First Sailor of the Quarter RCN looks to the future with Battle of the Atlantic MARLANT Navy Bike Ride set for 2017 Pg. 3 MARTECH trend Pg. 5 Pg. 15 - 17 for June 2 Pg. 18 Monday, May 1, 2017 Volume 51, Issue 9 www.tridentnewspaper.com HMCS St. John’s participates in Exercise DYNAMIC MANTA 2017 By DND into the night to aid in hunting subma- rines. On the morning of March 13, 2017, Searching for the American, Virginia- HMCS St. John’s, currently deployed class submarine New Mexico was on Operation REASSURANCE, found familiar to members of St. John’s’ itself departing Catania, Italy in Acoustics division and the Sea King good—and varied—company. Frig- crew. They gained experience with that ates, destroyers, auxiliary ships, and class of boat in the fall of 2016 while the diesel-electric and nuclear submarines ship supported Submarine Commander from France, the United States, Italy, Course 50 in the AUTEC range off the Greece, Spain, Turkey, and the United Bahamas. Kingdom set sail with a singular The team gained new experience by purpose: NATO Exercise DYNAMIC interacting with several other subma- MANTA. rines: Turkish Inönü; Spanish Mistral; This exercise is the largest annual Italian Pietro Venuti; and Greek Papa- Anti-Submarine Warfare exercise held nikolis. Working with the Papanikolis in the Mediterranean Sea. Much to the was an exceptional opportunity for benefit of St. John’s, this was one of all. It has air-independent propulsion, the largest DYNAMIC MANTA ever which allows it to stay submerged for held. periods far longer than that of a conven- During this exercise, NATO al- tional diesel-electric submarine. This lies trained how to work together in makes it a far more difficult target to Anti-Submarine Warfare. Anti-Surface locate and track. Warfare was also incorporated between The surface units were joined in their Boatswain AB Kyle Hutchinson operates the .50 Calibre Heavy Machine Gun during a Combined Anti-Submarine Exercises hunt of the subsurface units by a vari- warning shot exercise onboard HMCS St. John’s as it transits the Mediterranean Sea during the two weeks the task force ety of aircraft: a Canadian CP-140 Auro- on March 21, 2017, during Operation REASSURANCE. remained at sea. To avoid returning to ra Long-Range Patrol Aircraft; German LS OgLe Henry, FIS port prematurely, the ships engaged in and Norwegian P-3Cs; a Spanish P-3M; multiple replenishments at sea, topping a Turkish P-235; a French Atlantique II; On March 24, with a total of 12 rest and regroup prior to the next phase up on fuel for themselves and for their an American P-8 Poseidon; and British exercise scenarios complete, St. John’s of the ship’s deployment on Operation shipborne helicopters, which flew long and Italian EH101 maritime helicopters. returned to Catania for a weekend to REASSURANCE. ENTER TO WIN Make a purchase of $10 or more and recieve a ballot for a chance to win a $50 CANEX Gift Card. $50 Pick-up a FREE any size self serve Tim Hortons beverage with your ballot! CANEX ExpressMart CANEX ExpressMart MAY 1 - 12, 2017 12 Wing Shearwater • 20 Provider Road CFB Halifax • 5470 Gangway Street 130473 2 TRIDENT NEWS MAY 1, 2017 Trident moves forward By Virginia Beaton outsourced our sales, layout, and deliv- and 12 Wing Shearwater community. directly at 902-422-4990 ext 1811, or 902- Trident Staff ery in April 2010. We appreciate everyone who takes the 210-0570. As of this edition, Trident has a new time to write stories, take photos, and In the coming months, we’ll have As readers can see, Trident has re- production partner in Advocate Media send us that coverage from all the ships, articles about the keel laying of HMCS turned to its original format as a tabloid Inc. Advocate will be handling our sales, units, and squadrons. Margaret Brooke; DND Family Days newspaper. layout, printing and delivery, and we There’s more good news from the 2017; the Royal Nova Scotia Interna- We’re happy with this change and we look forward to building a strong col- online world. Check our front page tional Tattoo; and since it soon will be hope everyone else will be, too. After laboration with this locally-owned and nameplate and you will see the Trident Change of Command season, as many seven years as a broadsheet newspaper, operated company. has a new website. Find us at www. of the Changes of Command as pos- it seemed like a good time to go back to The Admiral and the Base Com- tridentnewspaper.com. We’ve been on sible. being a tabloid. mander of