the Signal June 2002 NEWSLETTER OF THE VENTURE ASSOCIATION

MAGDALENA BAY REVISITED By Phil Johnston - Class of ‘62

Sharon and I spent the months of January and February 2001 in San Jose Del Cabo, at the tip of the southern state of the Baja California, where I was reminded of my first Venture “class of ‘62” cruise to Magdalena Bay. I decided to re-visit Magdalena Bay on the drive home.

The Baja Tran peninsular Highway, running the length of the Baja, is a great adventure full of spectacular scenery, which changes almost by the mile. The Baja landscape, over 1,700 km long, has rightly been called: “a geological fantasyland, and in many cases its flora and fauna are unique — found only in Baja, and nowhere else.” The highway crosses the Baja, present-ing alternating views of the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Cortez within a few hours of driving.

The gateway to Magdalena Bay is the very pretty and clean city of Ciudad Con-stitucion with the second largest popu-lation in Baja Califor-nia Sur. Located on the Magdalena Plain, it is a bustling and modern agricultural center: cotton, wheat, alfalfa and assorted vegetables, in what was once a cactus choked desert. Deep artesian wells have tapped into ‘fossil water’ which pro-vides the necessary irrigation to make the land productive. A 36-mile, modern

highway leads west past irrigated fields and desert scenery before reaching the port of San Carlos on Magdalena Bay, one of the annual breeding grounds of the California gray whales from Janu-ary through March. Magdalena Bay is the second biggest bay in Mexico.

How little I knew of this as I recorded my visit there in 1962 in my journal. HMCS Stettler’s Executive Officer, Lieutenant Commander Roger Sweeny, meticulously and patiently (?) corrected my grammatical mistakes and embar-rassing lack of naval knowledge.

Typical of his remarks—which are shown below in bold italics inter-spersed with the text of my journal, also shown in italics—is the following one: “* Mr. Johnston: I do not write comments in your journal solely for

my own amusement. You are to read them and try not to make the same errors again lest you be thought a fool.”

Ah, Yes Sir! Guilty as charged. But 39 years ago, it was three days before my 19th birthday when I wrote the fol-lowing:

19/1/62 - We arrived at Magdalena Bay and dropped anchor by ceremonial anchorage at 0700. “Try not to drop anchor too often—they are expen-sive!! Better to say: Came to Anchor.” It was quite misty at first but by 0800 all traces of mist had disappeared and a magnificent view appeared around us. The Bay itself is surrounded by mountains which resemble large jag-ged sand dunes. The village is nestled on the beach about a mile from where

‘Senor’ Johnston is seen in this photo, taken in February 2001, with another former visitor of Magdalena Bay.

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might add, everyone finds rather bor-ing.

After lunch, everyone was preparing for sea again. Six cadets spent the af-ternoon watch in the engineroom watching the preliminaries for ‘flashing up’. At 1600, both en-gineroom telegraphs rang to slow ahead and then to half ahead. We were underway. When I came up on to the upper deck, the village in Magdalena Bay was slowly growing smaller, dis-appearing behind the wake of the ship.

At about 1700, we could see the wa-ter spouts of a school of whales off our port quarter; but none came close enough for us to get a good look at them.

A hand-drawn map of Magdalena Bay in the journal indicates that I may have been on a different planet then, as it bears little resemblance to what I found there this time. I could not con-firm the existence of the old prison, although the guide at the tourist center vaguely remembered it. He said that there is now a ‘naval’ base (?) on Mag-dalena Island, which would likely be located near to our 1962 anchorage.

The small seaport of San Carlos of-fers basic tourist facilities: lodgings in seven small hotels, ten restaurants, pharmacies, shops, a clinic, a Pemex station with diesel, a public beach, a town plaza and a video rental store. The town roads are packed sand.

Whale watching/eco-tours can be arranged, and there is a visitor’s center and exhibit of whale skeletons. (That is me shown on the cover page, not Jo-nah, with the other former visitor). San Carlos and Ciudad Constitucion cele-brate the migration of the whales with an annual ‘Festival de las Ballenas’.

Tourism is very popular, and features hiking in the desert, in the sand dunes and in the surrounding mountains. Guides are available for sports fishing and kayaking: boats can be rented to watch sea lions and dolphins or for visiting the islands offshore.

So, perhaps a softball game can still be arranged. Any takers?

we are anchored. To the right of the village the mountains become hills and finally long sand dunes, the home of many black flies and scorpions. The village itself consists of several huts, an ex-prison, a hotel, a large church with-out a roof and a cannery. So far, I have seen only one truck. I am told that there has not been any rain here for 3 years and so it is no wonder that Magdalena Bay is not a thriving tourist center.

