The Intercom - The Royal Montreal Regiment

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By CWO William Crawford, C.D. Regimental Sergeant-Major The Royal Montreal Regiment Mot du Sergent-major régimentaire The Royal Montreal Regiment... 100 years of service! I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to this edition of the Intercom and to talk about a very special milestone in the life our Regiment, that is to say 100 years of service to our country. We are still 2 years away from the kick-off for this event however we can’t wait for this very important date to arrive before taking action. Soon, our 100th Anniversary will start to take shape and become more important in our planning. The key events for this activity will start November 2nd, 2014, our Regimental Birthday, and will culminate the following year in November. Some of the forecasted activities will include an allranks Regimental Ball, an open house weekend with displays and demonstrations, Parading the Colours in various locations. In addition the Regiment will, pending approval, exercise the Freedom of the Cities for Montreal, Westmount, Pointe- Claire and Hampstead. There is also a plan that has been initiated to have our museum grow and become more visible within the Regimental lines. During all of this, there will be several other events incorporated into the Centennial year calendar that will mark this momentous event. 2014 is fast approaching and will prove to be a challenging year as we will still have to carry on with our CF commitments. That being said, the effort, preparation, work and execution of this Centennial will see our Regiment showcase what is best about the RMR. It will be an opportunity to reflect on 100 years of sacrifice, re-establish links with the communities that are so much a part of our extended Regimental family and re-assert our place for the present and the future of the Regiment. This is the reason that I’ve chosen to explain a little of this to you in this edition of the Intercom some 2 years before the event. It must be remembered that it is impossible to turn around on a dime and ramp up an event of this importance if it’s going to be done right. The success of this Centennial will also be dependant on the assistance and commitment from the members of the Regiment therefore, should anyone be interested in contributing, regardless of rank, please contact the OPI for the 100th committee, 2Lt Dobrosielski or WO Langlois. I would also like to take this opportunity to wish you all a well deserved Happy Holiday season and enjoy the time with your friends and family as they are the ones who are the unsung hero’s of our Regiment. Without their support for you we would not be able to do our job. Along with the festive season comes celebrations, please take full advantage of every benefit available to you and come back to us safe in the new year. Once again, I would like to thank you all for your commitment to the Regiment and leave you all with the knowledge that the Regiment is strong. The challenges we face are nothing new and I’m sure that we’re up to the task as we have been for close to 100 years!! HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE! 6
Cold Warriors or What did Reservists do before Afghanistan? By LCol (Ret) Henry F. Hall, C.D. Honourary Colonel The Royal Montreal Regiment In today’s day and age not much is said about the Regiment in the context of the NATO and the “Cold War” or about our experiences as part of UN P e a c e k e e p i n g Operations. Understandable, the emphasis has been on our most recent “war-fighting” experiences in Afghanistan and recognizing those brave men and women who have served on these operations. But let me take you back to a time not so long ago when reservists were for the first time used as an individual augmented and some of my personal experience in the context of both of these missions. Canada was a founding member of the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) which was established to combat the “red menace” (communists) shortly after the end of WWII. In the early 50’s Canada deployed a Special Service Force Brigade Group to Germany under NATO command, initially in northern Germany. In the 60’s that Brigade Group, then known as 4 CMBG, was moved to southern Germany at Baden Baden and Lahr. Since the late 60’s members of the Reserves had been tasked to participate on summer deployments to the units that made up 4CMBG in Germany. This was a “top up” role as it was well understood following unification in 1968 that all army battalions, including those in Germany were only ever ~70% manned to establishment with the intent to rapidly deploy augmentation troops to these battalions in times of emergencies. GERMANY In the fall of 1972 I was a Corporal, a Section 2IC in B Coy referred to at that time as “MobCom” or the “Mobile Command” company as it was the trained company vs. C Company which was the Recruit Company. I was out of high school trying to find my way by doing callouts and courses. I had spent the summer of ’72 instructing on a SSEP (Student Summer Employment Program) at the Armory and Farnham. Some of our soldiers had just finished a 3 month jungle training deployment with the Canadian Airborne Regiment in Jamaica, so as you can imagine the war stories were flowing in the JRC’s and we all wanted a chance to do something different and use our training. The call went out for volunteers for “REFORGER IV” exercise to be held in January/February 1973 serving with the R22eR in Lahr. These series of exercises, started in 1969 and continued to 1993, were intended to ensure that NATO had the ability to quickly deploy forces to West Germany in the event of a conflict. I immediately volunteered and was accepted with about 7 or 8 other RMR’s (Leo Steinberger, Gary (Gid) Tuff, Pete McIntyre and a few others). We arrived in Lahr the first few days of January and were immediately integrated into our Company’s, Platoon’s and Sections and assigned barracks. Key learning points, they had beer machines in the barracks, happy hour was every Friday night and everybody liked to run. After a few weeks of orientation, weapons live fire, mechanized tactics work ups etc the REFORGER IV exercise began. The actual exercise lasted probably on 2 to 3 weeks but all the work up stretched it out considerably. Post Live Fire weapons cleaning, Germany, 1972, with 2 e R22 e R One of my memories is of conducting a number of combat team advance to contact with a troop of 4 Centurion Tanks from the RCD’s and never once finishing with the tanks. They would always fall behind with mechanicals. I can also remember loading our APC’s on rail cars and then spending 18 to 30 hours traveling on a troop train. As we were the lowest priority in the rail system we spent a lot of time on sidings, 7
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Page 3 and 4: ot du comm HONORARY COLONEL HONORA
Page 5: Nous devons toutefois poursuivre no
Page 9 and 10: Summer at Camp Vimy By OCdt Szostak
Page 11 and 12: By Capt Sibyl Brooker Commanding Of
Page 13 and 14: WAMA!? - What’s up with that? By
Page 15: News from the Yorkshire Regiment By

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