 14 NUDIST COLONY 15 EASTERN AIR COMMAND (con’t) 16 SILVER SHACKLES 22 NAVAL AIR LIVES? A DEBATE 28 WINE, CHEESE, BREW AND KULTURE 29 ANCHORMEN, FIRST NAVAL PILOT 30 FLYING WITH “THE BOSS”-FALL CRUISE 1969 34 THE TRAGEDY OF SUCCESS 37 SKELETON IN FAMILY CLOSET 42 THE LAST WORD 43 And other stuff we had room for.... Submissions PLEASE NOTE To facilitate a good product, the staff would like to pass on the following When sending mail of any kind, newsletter articles, letters to the editor, membership info: renewals, donations etc please ensure the Text submissions can be either envelope is addressed correctly to the: paper, email or electronically produced, Word or Wordperfect. We will format the Shearwater Aviation Museum Foundation or text for you. SAM Foundation Graphics are best submitted as an original photo (not a fax). If submitted Deadlines for receiving submissions: electronically, they should be 300 dpi Summer 27 June Winter 4 Oct and a .tif file. A .jpg file at 300 dpi is Spring 7 March acceptable if no compression is used. However, we will attempt to use any Some Donations are being sent directly to the pictures, whatever the format, that you Museum and therefore may be deposited to may desire to send to us. the Museum account and not credited to your If anybody requires a hand or membership in the Foundation and there-fore additional clarification please feel free to no receipt will be sent. email Bob at [email protected]. Newsletter Staff Following these guidelines will allow us to produce clearer newsletters in Cover Editor Bill Farrell a timely fashion. Thanks in advance. Flashback to the days when Canada could Secretary Kay Collacutt back its foreign policy with more than empty Design Layout Bob Grundy Bob Grundy rhetoric. The Shearwater Aviation Museum Foundation (SAMF) Newsletter is published three times yearly. Cheques made payable to the “Shearwater Aviation Museum Foundation” or “SAMF” should be mailed to PO Box 5000, Station Main, Shearwater, NS B0J 3A0. Portions of this newsletter may be reprinted without prior permission provided full credit is given to both the author(s) and the Shearwater Aviation Museum Foundation Newsletter. In accordance with his mandate, the Editor of the SAMF Newsletter reserves the right to edit, condense or reject copy to suit the requirements of the Newsletter. Any opinions expressed are deemed to be those of the author(s), and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Shearwater Aviation Museum Foundation, its members, and/or the Shearwater Aviation Museum. Spring 2002 Shearwater Aviation Museum Foundation Newsletter Page A wise nation preserves its records, gathers up its muniments, decorates the tombs of its illustrious dead, repairs its great public structures, and fosters na- tional pride and love of country by perpetual references to the sacrifices and glories of the past. -Joseph Howe, 31 August 1871 EDITOR’S GRUNTS We will celebrate also the exploits of Canadians in naval aviation from its inception in 1914 when so many CYBERNOTE Canadians served with distinction in the from Ted Kieser R.N.A.S. on the Western Front, at Gallipoli and elsewhere. This is just a note to all of you While this issue will be oriented who no longer shave with a straight razor largely to naval aviation history it should and who have ventured into the realm not be regarded as a valedictory – there of the computer! For information, the are some of us who are promoting naval Shearwater Aviation Museum has NEW aviation’s rebirth; a naval pundit’s view of web site at: what could be is here too. www.shearwateraviationmuseum.com Our Foundation’s mandate is Whilst currently ‘under renovation’ there to preserve Maritime Military Aviation is a lot of good information on this site, heritage, not just the Navy part of the and, thanks to the museum’s Christine mandate, will be recognized with due Dunphy, new stuff is being added all the attention to the R.C.A.F. in future issues. time. Christine is always happy to receive This newsletter must remain suggestions to improve this fine web site. apolitical in the sense that it must not be Additionally, you are all encouraged to he aim of this newsletter politically partisan but that does not mean send her your email address and other comes under review each that the publishing of controversial views information so she may enter or update time we begin selecting content. T is proscribed. Indeed we have a duty the ‘Email Directory’ on the site. This If the aim appears to shift slightly it is as retired warriors to speak our minds is a great opportunity for people to find because we address new circumstances about national defence strategies and the old friends. For those of you who have