It was extremely hot all day. We held classes on the 4” gun deck to avoid the heat of the gunroom. All ‘hands’ have busied themselves painting the entire ship. A few cadets from Sussexvale visited us during the evening and, of course, everyone was comparing notes and asking questions.

Tomorrow we will go ashore for a softball game against Sussexvale’s ca-dets, however no one will be allowed near the village. Most of us would like to climb one of those intriguing moun-tains and see what is on the other side.

20/1/62 - I think that most of us en-joyed today more than any other since we left. As a change from classes, we all mustered on the quarterdeck at 0900 and spent the morning painting ship. Everybody has been painting to-day, even the X.O. who was observed atop the funnel painting it black.

At 1330, we all went ashore and played softball against Sussexvale’s cadets. They won, but everyone had fun. We saw a few of the 105 natives that live here, riding around on their bicycles. Some were watching the ball game but soon left when they saw the Mexican gunboat, that was here briefly yesterday, appear on the horizon. On the walk from the beach to the ball park (?), everyone was kept busy look-ing at different shells and variations in the land formations that are both weird and wonderful to us. We found one spot where there is what might be called a ‘turtle graveyard’ for there are hun-dreds of very large turtle shells and bones in a pile there. Everyone man-aged to find two or three abalone shells to take back as souvenirs and so now, of course, the cadet gunroom will be overstocked with ashtrays. The Mexi-cans were willing to sell five big lob-sters for a package of cigarettes and tried to sell their beer to us but no one was interested. This is certainly a

primitive environment. There is one record player that we heard playing some typically Spanish music. Of the 105 inhabitants, 60 are children. The ship’s doctor told us that there is one old man dying of cancer who should be dead any day now. The ground is cov-ered with beer bottles and cans, and thousands of shells. I don’t think that many of these people speak English. They appear to be very proud. It is cer-tainly an unusual existence!

Today we are having a Banyan on the quarterdeck, which has been rigged with lights and lanterns and should be fun for everyone.

21/1/62 - Church was held on the quarterdeck this morning. “Forenoon” At 1300 leave was piped and, of course, nearly everyone took advantage of it and went ashore for a few hours. As the village is out of bounds for everyone, most of the libertymen roamed the beach or climbed the hills that rise steeply from the beach. Cadets Bunce, Van Dycke, and I climbed to the top of a peak, which is directly behind the village. The view from the top was magnificent. We could see Stettler, Sus-sexvale, and the Mexican gunboat at anchor in the bay and could see an aircraft carrier and a freighter far out in the Pacific. There is a lovely stretch of white sand, running for miles follow-ing the coastline. We found a cairn of stones at the very top, which was probably a monument, built by the pris-oners. We found a lot of nests but there was no other evidence of animal life anywhere. “NESTS, being individual things, go by NUMBERS, not by AMOUNTS. E.G.

Father Roy went ashore in the after-noon and held mass for the people. He also baptized several children.

22/01/62 - This morning we awoke to find it raining. After three years with-out rain, the weather has changed tem-porarily, and it has rained. This can only be called ‘irony’. We spent the forenoon adding to our knowledge of the ship’s electrical system, which, I

RIGHT a number of people

a quantity of sugar

WRONG an amount of people a quantity of people

a lot of people a number of sugar”

(Phil is organizing the ‘Venture Appreciation Cruise’ that will take place following the 2004 Venture Reunion. Help him to serve you better by letting him know ASAP if you intend to participate. Ed.)

Newsletter of the Venture Association

3 June ‘02

My First (Potentially Fatal) Helicopter Mishaps

I arrived at ‘AW’ (Shearwater), in mid-1960, having completed the USN Air Training Program (S2F stream) ready to hunt Red submarines from the RCN’s carrier. After flying in VU-32 a few weeks, the word was out that the RCN was looking for volunteers to transition to helicopters, this in prepa-ration for the inception into the Fleet Air Arm of the CHSS-2 Sea King. By then, a close look at the size of the Bonaventure had easily convinced me that becoming a rotary wing aviator seemed a viable alternative to landing Trackers on a pitching and rolling run-way, in the middle of a black night.

Thus, I found myself some weeks later (a sunny Saturday morning) on my first mutual trip of the HTL-6 heli-copter conversion program, with Nils Floren as a partner. We completed a few sequences, drew some ‘donuts’ in the Cole Harbour sand, and took turns photographing each other actually hov-ering the prickly beast without an in-structor.

On the way back, over Eastern Pas-sage, we decided to practice a few quick stops. Nils demonstrated com-mendable flying skills by completing a couple of flaw-lessly executed manoeuvres; how-ever, when my turn came, we were lower (a lot lower) than I had realized.

