Tuesday was July 1st, short leave so I went home. My parents wanted me out so my second crime was blackmail. At that time, merchant ships were coming into Montreal for cargo, then off across the Atlantic. With so many u-boats at sea, a lot of ships were sunk, and a lot of the crew jumped ship. This resulted in the merchant shippers walking the waterfront offering a bonus to able-bodied looking males if they would sign on. One of my school chums, Scotty Whitelaw, did, and was lost at sea on his first trip. I pointed out to my parents that if I stayed in the RCAF, I'd be safe doing courses etc, and if they pulled me out I'd go merchant seaman like Scotty -- they were blackmailed, so I stayed [in the Air Force].
Two weeks after joining the RCAF, I was posted to Gander Nfld, crossing to Port aux Basques in the ferry Caribou, which was sunk a year later by a torpedo. On arriving in Gander, training and guard duty started immediately. On day two, I found myself manning a machine gun pit after a few hours instruction on a Browning machine gun! One post was half a mile in the bush at the pump house for the Base's water supply. I had the 0400 to 0800 watch, and as it started to get light, I could hear noises in the bush. Did I challenge as per the book "who goes there"? Did I hell! I clambered on top of the pump house and waited. Never did find what made the noise. Got a 48 hour pass and spent my 15th birthday in a little place called Lewisport.
On Oct 9 I was posted back to Canada to No. 1 Y depot in Halifax. Some of the guard duty there was on the waterfront guarding crated aircraft sent to Canada from UK for training purposes. At New Years 1942 I and 10 others were posted to 36 OTU (Greenwood). arriving on Jan 4th 1942 at Kingston NS, the rail stop for Greenwood. We marched the mile or so to the base that had no idea we were coming and there were no facilities set up. The only place we could stay was the guard house at the base entrance. The top priority was diffing a hole, a wooden cover over it for nature's necessity. It was one hell of a cold trip in the middle of the night! To compensate for that, we ate with the civilian workers in the construction cook-house -- I've never eaten so well in my life!
At this stage, I must comment on the official "History of CFB Greenwood" book, according to which the first troops to arrive were 108 Mobile Advance Party from UK -- their arrival date March 9th 1942 and the first aircraft to land was later. Hell, we were posted in the first week in January '42 and there were two aircraft by the hangar -- a civvie AC on skies and a Lockheed Hudson. Also, for a visual sighting (landing), an Avro Anson flew in in late Jan to take Bill Lennox and myself to Debert NS for our aircrew medicals. I failed mine on eyesight, which became a turning point in my service career. I could not see doing guard duty for the rest of the war, so I applied for transfer to the Navy.
I was sent to the torpedo school in the Halifax dockyard and given an electrical trade test, which I passed, and was then posted to RCAF Dartmouth pending approval. As nothing was happening, I decided to speed things up by a few days AWOL. On returning, I was given 10 days cells, which were spent seeding a new lawn around the guard house. My caper worked -- on July 18th, I left the RCAF (R-108158) for the RCNVR (V-43492).
Another turning point -- as I had just done over a year active service it was deemed I did not have to do new entry training at HMCS Cornwallis, so I ended up in the electrical workshop doing base maintenance in HMCS Stadacona. Then another turning point -- probably in the transfer of documents from Air Force to Navy, some sharp eyed individual noticed the '6' of 1926 had been changed to a '2'. I was called in, questioned, admitted my age at the time in '42 as 16. I was given a pat on the head, a boot in the ass and told to come back when I was 17-1/2. My discharge reads "fraudulent entry - underage".
On arrival back home, Verdun Que, I relaxed for a couple of months, found employment with Canada Cor(?) making parts for aircraft, and joined the local militia, the RCASC at the Verdun auditorium. I can't remember all of my service number, but it was something D544___ etc.
When I hit the enlistment age, I rejoined the RCNVR at HMCS Donnacona. With my past active service, I was not considered a new entry, so was employed as a partian NP (naval police) escorting new entry drafts that arrived in Montreal from other training centres to the main base at HMCS Cornwallis. Other duties were returning AWOL personnel to Montreal eg from Rocky Mount NC and London Ont. If no requirement on some days, I went to the Montreal Forum and practiced [hockey] with the Navy team. The majority of the players in that league were from NHL teams, eg Charlie Sands of the Boston Bruins, Ray Getliffe, Andy Bathgate NY Rangers. The only goal I scored in a game was on a pass from Doug Harvey, star defenceman of Montreal Canadians. Another player sometimes on the practice ice was 'Rocket' Richard.
