Canadian ships hadn’t been in the Persian Gulf
since the Second World War, basically.
At least we couldn’t find any and then it
would have been the corvettes like
Sackville, you know, that might have gone
to Yemen in the Second World War.
Here was a strange place and
it was eleven thousand miles away from
home and we had to support three ships,
three hundred sailors aboard each ship
of which we had women as well,
first time they had ever sailed into combat,
first time the Canadian government had
legislated that this was a war and that yes,
you go with the crews you got.
It was quite a remarkable experience
just to get out there.
And then sail out of Halifax and what I
reminisced about today was the support
that we got from the city of Halifax and
the people of Nova Scotia that lined the jetties.
There were thousands and thousands
lining the jetties as we went out on a
sunny day and hundreds of boats that
were following us as we were going out
to wish us good sailing,
fair winds, following seas.
In fact, we were looking at each other
on board the ship and saying,
“You know, they think we might
not come back,” and we might
not have come back if we hadn’t done
the right things at the right time,
had the right training and it wasn’t because
we didn’t go into harm’s way,
we were in it. We were in the middle
of it and not a lot of people
know that back home.