My first and last quick stop of the flight was quick indeed. In fact, we were stopped be-fore I had a chance to initiate the manoeuvre. We hit the water at about 70 knots, virtually disinte-grating the ma-chine which sank unceremoniously upside down to

the bottom of the Passage. After a moment in shock, the ‘Dilbert

Trainer’ investment paid off: I un-locked my harness, inflated my Mae West, and popped up at the surface. There was, however, no sign of Nils. I had just about given up on ever seeing him alive, when he surfaced, perilously close to his last breath.

It seems he had been struggling to get his football-player frame through the left door, the only part of the helicop-ter’s bubble to remain intact.

A fisherman fished us off the frigid water and rushed us to the Shearwater infirmary where, after we were given the customary double shot of medicinal brandy, the Boss showed up.

The Boss, Sandy James, the ‘owner’ of the sunken helicopter, wanted to know exactly what had happened. I must have sounded disarmingly honest and naive when I replied, “I’m sorry, it was an accident.” To which Sandy re-plied, “I’ll say it was.”

And that was it: no board of inquiry, no investigation, no sanctions. The entry in my logbook simply states: “Sec LP 20 (Incomp.).”

Two days later, Sandy took me to complete Lesson Plan 20. For the re-cord, seven different instructors had thus far contributed to my ‘progress’ through the HTL conversion course: Nickson, James, McMillen, Watson, Frayn, Logan, and Frampton.

To fly is human, to hover is divine, but to sink is exceedingly embarrass-ing. Take care.

I was up in a Bell with Gord Gray and heard the commotion and came upon the sad carcass of the other ma-chine at the bottom of Eastern Passage.

I was so alarmed at the thought of JJ and Nils still strapped-in, that I set down on the nearby jetty to ask if any-one had thought of going fishing for a big Swede and a little Frenchman, only to be told that the ambulance had been there and gone with two wet and em-barrassed aircrew aboard.

Jack Ouellette (Class of ‘58) (And that’s the rest of the story. Thank you JJ and thank you Jack for this entertaining yarn. The cartoon related to the Bell story is from an issue of Crowsnest published around the time of the accident. As you can see, it was all taken very seriously. Ed.)

By J.-J. Lehman (Class of ‘58)

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PRESIDENT’S REPORT Whenever more than two or more

retired sailors gather in the corner, there commences a ladling of salty dips. Lo, the lamp above, dimly lit, begins to swing with the roll as it catches the breeze and heels to the tales of times past. This edition of the Sig-nal is late, not because of limited fi-nances or editorial laziness. It is tardy because there weren’t enough letters or articles to start the lamp moving … well, certainly not enough to warrant a full issue in the March/April time frame. Reunions have proven that there are more stories out there than you can shake a boat hook at, but like all of us, you’ve been too busy to put pen to pa-per or screen to printer and send them along to us. For shame, forsooth!

To become more regular we require to be fed the fibre that forms the thread of your stories and experiences, whether they be woven of old or cut from new cloth. I find it hard to believe that Ventures have suddenly developed an uncharacteristic shyness to tell their stories. So give the lamp a push and let’s get the Signal back on course. Write.

On a more somber note, I must sadly report the demise of another class-mate in Ottawa. Kingsley Arnold of the Class of ‘56 passed away peacefully in his sleep the morning of the 19th of May. He slipped his cable at the tender age of 66, without finishing all of the tasks that he had set himself. Sail on smoothly old chum, we hope you set the auto-pilot when you reach cruising altitude and spare us a few good words from on high. Together with the other two names mentioned in the ‘In Mem-oriam’ section on page nine of this newsletter, a total of 71 names now fill our ‘In Memoriam’ Register.

Back in the bad old days when I re-ceived the Queen’s silver for my efforts (as opposed to retirement when I re-ceive less of it for past glories), I was admonished to plan the project prop-erly. I was implored to ensure that every project had a beginning, a course of usefulness, or a “run time”, and then

a plan for closing or shutting down in an orderly fashion. It would seem that the 50th Reunion will become a decision point for us.

I expect that it will be perhaps the largest gathering we have ever had but its success and indeed the health of the Venture Association will be difficult to maintain beyond that point. I believe that no matter how we decide to fade into history, whether it is by getting a little dinghy or by letting the tide of time wash away our sand-castles … we need to plan for our demise.

There are a number of factors to be considered. The Venture Association performs a useful purpose in this topsy turvy world of management-oriented political intrigue and scandal that has invaded the Canadian military. NOTC Venture is reminded by our presence that there is a Naval past to understand and a tradition to protect. Our efforts to maintain and encourage traditional val-ues should not be discarded lightly or in great haste. The need to encourage Naval Tradition increases rather than decreases as time passes.

