NATO VETERANS NEWSLETTER

The Presidents Report

Here we are again and we had a busy time so far with at the 22^nd of Jun our membership is at 380 and a bank balance of over $ 4,000.00 but it must be remembered that we have almost $ 2,000.00 of orders for crest and lapel pins and we are in our 2^nd year of our Organization with our own Web site, Incorporated, Domain Name, laid a wreath in Ottawa and are working on a Dress Code

MEMBERSHIP RETENTION

Our Membership Retention Director Betty Goodison in Leamington ON is contacting our 18 members that have not paid their dues and are the internet and I have contacted the 4 that have no computer, to make them aware about our policy that by 15 Oct 2007 and their dues are not paid, they will be stricken of our Nominal role, off the e-mail mailing list and receive no more communication from us and our slogan is “ NOTHING HEARD OUT “

New Medals – SSM- CPSM

For some of our New Members we like to mention that we found out that some of you, you were not aware that an Special Service Medal SSM exist for 180 days service as part of NATO and a Canadian Peacekeepers Service Medal CPSM exist for 30 days serving as part of UN. If you qualify for any of these let us know as we have the application forms

Members Information’s Report

It is with pleasure to report to you that we have received a good quantity of these report and we hope more will follow. I will report in more detail what we found but We can tell you that we have one member with 50 yrs service, one with 3 yrs service, one has an age of 82 yrs and the youngest on is 30 yrs old. At present web have 47 returns and we hope to receive some more

Letter to Dominion Command

I wrote a letter to the President of the Legion in Ottawa and in it I outlined our concerns about not being recognized as a force 3^rd in line in both number of troops involved as well as causality’s. Also asked that they send out an Order to all the Legion Branches to include the NATO Flag as part of their “Colour Party “ It was not the most polite letter that I ever wrote but we have to speak up

Orders for Crest and Pins

I and many of you are anxiously waiting for our crest and lapel pins. According to the Manufacturing Company they should be here between 1\2 Jun and end of Jun. I have also ordered a White double breast pockets, short sleeve shirt with epaulettes and a Wheat coloured Blazer and they should be here any time. Beret I have all ready so I am waiting to get dressed as a NATO Veteran

Membership Drive

We are still growing strong as daily applications are coming in. We have also made contact with a member in Australia and he is trying to get 2 more possible members down under. At time of writing this letter we are at 375 strong but we still have some that have not paid as yet

Vimy Ridge Day 9 April

All the E-mail Members have seen the request to the Prime Minister to have him declare the 9^th of April each year as “ Vimy Ridge Day “. If you like to do the same, write a letter to the P.M. at the following address

Organization is growing

Yes we have come a long way and we are still growing and we must remember these important dates:

Friday 30 Mar 2006 – 5

12 July 2006 – 100

13 Sep 2006 – 200

11 Nov 2006 – 250

Monday 12 Feb 2007 – 300

Friday 27 Apr 2007 – 350

Thursday 21 Jun 2007 – 380

We have also grown from New Brunswick in Mar 2006 to all the Provinces and have a good group in the Maritimes, Quebec, Ontario, Mid West and the West Coast. International we now have members in the USA, Belgium, England and soon in Australia. We now also have members from NORAD and they are growing. We have been contacted by a radio reporter Ed Mason from 630 CHED from Edmonton who will help us to promote our organization in the West and hopefully it will come our way as well We can use all the publicity we can get especially if it is free

M/cpl Klumperhouwer Cpl McCully M/Cpl Priede M/Cpl Priede

Cpl Bouzana Sgt Karigiannis Pte Wiebe

At the going down of the Sun we will remember them

OLD SOLDIERS DAY 6

In those days in 1957 I was at times seconded to the Intelligence section while I was a part of Bravo Company with Major Sandy Mitchell and Company Sergeant Major Ted Slaney and as part of the seconding I was part of Major Praysner and Company Sergeant Major Carl McKenzie and as part of the Int Section was sometime stationed at Transport Platoon changing all the Tag signs on the Vehicles to a White 60 on red Background as well painted the white differentials white for night driving

Also at times worked at the training centre with the Drill Sergeant Major Fred Lewis and on Saturday morning took a vehicle to Bde Headquarters, just 5 Km up the road to change the training films. I liked that as so I missed most of the routine Saturday morning Battalion Parades. I was not a favourite of Parades. However got a $ 5.00 fine when I was charged at not being on parade while picking up the film and I could not beat the charge

