The Bosn’s Call Volume 24, No. 3, Autumn 2017 PEACEKEEPERS PARADE Pictured above is the Colour Party from the Calgary Naval Veterans Association at the Peace- keepers’ Parade held on Sunday, August 13th. Left to Right ~ Cal Annis, Bill Bethell, Art Jor- genson and Master-at-Arms Eric Kahler. Calgary Naval Veterans Association • www.cnva.ca CALGARY NAVAL VETERANS ASSOCIATION Skipper’s www.cnva.ca Autumn 2017 | Corvette Club: 2402 - 2A Street SE, Calgary, AB T2G 4Z2 Log [email protected] ~ 403-261-0530 ~ Fax 403-261-0540 n EXECUTIVE Paris Sahlen, CNVA President F PAST PRESIDENT • Art JORGENSON – 403-281-2468, [email protected] – Charities, Communication. The Bosn’s Call The Bosn’s hope everyone has had a nice warm summer F PRESIDENT • Paris SAHLEN, CD – 403-252-4532, RCNA, HMCS Calgary Liaison, Charities, Stampede. with a little smoke thrown in. Here is an update F EXECUTIVE VICE-PRESIDENT • Ken MADRICK Charities, Honours on the different activities the Club has been do- & Awards, Financial Statements, Galley Vice-Admiral. I ing this year so far. F VICE-PRESIDENT • Tom CONRICK • Sick & Visiting, Colonel Belcher, Charities, Honours & Awards. We still have Remembrance Day, our trip to Banff and our New Year’s Levee. The Club will F TREASURER • Anita VON – 403-240-1967. be closed December 23rd. One other thing—it F SECRETARY • Laura WEAVER. would be nice if we asked our Red Seal chefs if n DIRECTORS there is anything they need help with before leav- F Cal ANNIS – 403-938-0955 • Honours & Awards, Galley Till. ing the Club. F Tom SHIRLAW, CD – 403-569-2474 • Special Events, Ticket Sales, Galley Assistant. F Jim GOLBOURN, CD – 403-281-4653 • Banff Trip, Membership, UPDATE: Grant applications accepted: Horizons F Eric KAHLER, CD – Master-at-Arms, Financial Statements, grant for $25,000 to purchase new chairs and ta- Museum. bles, audio-visual equipment for our club room. F Chuck VON – 403-240-1967 • Assistant Secretary, Entertainment, The speaker series is part of the grant. Banff Trip, Ticket Sales. F Terry KENT – Galley Till. DECLINED: The right to grant income tax re- F Bill BETHELL – 403-276-4252 • Casino/Bingo. ceipts to any person or company that donates F Ken MADRICK – 403-601-1715 • Ass’t Bar Manager / Honours & Awards. goods or services to the Club. Ir was denied on F Al HUDAK – Bingo. the grounds that we are a social club F Lorne BAIRD, CD – 403-240-1967 • Cadet Liaison. We continue to support our Club by working n APPOINTMENTS Casinos and Bingos. We are fortunate to have the F Rev. Lloyd NORTHCOTT, CD – 403-283-8455 • Padre. volunteers to do this. The funds from this allow F Lorne BAIRD, CD – 403-512-5838 • Editor, Bosn’s Call. us to support our Cadet Corps as well as HMCS F Dave MADRICK – Galley Admiral, Inventory. Calgary’s benevolent fund. We contribute to six F • Phoning Committee – 403-226-0502. John NORTH or seven charities as well as fund seven or eight Updated 7 January 2017 scholarships annually. The Bosn’s Call is published by the Calgary Naval Veterans Association. Items may be reprinted without permission but kindly give credit to the author and/or The Bosn’s Call. Contributions are always welcome and should be sent direct to the Editor, Lorne Baird c/o SOCIAL COMMITTEE: the address at the top of this column, or by email to [email protected]. The Editor is solely responsible for the content of The Bosn’s Call. New Year’s Levee Sweetheart’s Day Creative services and layout provided by Stampede Breakfast ® Cascade Creek Publishing Nanton Air Museum Trip LCdr (Ret’d) George A. Moore, President Mess Dinner 1871 Primrose Crescent, Kamloops, BC V1S 0A5 Telephone 250-314-1284 • [email protected] Continued on page 4 2 The Bosn’s Call | Autumn 2017 3 Continued from page 3 out of a still in an abandoned mine shaft. It was the year that the Russians launched “Sputnik.” Halloween Spooktacular Event The decision was made to name the moonshine Autumn 2017 Banff Spring Bus Trip “Sputnik” thereby merely selling rocket fuel. | While at the Kaslo Legion, I met the daughter of Through it all, Ken Madrick and his galley crew my Dad’s old partner. The last time I saw her was have ensured that the CNVA is truly the envy of 60 years ago! the Calgary naval community. Part of my summer was spent at the annual The Bosn’s Call The Bosn’s Our Colour Party (see cover) under the guidance Naval reunion at Dee Lake. Each year it gets a of Eric Kahler, participates in the Sunrise Ceremo- little bigger, much like the tales that accompany nies at the Field of Crosses. They also participate it. Some, because of failing health, were unable in the