I would like to start you all thinking of how to achieve the best for our fu-ture in debate through the Signal, be-fore the Reunion, and at the three AGM’s that will culminate with the 50th Reunion AGM in September 2004. There are a number of things that must be done:

• A new slate of executive members needs to be elected at the AGM in 2004. Jean Véronneau and I have run our course. We will not stand again, even if you all take another combined backward pace. I should remind you that I am skilled at falling down and doing myself an injury should you attempt that arti-fice again. Jean has more sensible methods of dealing with rebellion in the ranks. As we have men-tioned before, it is time to get younger blood into the manage-ment of the Association.

• I would really like to see the torch passed to someone beyond the first

two classes. You should also re-member, that in accordance with the Constitution, you have me as a member of the executive for an-other five years anyway. I seldom go away quietly … but it is time for me to step down one rung in any event.

• The combination of the job of Editor of the Signal and Registrar is a logical one. The Editor is usu-ally the first to receive notice of non-receipt of the newsletter or advice of change of address. Both tasks require some computer liter-acy to enable the Editor to receive e-mail, publish the newsletter, and to record the membership changes. I would like to see someone help-ing Jean in that task starting very soon, so that he can plan for a smooth transition before he bows out in 2004.

• There is a good chance that we might do better if we changed the format of single reunions every five years in favour of more fre-quent but smaller reunions on a regional basis.

• There are a host of initiatives that could be undertaken, given compe-tent organizers. Given the inherent common sense instilled in us in Venture, few of us are incompetent in that regard. At my age however, my down time for medical mainte-nance and short work periods is increasing. It is time for new ideas and new blood (infused, not ex-tracted for routine blood work).

So it is time to think about the future, to contemplate our existence. It is time to consider our demise and to assess when and how we will eventually close up shop. Hopefully the Venture Asso-ciation will out live me, there is no reason why it should not. I intend to leave it in good hands with a carefully considered plan for the future. To achieve that goal we need your input, ideas, interest and instigation.

Yours aye … Joe Cunningham

Newsletter of the Venture Association

5 June ‘02

Letters to the Editor (N.B. Some letters may have been shortened due to space restrictions.) FROM CANADA

I have periodically blitzed any Nigerian and related web sites that I could find, and have just recently re-ceived an e-mail from Nigeria about one of our class mates, Bertram Okoye. Please see In Memoriam section on page 10 for further details.

About a year ago I also received an e-mail from Cocodia’s son who is a Minister in Australia. He gave me his father’s mailing address (he doesn’t have e-mail) and I have since written two letters, but with no response. His son told me that Cocodia retired from the Nigerian Navy with the rank of Captain. I recently contacted Cocodia’s son again and he said he would check on my letters when he calls his father for Christmas.

After we returned from out Great Grant Millennium Cruise on 1 August 2000, during which Karen and I sailed our boat to the Bahamas and back, I worked on a Lighthouse Inventory Pro-ject where I visited 285 of the +/- 320 lighthouses in the Maritime Provinces. I then put it all into a database over the winter of 2000─2001. From March to September of this year, I worked un-der contract for the Canadian Hydro-graphic Service (CHS) on Electronic Chart projects (which involved two trips to the International Hydrographic Bureau in Monaco) and am now con-tinuing to work for CHS with some chart production, database and tidal projects. Steve Grant (Class of 63-II) Received 17 December 2001 via e-mail

Enclosed you will find a cheque for $100, for dues, very long out-standing, to the Association.

It has taken a long time to finally pay, but then procrastination is one of the characteristics that I have perfected since my retirement from the Belgian Navy in December 1991. Never do today what you can postpone until to-morrow seems a good motto.

My wife Bev and I are on our an-

nual pilgrimage to Canada to visit our daughters. At present we are staying in North Bay with our youngest and her family. Halfway through January we will drive to Montreal to stay with the elder one and her brood.

Mid-February we fly back to Bel-gium. By then the people there will be familiar with the Euro, our new cur-rency, but we have not yet seen it.

I enjoy reading the Signal. Trying to put faces to the names is an interest-ing exercise, especially since I have not seen some of my classmates since 1958.

For some reason or other I cannot log in on the Venture web site any more, so I have no help there with re-cent photographs.

Greetings, Edmond Verheyen (Class of ‘58) Received 7 January 2002 (Edmond was given the new Web address for the Venture Web site. I hope he has since been able to keep in touch. Ed.)

I sent out an e-mail to all those that I had in my folder, and only two were received. The rest were returned, so they have changed their addresses somehow, but haven’t told me about it. Do you have any new addresses for our 63-II group. Can you make an ap-peal in next newsletter for all members to update addresses regularly. Regards Gary Fullerton (Class of ‘63II) Received 11 January 2002 via e-mail. (The main purpose of the Association, and of its newsletter, is to help all Venturians keep in touch. You can help a lot, saving us time and money, by promptly sending your changes of e-mail and snail mail addresses to your class representative and to me, as Registrar for the Association. If you send it to me, I will see to it that your representative gets it promptly. Ed.)