In March '45 I was sent to HMCS Montcalm for telegraphist training, then to the signal school at HMCS St. Hyacinthe, where I tranferred to the coding branch and was training in Japanese code (Kana) for the war in the Pacific, and given 30 days embarkation leave. With all war zones over, I was sent to Ottawa WT Receiving Stations situated on the Experimental Farm. At this time the hostility only forces were being disbanded back to civvie street -- it left very few on active service. To combat everyone leaving, the Navy came out with a scheme asking those willing to stay until Sept. 1947 (S/47). I volunteered and was drafted to Canada's first aircraft carrier HMCS Warrior, building in Belfast Ireland. A year and a half of no great sifnificance, mainly of training cruises showing the flag. One important visit was to Montreal, where Mom and Dad came aboard as my guests. When my time was up, I returned to Montreal and worked at Monsanto Chemicals as an apprentice electrician. I joined the RCN(R) - R-4449, as an electrician in that all coding was then done by officers. I wrote and passed the electrical journeyman's exam and for the Navy, was made a leading electrical technician.
In the summer of '50, Korea erupted and a message was sent to all electricians seeking enlistment for the Korean War only -- 18 months. A similar scheme was in force for the Army. I was acceptable on condition I passed the medical. Two weeks before my medical, I tore the cartilege in my left knee on a Navy exercise, reported to sick bay Donnacona on crutches! Knowing the sick bay CPO (Porgue Frew), he handed me a blank medical history sheet and said "Fill it in. You know what is required". So I did, and was acceptable for Korean service.
I was drafted from my home address at 2nd Ave. Verdun to HMCS Swansea in Dartmouth slips. This ship was not going to Korea, so after a couple of weeks I went over to the electrical school in Stadacona to see the staff officer, Lt. Dr. Paddon, who I'd met on the recruiting tour in Donnacona. At that time I had stated for Korean service only -- as a licensed electrician I had no intention of being employed repairing wardroom toasters etc. He [Paddon] took one look at me and said "I know why you are here". He picked up the phone, called the drafting authority RCN Depot Halifax, and the next day a message came aboard Swansea drafting me to HMCS Sioux in Victoria (Esquimalt) BC. She had just returned from her 1st tour of Korea and was sailing in a couple of weeks to return.
We left for the NATO base in Sasebo Japan via Hawaii, Kwajalein, [and] Guam, arriving in Sasebo at the end of March. Stores, ammunition, fuel etc and we were on our way for our first deplyment off the west coast of Korea. Some of the tours were boring and some interesting. One interesting one that I was involved in was the rescue of a downed US helicopter back of the North Korean lines. It had gone in to rescue the crew of a downed Australian 'firefly' (a 2 seater fighter-bomber). After the initial recue it itself was running out of fuel and had to set down on a small island called Sunwi-do. Sioux to the rescue! This was an island at high tide, but you could walk to the mainland of North Korea when the tide was out. Being a marksman and familiar with the Bren gun, I was one of the first two to land and set up perimiter around the downed chopper. It was uneventful, and at daylight with the chopper fueled with the gas we had delivered, it took off and landed on Sioux's squid handling room, to become, I felieve the first destroyer to land a helicopter. Back to Sioux and on patrols.
In late June we went for R&R to Hong Kong, and to have a ceremony at the cemetery where the Canadians that died in the capture by the Japanese are interred. We were supposed to be in Hong Kong for four days, leaving the day after the cemetery memorial. Typically boilers are flashed up four hours before leaving, in this case at 0400. At 0700 the tuves in the boilers collapsed. It took 2-1/2 months to fly out and fit replacement tubes from UK. We finally got out of HK in late Sept, right into the teeth of a typhoon. Damage from the typhoon put us back in drydock in Kure Japan for two weeks before we could resume patrols. One advantage to Kure was that it is only a few miles from Hiroshima and I was able to visit the damage and saw some of the victims that were horribly scarred but still allive.
[Unfortunately, here endeth this tale as Tom wrote it.]