CFB Halifax remain the social media for a while, so look us up We always welcome your input, so if It’s only one of several changes that publishers and owners of Trident, and on Facebook and Twitter as well. you have a story idea for us, please feel we’re introducing. We recently con- all of the editorial comes from our staff If you’d like to advertise in Trident, free to contact Trident at Virginia.bea- cluded our production partnership with or from the many military and civilian please contact us at 902-427-4235, or [email protected] or ryan.melanson2@ The Chronicle Herald, to which we had contributors around the CFB Halifax contact sales manager David McNeil forces.gc.ca. ‘We are fighting evil’: Making the South-West Asia Service Medal By Steven Fouchard “You draw several inches in diam- Army PA eter on a big sheet of paper. You have to think, ‘Okay, this has to be made 36 Creating the South-West Asia Service millimetres in diameter in metal in Medal, representing the Afghanistan one colour, so what is that going to look mission and the threat of international like at that size?’ It still has to look like terrorism, presented a unique chal- something. So these are things you have lenge. It was created to honour Canada’s to keep in mind. And how is it techni- soldiers who served in Afghanistan and cally going to be made? If you design a is not only a salute to that service, but very intricate suspension, how are they is also a symbolic representation of the going to make the thing? Is it going to be hope for peace. solid enough? When you pass the ribbon “When I arrived at DH&R in 2002, through it first, and then the thread we had just started the Afghan cam- and you put a bit of pressure on it, is it paign. Very little had yet been dis- going to snap? There’s tradition in it, cussed as to what recognition should there’s symbolism of course, but there’s be available. And so very quickly I also these basic, technical things.” had to come up with some ideas as “The process can be 18 months or to what we would want,” noted LCol more. The SWASM was very quick. It Carl Gauthier, Director, Honours and was pushed through, I think, in eight Recognition. months. But of course it was Afghani- “I provided a design and that went for- stan; there was a lot of pressure from all ward. The way I represented it was re- levels of government to get this moving. drawn quite significantly, entirely really, LCol Carl Gauthier says he considers it a privilege to be part of the Directorate of As of June 1 2015, 12,736 SWASMs had by Cathy Bursey-Sabourin, Principal Honours and Recognition, which oversees the creation and awarding of medals and been issued” Artist of the Canadian Heraldic Author- other military honours. “Like our veterans from Korea and ity. She makes them look a lot prettier SgT D. g. JAneS, ArMy PA the First and Second World Wars, they than I imagined. In fact, she didn’t even have gone through horrible things. You see my drawings; she saw my written a multifarious evil. It has many heads, pugnamus,’ meaning ‘We are fighting know, they’re really warriors. You see description. And from there she drew many faces that cannot be defeated evil.’” them in those fancy chairs at Rideau what we know as the South-West Asia in one single effort. So you have this, “The colours of the ribbon were inter- Hall when the Governor General pres- Service Medal (SWASM).” I thought, perfect representation of esting because peace, represented by the ents the higher decorations for valour “The Canadian system inherited a what international terrorism is; that colour white, was the central element; and merit. Their names are called and lot of traditions from the British. The it takes many faces, it comes in many sort of the light at the end of the tunnel they are stressed out. They’ve been tradition has been to put the sover- different places. You’re not going to because you have the black, the shock of through hell and yet they are absolutely eign on the front. On the reverse is be able to kill it with a single blow. It September 11, the red for the blood that horrified because this is not their ele- something representing the service requires a sustained effort.” has been spilled, and the edges are sand- ment.” the honour is meant to recognize. So “When Cathy drew it she depicted coloured, representing the challenge of “There’s one story that sums it all up: when it came to the SWASM, it was a more dragon-like creature. And she the theatre of operations.