I spent my entire career at Shear-water, flying the whole time. Two tours on Trackers, four tours on Sea Kings and one tour on twin Hueys.

I retired in 1986 but, because of my background, I was asked to rejoin. I

came back in as a Sea King mainte-nance test pilot, a job I had done be-fore. This time the job was made more interesting due to the Gulf war. We were required to test the new equip-ment that was installed on the seven Sea Kings that went over there. I stayed in until April 1991.

I wanted to try my hand at building houses. I bought a lot in the same sub-division that I lived in at the time, and built a 4500 square-foot house. I did most of the work myself, and then moved in. I was only there for two years when my wife and I found an-other area where we preferred to live. We put the house on the market; it sold in 24 days, made a big profit, and off we went to the county. Didn’t they come along shortly thereafter and amal-gamate, and we ended back in the city. Since that time, I have built five more houses, including one for my daughter.

For the Gibbons of the group, a golf course was just built behind our house. The course was built by the same guy that built Glen Arbor, a course that the ‘Great One’ played in 2000. My oldest daughter lives there. It seems that all my kids go for Navy guys good stock ‘them fellas’.

I was saddened to hear of the death of Gus Youngson. We flew together in VU 32. I was also saddened by the death of Bill Moffat he was a good friend.

At present I’m waiting for my sec-ond pension—the first payment is to come at the end of this month. Best wishes to all Ventures.

Now if there is sufficient ink in the printer, I will get this letter including some dues off post haste. James T. Kirwin (Class of ‘65) Received 2 February 2002

Two items. (i) I have totally lost track of when my dues are paid up to. Can you advise? (ii) Better late than never. I am now available on the net. See header. Great work with the Sig-

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nal. My favourite mail! Larry Wardle (Class of ‘56)

P.S. I am having a hard time con-tacting the Venture website as shown in the December 2001 issue. Received 19 February 2002 via e-mail. (Larry was right to ask about his dues before sending any money. As it turned out, he had already paid his dues until 2004, for which we are very grateful. For those of you who may have missed it, the Venture website is now operating on a solid base, and its ad-dress is on page 9. Ed.)

FROM GERMANY

I thoroughly enjoyed the latest Signal. Oh! for the simple days with a clear task.

I am still at the NATO Airborne Early Warning and Control Force E-3A Component based at Geilen-kirchen, Germany. Sharon and I have been here for six years now, and will probably retire from here in a year or so. I just finished 35 years the other day, which I guess officially makes this a hobby now.

As you no doubt are aware we are currently deployed to Tinker AFB in support of Operation Noble Eagle. The North Atlantic Council just voted an-other two aircraft and crews into the fray for Olympic games support.

These are busy and stressful days for the Component, especially the Europeans, who have never deployed out of Europe for this long. Several countries had to pass special legislation to make that legal.

Finally, could you please check and see what I owe the kitty. My last payment must have run out by now. Thanks for your help. Rick Anscomb (Associate Member) Received 18 January 2002 via e-mail (Rick has already been told that he does not owe us a cent. Any one of you can similarly be re-assured on that account by contacting me in the usual manner. Ed.)

FROM THE UK

I have been meaning to send you some money for a long time and am now finally doing it. I hope the en-closed will assuage my guilt as well as bring my account up to date. Do you actually keep accounts??

Following your request of some

years ago I have actually written some notes on life after Venture but found that it quickly developed into a boring ego trip that would interest few. In short, four years UBC, twenty years playing with trains in Canada and the UK, ten years odds and sods and now I mentor small businesses.

Of course the main reason for liv-ing is to sail (and race) and we do lots in Solent and beyond with the odd trip to Holland or Spain intermixed with booze runs to France, Cherbourg is only sixty miles away.

One day you will get a longer ver-sion of my notes, in the meantime, best wishes to all; seeing if we can do some-thing in 2004.

Yours sincerely, David Goyder (Class of ‘61) Received 2 May 2002 (Thank you David for your generous donation of $200 for dues. I am glad you asked about keeping track of dues. I have been keeping good records of dues since 1994 and can vouch for the fact that a total of 342 Ventures are recorded as having paid dues until 2004 and beyond. This total is made of 291 Ventures who have paid until 2004, 2 who have paid until 2006, 2 who have paid until 2007 and 47 who have paid until 2009 and beyond. Some, like you and Don Wilson to name but two examples, are probably paid up for as long as the Asso-ciation keeps going. Will there be a 2019 Reunion? You, at least, seem to be betting on it. Any other takers? Ed.)

