ANZAC memorial Aussies, Newzzies, Newfies

As Rough As It May Seem,It's Still Steady As You Go...

After leaving Athens Toronto sailed directly for Aksaz, Turkey – one of their main naval bases. The landscape in that part of Turkey reminded me a lot of British Columbia. Large hills rose from the sea, creating coves for countless private yachts and perfect natural barriers to protect the base. Apart from 50% of the crew getting tattoos (including myself), and buying leather coats on the cheap, there wasn’t too much to do in Marmaris – the closest real city to the base at Aksaz.

Marmaris was a beautiful, and seemingly rich, port city. The ship receives “R&R” funds and is allowed to spend this money on events for the whole ship’s company. Some of the things we’ve done with these funds include: sharkdiving in Cape Town; scuba diving in the Seychelles; and, from Aksaz, a tour of the dramatic ruins of Ephesus and the last known dwelling place of the Virgin Mary in Turkey.

Upon leaving the harbour at Aksaz our Task Group conducted an asymmetric threat exercise. The Turkish forces sent small boats at high speeds out at us to simulate a small boat attack. They were also supposed to have low flying aircraft, however a massive thunderstorm rolled in just as we slipped the jetty and all the aircraft were grounded for the duration of the exercise.

In the following days the original plan was to conduct a series of exercises with the Turkish navy, and then head to Izmir – Turkey’s second largest city. However, plans changed and we ended up heading to Istanbul instead.

FORGOTTEN ROYAL NEWFOUNDLANDERS REGIMENT


We passed through the historic Dardanelles where Australian, New Zealand, British, French, and Newfoundland regiments fought and died during the Gallipoli campaign in World War One. It was a significant battle that doesn’t get too much publicity in our history classes, mainly because there were so few Canadians that fought there. However, in Australia and New Zealand, it is the reason for ANZAC day. It is sort of the equivalent to the Battle of Vimy Ridge for Canada. This was where their national identity was founded, and every year on the 25th of April tens of thousands of ANZACs hold an elaborate ceremony of remembrance there.

Fighting alongside the ANZACs was the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. 49 Newfoundlanders died there during that campaign, and very few people know this. Now, however, there are at least 47 Canadian sailors that know about it and have been to the Canadian gravesite on Hill 10 at Gallipoli. The ship organized a tour on Remembrance Day to go to Gallipoli with a small contingent and hold a ceremony there. The peninsula that the campaign was fought on is approximately 4 hours from Istanbul by bus. So while the rest of the crew conducted a ceremony aboard Toronto, 47 members of the ship woke up at 0500 hrs to get on a bus to Gallipoli.

We first stopped at a few of the ANZAC memorial sites, then we asked the tour guide and bus driver if they could take us to the Canadian grave sites. They had trouble finding it because nobody had ever asked them to go there. Our ceremony on Hill 10 was very simple. There was no music (because our stereo broke!), but PO1 Skinner – a Newfie himself – gave a very stirring speech, which happened to bring several other people to tears.

It was a very unique experience to be a part of such a somber yet simple ceremony in a faraway land for such a little known campaign. There aren’t too many people that know Newfoundlanders died on Turkish soil, and there certainly aren’t too many people that have done Remembrance Day ceremonies at Gallipoli.

SHOPPING BAZAAR STYLE


The following day I took a walk through Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar, where thousands of shops and even more people sprawl through a huge section of the city’s “old quarter”. I walked through the Topkapi palace, centre of power for the Ottoman Empire and dwelling site of countless emperors. The only way I can describe it is: supremely extravagant. The halls were lined with 13th century carpets, thrones laced with diamonds, rubies, and inlaid with mother of pearl. And the view from the Caliph’s bedchambers is unmatched anywhere else.

Istanbul felt like the centre of the universe. It’s the only city to straddle two continents, Asia and Europe. It sits at the crossroads of so much commerce, and seems to be geographically at the centre of everything. Its population is so nomadic and fluid that the only number they can put on how many people actually live there is an estimation between 12 and 15 million.