and see new fields to explore. There will organization of the armed forces: Which already registered, drop in and check be new, non-member, recipients (possibly category of citizen is better qualified to that the information is up-to-date. And, even readers) of this production. Some of speak on these matters of the greatest are you subscribed to ‘NAVAIRGEN’?. If these will be unacquainted with Naval and national importance, professional not, go to the museum web site and click Air Force history and jargon. There will warriors like us or lay persons like ‘Naval Air Net’, then select ‘NAVAIRGEN’ be footnotes and explanations of matters professional politicians or media pundits? and follow the instructions to subscribe. esoteric to the non-cognoscenti (a polite You will find herein a lengthy but The Navairgen network was euphemism for the ignorant). This is not succinct article by Stu Soward. In case established to facilitate communication a dumbing-down but rather a necessary you wonder why Naval Aviation which among former naval air personnel but it and urgent reaching-out – a reaching- was such a vital part of national defence, is not necessarily limited solely to that out to a wider audience of potential new got scuppered. Time spent reading Stu’s group. Any former maritime aviation members to be replacements for us, the chronology will both answer the question personnel or people with an interest dwindling old guard. and leave you disturbed and indignant. in maritime aviation are welcome. It We have selected for this issue articles Lastly, we enjoin you to read and was developed to provide a method of that celebrate the great days of Canadian enjoy and to tell us by email or snail mail exchanging relevant information to a Naval Aviation and the nostalgia of what we are missing and what bores you. large group at once, thus obviating the members who remember fondly those Bill Farrell necessity of sending individual messages. exciting and also halcyon days (Foxtrot at The net also serves as an excellent the dip). vehicle for exchanging information about “For The Cognoscenti” You will find herein archane Naval jargon things computing, email and other Internet these words allude to ribald, lewd old sea educational features. chanties too gross to grace the pages of Check out the Shearwater this erudite and proper newsletter - old Aviation Museum home page. Sign up or sailors will know the missing words. e.g. The update your information on the site today! alphabetical signal flag “F” (foxtrot) was hoisted by a carrier preparing to launch or recover aircraft. Spring 2002 Page 4 Shearwater Aviation Museum Foundation Newsletter ahead of forecast and expenses were on From the Curator’s Desk budget, so we seem to have a fairly good by Chuck Coffen handle on our annual cash flow. So far our corporate fund-raising efforts have been very disappointing. Except for some he year 2002 started off on a very advertising space in the Newsletter, we positive note as Ms. Christine have received support from only three THines joined the Museum team as corporations. Some others that have been Curator of Collections. Christine hails contacted are reviewing our requests and from New Brunswick and brings excellent others will be contacted soon. As a result qualifications to her new post. In addition we are asking you, the SAMF members to to a BA, History major from St.F.X, she search your souls and wallets. We have is a graduate of the three year Museum sent out individual requests and I hope Studies program at Algonquin College in that many of you will respond favourably. Ottawa and has five years ex-perience as The planning for an atrium addition has Collections Manager at the Base Borden been launched. We will be working closely Military Museum. with SAM to fund most of this project. February being Black History Month, on Based on our financial experience of the th last couple of years, we believe we can February 27 a new exhibit honouring the afford this undertaking. It is important that contribution of Black Canadians in Military we be very conserv-ative in our financial Service to their country was unveiled at assumptions however, since receipts a public showing. The event, organized President’s Report from some of our projects like the Wall by our General Manager, Barb Hicks, of Honour will decline over time. Since was an enormous success. The highlight n the second of February at the the future of Shearwater and the Air had to be a brilliant vocal rendition of Wine, Cheese and Art evening, I Show are in doubt, we can not depend “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” by Oonce again had the privilege on strong funding from the Air Show golf young Tyaila Cain-Grant.