FROM THE US

Lois and I have given up our so-journ in the UK, and left the Merlin program to take care of itself. We are now back in the United States and, what with the furniture from the UK house and the stuff we had left behind, we need more space. So we have moved to a new home.

As always, I look forward to the arrival of the Signal, and the news it brings of all our old acquaintances. Now that I am seriously considering retiring I will have a little more time for some of life’s real pleasures—like reading for enjoyment instead of work.

Of course, now my eyes are no longer as good as they used to be. Isn’t that just the way. Al Bingley (Class of ‘59) Received 3 January 2002 (Welcome back Al and Lois. Hope to see you both at the next reunion. Ed.)

I was going through some “old, old” photos and thought you might get a chuckle seeing this one. It was given to me by Colin Crisp and I think it was taken in Fiji, in March 1958. From left to right you will recognize: Jim Cantlie, Derek Hood, Colin Crisp and me.

Yours aye, Jim Guest (Class of ‘58) Received 9 March 2002 via e-mail (Thanks for the memories Colin and Jim. Now, does anybody know the whereabouts of Derek Hood? Ed.)

Greetings! Our last regular force serving Venturite is to retire this Au-gust. Colonel Brian MacLean is cur-rently the Canadian Military Attache to Egypt and will mark his “Leaving the Andrew” on return to Canada.

You may be further interested to know that his son Trevor is a Lieuten-ant serving aboard HMCS St Johns which will be transiting the Suez en route to the hot waters south of Paki-stan very shortly. Father and son will meet aboard. Allan Snowie (Class of ‘66) Received 30 April 2002 via e-mail. (Thank you Allan for reminding us of this important milestone. There has been some speculation on the subject in previous issue of the Signal, but Allan seems to have set us straight. Unless somebody else can come forward to claim the honour, Brian it is. Brian can be confident that a lot of Ventures will want to celebrate this significant event with him at the next reunion. That should be worth a few free beers. Incentive enough, I would hope, for him to want to make it to the 2004 Reunion. Keep your comments, articles and letters coming folks. They provide our only view into the world of Ventures. We cannot get enough of them. Those articles and com-ments are what makes this newsletter worth publishing. See you again in December. Ed.)

Newsletter of the Venture Association

7 June ‘02

“ROMAN CATHOLICS...

FALL OUT!”

By Ted Gibbon (Class of ‘56)

Jean [Véronneau] might recall the time during our senior year when they were renovating the RC Chapel and it was decided to bus those of the left foot persuasion to St Andrew’s Cathedral in Victoria. I observed their departure one Sunday and decided that this was a better deal than marching around the dockyard and sitting in a hard pew lis-tening to Mifflin play the organ. So the next Sunday, I decided, in the spirit of ecumenicalism, to learn a little more about the RC religion.

When the order came to fall out the Roman Catholics, I took the usual pace

(Continued on page 8)

Naval Aviation Heritage Museum, with examples of carrier aircraft from the Forties to the present day displayed on her deck. Finance is currently being raised for the purchase and ferrying costs, and an interim mooring in South-ampton Water has already been prom-ised if an Atlantic crossing can be ar-ranged.

A rival tender comes from Rio’s mayor who wants to retain the carrier for display in the city's harbour. Two other bids from oil companies, who wished to convert the ship for oil ex-ploration support, have been rejected.

Fascinating thought — would it not be nice to see a Tracker aircraft painted in Canadian colours mounted on this floating museum, wherever she is re-tained.

(Allan wanted to share the following histori-cal information with all of us. Ed.)

“Last WW2 British Aircraft Carrier

to Return?” is the title of an article in the May edition of Aeroplane maga-zine. The ship in question is the former HMS Vengeance, recently decommis-sioned as the Brazilian navy’s flagship Minas Gerais.

She is the last of the sixteen Light Fleet Carriers built in the UK during the 1940’s and as such has a place in the hearts of Canadian Naval Airmen. Three of her sisters served with the RCN: Warrior, Magnificent and Bonaventure

Currently a “Save the Vengeance” campaign is being mounted in Britain. If successful, the ship would become a

Sidney CruiseShipCenter

The “Venture Appreciation” Cruise MONDAY – MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 13 – 20, 2004

A 7-day Holland America Line Inside Passage Cruise to Alaska for

Venture Association members and friends who would like to combine a cruise opportunity with their attendance at the

50th Anniversary HMCS Venture Reunion in Victoria BC, Sept 7 – 12, 2004

Price in Canadian $’s per person based on double occupancy and includes: • 7 night cruise • all taxes • p/p shipboard credit • direct motor coach

transport from Victoria to Vancouver terminal via BC Ferries a.m. September 13th • Venture cocktail party on board

Note–Passengers are responsible for making their own transportation arrangements upon disembarkation in Vancouver Sept 20, 2004

If interested in receiving further details about this cruise opportunity when available, you may leave your name with your Sidney BC CruiseShipCenter Consultants:

Phil Johnston (Class of ‘62) at johnstonsp@shaw.ca, or

HMS VENGEANCE By Allan Snowie (Class of ‘66)

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June ‘02

The Venture Association Conceived at the first Venture Reunion

held in Ottawa in 1969, the Association became official in 1979. Anniversary reun-ions have since been held every five years. The next one will be held in Victoria, BC, from 7 to 11 September, 2004.