BROWNY POINTS

I know it sounds cliché to write about how much I love my job…but I really love my job. It sounds like I’m constantly brown-nosing. I’m not denying that these articles do give me some serious brownie points, but what else can I write? They send me all over the world to learn my job – how could I complain about that? I get paid (a lot) to travel and to represent my country. Sometimes the job is hard, like a 72 hour boarding, or a 48 hour SAR operation in the Red Sea – but it’s all worth it. And I don’t care if it sounds like I’m sucking up. I love my job.

HMCS Toronto's Pleasant Surprise Fanfare's

As Rough As It May Seem,It's Still Steady As You Go...

We entered Souda Bay, Crete on the morning of the 8th of October. I was port liaison officer for this port, which meant a few things. Among them was meeting, once a day, with a Greek Naval officer assigned to our fleet as a liaison officer. His job is to give us as much information about the area as possible – maps, transportation, places to visit, things to do. However, this is only useful if:

a.) I speak Greek,

b.) He speaks English.

Neither of these options presented themselves so needless to say there was a lot of “sign language” and hand waving. After my first meeting with him I spent the rest of the day painting ship with the rest of the Subbies. This port was a working port for the ship. We took on somewhere between 40 and 80 pallets of food, two truckloads of parts, and every department had major work to complete.

That evening the USS Bainbridge held a cocktail party. The XO, lover of all things naval as he is, made it an A-class function. This means that whether you like it or not, you have to go. On our way over to the Bainbridge Lt(N) Steve Parker and I led a conga line the entire length of the jetty – pausing only to salute the flag bearers. All the SNMG1 officers from the Admiral down saw it. At the end of the party the Admiral gave a speech where he praised all the ships for their hard work, and when he came to Toronto he mentioned three things: the work we did in the SAR operation in the Red Sea, our conga line, and the XO’s dashing good looks.

The next morning came painfully soon and I again spent the entire day painting ship. That evening I finally got a chance to go into Chania. It’s the closest major city to Souda and is ridiculously gorgeous. I’m not even going to try and describe the scenery. We had dinner on its beautiful waterfront and then Steve Parker and I returned to the ship early so that we’d get a good rest before standing duty the next day.

The following day was probably the best duty watch ever. The CF Show Tour had come to perform for us, so the XO allowed the duty watch to go to the jetty – where the bands were playing. So, although I couldn’t drink beer with everyone else I was still allowed to watch the show. And what a show! All the musicians that came had volunteered to do so, and they were all outstanding. I watched the lead singer from Wide Mouth Mason shred his guitar with his teeth. Also, at the start of the show, the ship’s own band “Halfway to Hell” (a play on words based on our hull number – 333) got a chance to play with a full setup. They were just as phenomenal as the rest of the musicians, and a few of the guys said it was like living a dream.

Mike MacDonald, the comedian, was also there. Before the show started he asked a few people “I thought you guys were the only ones here…I bash the Americans pretty hard in my show, should I change the material?” We all dissuaded him from this ridiculous idea. All of the entertainers were with us for a couple of days before the performance and they were all really great people. They were sincere in their appreciation for what we were doing with our lives, and never hesitated to entertain offstage.

The final day I went back to Chania’s waterfront and just basked on a patio in the beautiful Mediterranean sun. Now, we’re on our way to the coast of Syria and Lebanon as part of Op Active Endeavor. The Admiral, now aboard USS Bainbridge, has told us that he wants to do as many boardings as possible. However, considering that in the past 6 years that this operation has been running there has only been one boarding done by a Canadian ship I doubt we’ll be seeing much of that. It remains to be seen, but this trip never ceases to amaze me and has already been full of surprises.

Ship Log Pt. 2 HMCS Toronto

After leaving the Seychelles Toronto’s next task was to patrol the coast of Somalia. The objectives for this portion of the trip were similar to those outlined for the week-long patrol of the Gulf of Guinea: build MSA (maritime situational awareness), increase local awareness of NATO through “approach ops”, and deter piracy. For two weeks the task force patrolled the area, but the complete lack of traffic prevented us from achieving any of these goals. There wasn’t a single vessel of any size during the two-week transit from the Seychelles to the Gulf of Aden. No life existed on that desolate coast: no birds, no marine life, no boats, and no fishermen.

