Description
Mr. Bowen describes feeling that the Army recognized and rewarded the efforts of its members far better than did the Navy.
Gerald Bowen
Gerald R. Bowen was born in Ottawa, Ontario on October 13, 1925. He attended Lisgard High School, and was a paperboy. His family had prior military experience. His uncle had served in the Air Force and his father in the Army, later becoming an historian with the Department of National Defence. Mr. Bowen enlisted in the Navy where he became a telegrapher, serving aboard a Royal Canadian Navy frigate on convoy duty in the North Atlantic until the war ended. He left the service for a brief time and re-enlisted in the Canadian Army, where he became a paratrooper and a specialist in sabotage. He later served as a peacekeeper in Cyprus. Mr. Bowen’s extensive experience in the Canadian military offers us some very informative and perceptive anecdotes.
Transcript
I think maybe, you know I liked that disciplined life, and I always felt in the military you knew what you had to do. You knew where to do it, what to do. We had good leadership there, this is something that I found different between the Navy and the Army. I sort of felt that our Naval Officers really didn’t know who we were. Petty Officers did, and the Chiefs. When I joined the Army, I suddenly felt officers were interested in me as an individual. And this was very important, now I may be unfair to our Naval Officers but this was the feeling we had. Mind you, it might have been part of the lower deck resistance to the wardrobe too, you know, I don’t know it went with the uniform, I guess. But I always felt that the Army, the more you contributed, the more they gave you in return.