annual Peacekeepers Parade and ensure a to make it. We enjoy each other’s company now, dignified ceremony for our fallen shipmates. more than in our heyday. I think that was due to Many of our members are also members of the fact that we often took our lifestyle for grant- the Naval Museum of Alberta Society and work ed back then. Now, we realize that each meeting as watchkeepers onboard The Military Museums could be our last so we make the most of it. The in Canada’s largest naval museum. The Society one thing that hasn’t changed is the teamwork. held their first “Annual Navy Days” last October. We all pitched in for our share of the load and the It is planned to be repeated again this year. This work got done efficiently. As we move into Fall means a lot of our people will be working to make we can reflect on a long beautiful summer. That it a success again. weather, however, had a price. As we watch Brit- Cheers… ish Columbia under a haze of smoke and flame, Paris we know that price. We will soon meet for the fall season and the events planned. I hope to see you The all there. Editor’s Athabaskan Cabin Excerpted from Macleans Magazine, et al Lorne Baird, ‘Bosn’s Call’ Editor had the opportunity recently, to visit some of my childhood haunts. It’s been nearly sixty years I since I visited them. As a child I thought I was growing up in paradise; I later thought that be- lief was based on the fact that I’d seen it through the eyes of a child. Upon revisiting those places I came to the conclusion that the child was, in- deed, right. The scenery in the West Kootenays us every bit as beautiful as I remember. The dis- Athabaskan tances seem much smaller than in my childhood. Pictured above is on her way to the breaker’s yard. The RCN now has no destroyers, no supply ships and My Dad and his partner were running moonshine 12 aging frigates badly in need of upgrades. 4 The Bosn’s Call The Bosn’s his October [year unknown now, Ed.], NATO sity’s Centre for Foreign Policy Studies and a former is launching “Trident Juncture,” its largest and naval officer himself, believes the ship will never leave Tmost ambitious military exercise in a decade. port [again, date unknown, Ed.] “The problem is that The massive land, sea and air exercise will be held you couldn’t send Athabaskan anywhere and reliably ex- | in the Mediterranean and will include 36,000 troops pect her to get there, or to get home again.” Autumn 2017 from 30 nations. Its goal will be to ‘help’ the fictitious Until very recently, Athabaskan had two sister ships country of ‘Sorotan,’ “a non-NATO member torn by that could have replaced it at the Trident Juncture ex- internal strife and facing an armed threat from an op- ercise. But in May and June of this year, these were de- portunistic neighbour.” Not surprisingly, this is widely commissioned as no longer seaworthy. After years of seen as an explicit response to Moscow’s increas- neglect, budget cuts and delays, our maritime forces ingly belligerent pressure on the alliances’ eastern have no more destroyers. Hanson believes the only borders. The Canadian government, an outspoken message now being sent to Moscow is: “Canada’s Navy critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the in- has crapped out and they [the Russians] don’t have to be vasion of Ukraine, had planned to send its flagship worried!” destroyer, HMCS Athabaskan, as “a strong signal [Jonathan Hayward/CP] to the Russians,” whose ships and aircraft have also Louis S. St. Laurent in Nunavut in 2008. [Jonathan Hay- been bumping up against Canada’s territorial claims ward/CP] in the Arctic. But last week [date unknown, Ed.], it Compared to its allies, the Canadian Navy is now only was reported by the Ottawa Citizen that the 43-year- one-third the size it should be, given our GDP, and can old Athabaskan was no longer seaworthy and is being only play smaller and smaller roles. Stanley Weeks of the sent back to Halifax for extensive repairs. The ship US Naval War College, a former US Admiral who follows is a fitting symbol of the overall state of the Navy; NATO closely, is dismayed at the decline of the RCN. its engines require overhaul, the hull is cracked, the “[Canadian politicians] need more seriousness. Canada decks need replacing and the weapon systems are is an inherently maritime nation, dependent on overseas questionable. Even Rear Admiral John Newton, markets, especially in Asia Pacific and, therefore, it has Commander of Maritime Forces Atlantic, describes to be a contributing stakeholder, militarily and diplomati- his flagship as worn and tired.