All who joined HMCS VENTURE be-tween 1954 and 1966 to begin training un-der the Venture Plan, or the Short Service Officer Plan, and all who served on Staff during those years, are automatically granted full membership in the Association. The payment of dues is certainly desirable but not a condition of full membership. Associate membership will be granted to Ventures who have been associated with any of the post-1966 VENTURE training programs upon request, and upon regular payment of dues to the Venture Associa-tion. Honourary membership will be granted from time to time by the Associa-tion Executive Committee to special friends of the Venture Association. The Associa-tion’s Register currently contains the names of 664 living and 71 deceased members. Its mailing list contains the addresses of 495 members (313 of whom have e-mail ad-dresses) living in 13 different countries.

Dues for the period 1999–2004 are now $10 annually and are normally paid five years in advance on the occasion of a quin-quennial reunion. They are levied for three reasons:

• to meet the requirements of the BC Societies Act,

• to support our award program to foster excellence in Naval Officer training at NOTC VENTURE, and

• to cover administrative expenses.

THE EXECUTIVE

• Joe Cunningham (‘56) - President

• John Carruthers (‘56) Secretary

• Ron McLean (‘65) - Treasurer

• Jean Véronneau (‘56) - Registrar & Editor of the Signal

• Ted Gibbon (‘56) Past President

• ‘56 - Bob Lancashire - 1288 Crosby Crt, Coldbrook, NS, B4R 1A8, (902) 679-0601, casalanc@istar.ca

• ‘57 - Bud Rocheleau - 848 Selkirk Ave, Victoria, BC, V9A 2T8, (250) 386-3209, bnhrocheleau@shaw.ca

• ‘58 - Jack Alexander, 4770 Elliot Pl, Victoria, BC, V8Y 3E4, (250) 658-2195, j-ealex@islandnet.com

• ‘59 - Tom Essery - 3628 Doncaster Dr, Victoria, BC, V8P 3W6, (250) 477-9321, tessery@shaw.ca

• ‘60 - Dale Gibb - 9138 Inverness Rd, Sidney, BC, V8L 5G1, (250) 656-

4185, gibbd@pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca

• ‘61 - Tom Byrne, 1881 Mariner Rd, Courtenay, BC, V9J 1W8, (250) 334-1034, gailcos@shaw.ca

• ‘62 - Phil Johnston – 6760 Wendonna Dr, Brentwood Bay, BC, V8M 1A5, (250) 652-0264, johnstonsp@shaw.ca

• ‘63-I - Russ Rhode, 762 Seedtree Rd, East Sooke, BC, V0S 1N0, (250) 642-0086, russal@coastnet.com

• ‘63-II - Gary Fullerton, 20705 46A Ave, Langley, BC, V3A 3K1, (604) 530-8634, gdf@pacificgroup.net

• ‘64 - Doug McClean, 3489 Maureen Terr, Victoria, BC, V9C 3P7, (250) 658-3554, dmcclean@telus.net

• ‘65 - Graeme Evans - 1039 Leeds Pl, Victoria, BC, V8X 4B8 (250) 361-2646, gnbevans@shaw.ca

• ‘66 - Dave Adamthwaite - 1195 Sunnymead Pl, Victoria, BC, V8Y 2V5, (250) 658-0952, dadamthwaite@hotmail.com

• STAFF - Ted Gibbon - 1625 Kingsley Crt, Comox, BC, V9M 3R5,(250) 339-0989, ted.gibbon@shaw.ca

forward and joined the lineup to board the bus. Some may have wondered at my speedy conversion but nobody said anything. After arriving at the Cathe-dral it became obvious that none of the cadets cared how long the renovations took. The service seemed to have at-tracted an unusual number of pretty girls. However, all seemed to be guarded by at least one dour looking guardian. Unencumbered by any knowledge of the ritual and unable to follow the script, I was free to gaze about the church trying to make eye contact with the lasses while avoiding detection by the matrons. It was thor-oughly enjoyable experience — much

(ROMAN CATHOLICS Continued from page 7) more uplifting than staring at the back of Gunner Smith’s head.