It must be remembered that at those time there were only a few vehicles at the disposal of the rifle company’s The CO had a jeep, the CSM a ¾ ton Fargo truck and the CQMS had a 2 ½ (deuce and a half) GM automatic truck, the rest of the company walked on route marches

On of these was to prove that we, the Battalion, could move in case of a war, in those days the threat of World War III was always there and as part of NATO we were fighting the so called COLD War. So it was decided and to prove that we could do it , we would move from Fort York to camp Sennelager, a training camp, on foot carrying packs and rifles

We started on 25 April and dressed in Black Coveralls or training dress spring of 1957 as Battle Dress was our good Uniform and packs however no helmets in friendly territory although we carried our rifle The distance was about 40 miles and took us just a bit over 3 days

The black boots were not the most pleasant boot to walk on as most of them were old and stamped 1945 so leather was dried out, so needles to say there were the odd blisters. We took our normal rest periods and the route we took were not by Autobahn but the smaller roads and at times we had to make way for sheep on the road, see photo

The Kitchen and transport vehicles were ahead of us so the were all set up by the time we arrived in our rest period as well were we spend the night They also carried our kitbags as we were going to spend about 3-4 weeks away from Fort York. The temperature was on the cool side but when we were marching in combat form, single file we heated up and then the sun came up and then it was bearable

On arrival at camp Sennelager, a large British training base we found that the Bell tents had arrived and all we had to do was to set them up and mark on them who slept in each one or who’s office was set up. I travelled with the Intelligent section and was assigned to a tent with Cpl Clarence Gauvin, Frenchy, Pte B.A.K. Townsend, 2359, and Pte Thom Joordens, Dutchie. So you can see an international group

Once we were settled in our training started such as 5the Gas training in the Chamber, Rifle ranges, Grenade throwing, Rocket Launcher firing L.M.G. training and yes we had a barber out in the field and our paymaster would visit us a the right time. We also had our leisure time such as platoon base ball competitions

Then on 1 May, lo and behold we had snow and the cream coloured Bell tent were white with the snow and it became a bit colder so we all received an extra blanket and that made it the second one. The biggest game in town was the lighting of the water heaters in the morning, who could do it the loudest and yes at times we would lose the odd pipe. Needless to say that it was not permitted but so !!!! more fun that way

The trip home by Service Corps vehicles was well appreciated and on 19 May we arrived back in Fort York and could sleep back in good old warm beds

Intelligence Tent with Cpl C Gauvin

Sheep on the road with us. Route was 44.1 miles long Pte BAK Townsend and Pte Th Joordens

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New format for News letter

We are working on a new format for our news letter. I should say a different way of getting it to you. We have old computers that cannot read the attachment and we have members that do not have high speed internet and it takes a long time to down load it and besides it will clog up the connections, so we hope to put it on the website and we send it by snail mail to the ones that have no computer. I will try to learn how to do it for this newsletter but I am not sure, definitely by the next one

Members Information

I am quite pleased with the 52 responses that I have received with the personal information of these members. It showed that the youngest member is 30 years young and the oldest is 82 yrs young. We have input from a Pte to a L/Cmdr and from serving 3 years to 51 yrs with 1 SSM medal to 6 medals. A total yrs of service of 1237 years or an average of 24.25 years and not ones being thanked with Proposed

a medal for volunteering Medal

on sometime dangerous duties

If you do not have send us the information please follow these steps. Here is my sample format:

Years service: …………………20

Medals CD, SSM, CYP, CPSM, CEN.

Service …………………….ARMY

Rank ………………………….Sgt

Age ………………………….. 76 It is that simple and we hope to hear from you. It will help when we write to our Government Officials

.Members news stories

We have an other request of the members to write us a story about their Forces careers, Surely in the average 24 ¼ years there must have been some humorous happenings in the Messes, out in the German or French café’s or in the shacks. Even sad story’s or anything that has to do with your family while in the service. They don’t have to be long and we will correct spelling mistakes although we will not cut it short. Please send to me

N.V.O. News in the future

Upcoming news items are on the website page known as the Kit Shop as well as a page of the current News letter. Arrival of the Embroidered Crest, Lapel pins and stitched crest, Can Flag and hat badge. Meeting coming up in Toronto on end of July and visit to Tattoo in Halifax on 3-4-5 July

Holiday Season

During July and Aug we will take it easy and only urgent messages will be send out and from ½ July – ½ Aug we will be in Ontario Have a Good one ! ! !