A reader just back from a Port Security training exercise with the Navy Reserve sends along this photo and explanation (click to enlarge);
Port Security RHIB completing high-speed turn. These are also the same boats carried by our ships in the Persian gulf and used for armed boarding parties. The comm/radar arch is an add-on for our purposes.
We didn’t issue weapons, combat dress, or body armour for this exercise, partly because it was in Vancouver harbour. Can’t have…Soldiers…With guns…In Canadian cities…
That photo belongs on a Navy recruitment poster!
Never happen, all of people the the Forces use to write recruiting ads have had there sense of adventure surgically removed.
Some Canadian laws/Regulations make me laugh a bit!
So why Canada needs an Army?
Look, a few weeks ago General Hillier said Canada can’t afford sending 6 CF-18s to Afghanistan to protect its own troops becuz the govt doesnt have money to cover the costs.
Such a country doesn’t need Armed Forces
I am not trying to be disrespectful to the guys in uniform since I served in military and I know how hard it is but this socialist country doesn’t need armed services.
LoL
“General Hillier said Canada can’t afford sending 6 CF-18s to Afghanistan”
There’s that “can’t” word again.
Let’s get something straight here: Canada is a wealthy G8 country. Our preparedness to pay for our military is a question of political will, not affordability.
It’s not a question of “can’t afford” but rather one of “don’t want to afford.”
That boat would be great for tubing.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that Vancouver Harbour?
New site worth checking out:
http://www.canadianally.com
What is CanadianAlly.com?
“CanadianAlly.com is an electronic newsletter maintained by the Canadian Embassy in Washington, DC, designed specifically for an American audience. The goal of this e-publication is to bring together pertinent defence and security information from a variety of government departments, agencies, military commands and bi-national organizations. The intent is to give American citizens a better sense of the scope of Canada’s role in North American and Global Security and the War on Terror.”
CanadianAlly.com is managed by:
Lt.Col Jamie Robertson
Counsellor (Military-Media Affairs)
Canadian Embassy
Washington DC, 20001
(202) 448 6324
Attaboy Jamie! From the Mythbuster section:
Canadians are all Hockey Players: FALSE
The most popular participation sport for Canadians over the age of 15 is Golf. In 2000, there were 730,000 registered soccer players in Canada, compared to 500,000 for hockey.
I’ve participated in several Port Security exercises. I don’t remember ever getting issued body armor, either as personal gear or as part of the equipment. (I don’t think we have body armor that could double for or accommodate flotation devices, which are far more important for that craft.)
I do remember getting issued C-7 rifles, though, since we were exercising in Halifax and therefore had less complaints about guns.
In Vancouver Sunday April 2 the HMCS Calgary was tied up at the cruise ship dock downtown. Two sailors, one fore and one aft, each with M16’s guarding the ship.
That is Vancouver.
Look in the background, to the right of the large blue doors on the building and you will see the three “Fast Cats” built at a price of $450 million taxpayers dollars by the previous NDP Socialist asshole government. A visual sign of how to drive an economy into the ground in 8 easy years.
Useless boats, bad design, wasted money. Sold for $15 million at auction.
Socialism, ya gotta love it.
“Suspiciously like fun”
Yes.
At that moment. But in the pitch dark at 2:00 AM, trying to stay warm and alert after a few hours in driving sleet, taking pictures is WAY down at the bottom of your priority list…
Most who wear the uniform will bitch and complain at the time, as sailors have throughout the centuries, but when they return to hearth and home most realize it was the best time of their lives!
ReadyAyeReady
😉
Those RIB boats are great for Power Trolling. If you hook a Salmon you can outrun the hungry Seals that like to snack on your catch before you can land them.
JJM’s 5:10 AM posting is right on the money, no pun intended.
It’s not even funny that Canada hasn’t even sent SIX fighter-bombers…PART OF ONE SQUADRON, with ground support troops!
The Brits, even the Dutch, have both sent Air Force combat air forces, multiple squadrons.
Canada can’t afford what the Netherlands can??? As JJM said, it’s a question of political will, not cost, for a wealthy Western nation like Canada
Checking out the seals off Wreck Beach. Easier than climbing those steps to the parking lot (takes a lot out of you!)
RCMP patrol boats around Vancouver are definitely armed. (A few years ago one of the boats was broken into and the weapons taken.)
Just to be a know-it-all…
That is technically a picture of the Burrard Inlet (not aware that there is any body of water called Vancouver Harbor)
And the buildings behind are actually North Vancouver. And yes those boats to the right of the blue building are our illustrious Fast Cats – built by the NDP for some $445 million dollars (twice what they were budgeted for) and sold for the astonishing bargain basement price of $20 million (yup – for all 3).
God bless the NDP and their business acumen.
“Soldiers, with guns, … in Canadian cities”? Say, … did you make that up????!!
Condominiums should be not “leaky”.+
Inman News
There are 50000 known leaky condos on the West Coast, most in Vancouver and the rest of BC’s Lower … “I essentially bought into a lawsuit,” he said. …
db.inman.com/inman/content/subscribers/inman/print.cfm?StoryId=030801FB – 6k –
When I showed this picture to my students, they laughed and said, “There’s the Canadian Navy!” IOW, that’s it, one boat with three sailors.
Keeping to the nautical theme…
Captain Ed touches base with Gomery one year later..
http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/006669.php
….and bloggers in Canada heap well deserved thank yous
upon the steady as you go Captain while mentioning Angry and SDA as well. TG
Fred and Sooz — Such a sad, sad, and costly, decision to make those tubs. Now I listen to Bill Good and so called experts are calling in and saying these would be O.K. to use on the northern run. What a joke that would be if they got leased back to us!
OT, but speaking of Bill Good, Christie Clark is standing in this week, however I have turned the radio off the last two days — yesterday because some one or other from the Globe and Mail was ranting about PMSH ‘muzzling’ his cabinet, and today because some mental giant was defending the gun registry.
The “no weapons and combat dress” thing is not a standard consideration. I’m a Vancouver army reservist and we’ve done several joint exercises with the naval reserve. I’ve carried weapons (by day and night) in that same style of boat, in the same harbour pictured, several times. Never any ammunition though (blank or live).
Great fun working with the navy.
In my misspent youth I was a member of 6 Field Engineer Squadron, a reserve combat engineer unit based in North Vancouver. We did conduct exercises in various parts of the city, including Stanley Park, Kits Beach, Jericho Beach and on the waters of Burrard Inlet (including a harbour crossing in our little inflatible assault boats). We were Canadian soldiers. In a Canadian city. With guns (C-7 rifles, C-9 LMGs and C-6 GPMGs).
Of course, this was the mid nineties, so it was a lot less scary time (though I think we did frighten some of the tranny pros strolling around lost lagoon).