When we “RC’s” returned and disembarked from the bus on the pa-rade square, I found myself looking into the face of that famous gunner (and that was a lot less pleasant than the view from behind). He made the usual request for my station card and informed me that I was on charge for the customary “prejudice to the good order etc.”

At the tribunal the next day, the charge was amplified by the statement: “In that he made a false declaration.” I was quickly found guilty and sentenced to three days ‘A’ punishment and seven

days stoppage of leave.

To this day I can’t remember if any eye contact was achieved to make the incarceration worthwhile.

So ended that attempt to become a more informed young man by develop-ing a measure of religious tolerance.

Ironically, a couple of years later, when Anne and I were contemplating marriage, I had to take lessons on the RC religion from a priest in Kingsville so as to be certified acceptable (with certain provisos imposed) to satisfy one of those mean looking matrons I spoke of earlier.

And that’s the rest of the story.

Newsletter of the Venture Association

9 June ‘02

Recent Register Changes/Additions

CLASS OF ‘56 Fraser William, fraser@sympatico.ca Harrington Neal, withnell@msn.com McIntosh John, jmmcintosh@hotmail.com Storey C. J., 216 Whispering Woods Terr, Calgary, AB, T3Z 3C8, (403) 249-5947, red_storey@adp.com Wardle Larry, larrywardle@blvl.igs.net

CLASS OF ‘57 McGreevy Jeremy, JGIMcG@aol.com Deluca Robert, 202-72 Fairfax Dr, Halifax, NS, B3S 1J3, (902) 445-4983, rdeluca@hfx.eastlink.ca

CLASS OF ‘58 Guest Jim, 10010 N Colony Dr, Oro Valley, AZ, 85737, USA, (520) 297-1737, jjguest@earthlink.net

CLASS OF ‘59 Bingley Albert, 16 Pembroke Dr, Endicott, NY, 13760, USA, abingley@stny.rr.com Burt Norm, normburt@bigpond.com Essery Tom, tessery@shaw.ca

CLASS OF ‘60 Abrahams David, spinwing@attcanada.ca Benton David, PO Box 1825, Blaine, WA,

98231-1825, USA, ph: (360) 371-7102, fax: (360) 371-7112, debenton@attbi.com Hallaran Dermot, 3283 W 36th Ave, Van-couver, BC, V6N 2R6, (604) 264-0260, hallar@shaw.ca Jackson Bob, rsjjackson@telus.net McKay Bruce, Bowling Green Apt 301, 4817-49th St, Yellowknife, NT, X1A 3S7, (867) 766-3342, bmckay@mail.internorth.com Nielsen Eric, nielsen@ns.sympatico.ca

CLASS OF ‘61 Byrne Tom, gailcos@shaw.ca Goyder David, dgoyder@dial.pipex.com

CLASS OF ‘65 Jackson Dennis, p4d1j9@hotmail.com Kirby Len, l-dkirby@shaw.ca Kirwin James, kirwinjt@aol.com McLean Ron, ronmclean@shaw.ca Zboril Ronald, rzboril@on.aibn.com

CLASS OF ‘66 Helmkay Sydney, 3561 Kimatouche Rd, Kelowna, BC, V1W 4W2, (250) 869-1844 LeBlanc Norm, PO Box 2, 1812 Claude St, Clarence Creek, ON, K0A 1N0, (613) 488-3141, leblancn@attcanada.ca

IN MEMORIAM Arnold Kingsley, Class of ‘56 & Staff, died on19 May 2002. Comstock Hubert E., Staff, died on 7 October 2001. Okoye Bertram C., Class of 63-II, died in April 1988, as reported recently to Steve Grant by his daughter, Tyffany Ifeoma Okoye.

Send comments, changes of address, letters, & payments of dues to:

Venture Association 310 - 777 Royal Oak Dr -- Box 53507

Victoria, BC V8X 5K2 CANADA

or e-mail them to: jveronneau@shaw.ca, Web Site: http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/kieranh/ Please note: Send cheques to the above address, and

not to your class representative.

Australia – 2 Bahamas – 1 Belgium – 9 Canada – 445 Germany – 1

Mexico – 1 New Zealand –1 Norway – 1 Qatar – 1 Singapore – 1

Thailand – 2 UK – 3 USA – 27

TOTAL – 495

Distribution of the Signal

DUES GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGED

PAID ‘TIL 2004 DeLaDurantaye J.-G Kirwin James T. Symonds John

PAID ‘TIL 2009 Goyder David Gracie James Verheyen Edmond

Arial photo of Dockyard taken prior to the construction of the new Wardroom on top of Signal Hill.

10

the Signal

June ‘02