Once we rounded the Horn of Africa it was almost a complete reversal. SLt Paul Morrison coined the term “the Gulf of Eden”, due to the amount of life present in the area. Maybe it was just the contrast between the two places, but the Gulf of Aden seemed to be overflowing with life. We had swallows constantly following us, and in one 20-minute span I saw 3 schools of dolphins, and at least 3 fishing boats. We entered the Red Sea expecting illegal migrants, pirate attacks, and maybe a few chances for some approach ops. What we got instead blew us all away – literally.

The volcanic island of Jazirat at Ta’ir in the Red Sea exploded 80 nm from us on the 1st of October. By the time we arrived it was just after dusk, and what I was able to see on SEOSS was incredible. The lava flows and geysers of magma spewing from the earth were reminiscent of National Geographic. It was only really visible on the infrared camera of SEOSS. With the naked eye one could make out a faint red glow in the cloud of steam and smoke rising above the island. With the IR camera I was able to actually watch the lava flow down the mountainside into the water, and the enormous pillar of steam rising above it.

Ownership of the island is an ongoing dispute between Yemen and Eritrea. Yemen actually had troops stationed on the island that became trapped by the lava flows. Their coast guard was able to pick up most of the soldiers attempting to flee from the natural disaster, but they were unable to find eight others who had reportedly jumped into the ocean. After a few hours of waiting for permission from the Yemeni government to enter their territorial waters, SNMG 1 began a search and rescue operation that would last the next 48 hours.

The entire ship snapped into action as the XO described our mission of the moment. In less than an hour, all of the ship’s boats were in the water, lookouts were posted all around the ship, and our rotations began. Mike and I were invariably closed up on SEOSS – which proved to be one of the most useful tools for this purpose. After the first night, with no results, the Yemeni Coast Guard told Admiral Mahon, the Commander of our NATO force, that we weren’t required to help in the search any longer so we began a slow transit away from the island to carry on with our mission in the Red Sea. At around 0800 hrs the USS Bainbridge spotted a man overboard, that turned out to be one of the missing Yemeni soldiers. Thus, the fleet resumed the SAR operation.

SLt Andre Bard, the ship’s diving officer, along with several other divers on board were on the front line for the rest of the operation. A few hours later, Toronto rescued Private Ahmed, a 22 year old, miniscule man who had somehow managed to stay alive for over 20 hours in the water after fleeing from a volcano. The first thing he wanted to do once on board? Call his family. It’s amazing how little differences there are between cultures sometimes.



Sadly, the crew of Toronto, in conjunction with the Portuguese helicopter, Sonic, also pulled two bodies out of the water. These were stored on board until the Yemeni coast guard had a chance to come and collect them to take back to their families. It was a sobering thought to know that if you weren’t vigilant at your post (SEOSS, or wherever) people like Private Ahmed could end up like one of the bodies lying in your freezer.

At the same time, all the effort put into training, all the time spent working with other countries in our fleet, and all the money spent to get us here – were all worth it, to save just one life. Private Ahmed emerged from the hangar, wearing a ship’s ballcap and a t-shirt with an outline of Newfoundland on it. He walked gingerly to the Billy Pugh, shook hands with the CO, and then disembarked. As the Yemeni coast guard ship broke away from us he was smiling and waving his thanks to us - gestures that transcend linguistic boundaries. This is arguably one of the most rewarding things I’ll ever do, and I’m proud our ship was able to do it so well.

We continued the search for another 12 hours or so after disembarking Private Ahmed and his two deceased comrades, but after 48 hours had elapsed since the eruption, it was clear that there would not be any further survivors and the NATO task force was released from the Search and Rescue operation. With that, we left to carry on with the rest of our deployment.

Over the past few days there have been several things done to improve morale onboard the ship. After working in the blazing heat of the Red Sea with little sleep, no showers, and a heavy responsibility on our shoulders, it was time for a little R&R. We had a banyan involving a small pool on the flight deck, and a movie displayed on the hangar door. The following day the Wardroom held a mess dinner, and yesterday we conducted a sailpast for the Evertsen (Dutch), Olfert Fischer (Danish), and Alvares Cabrale (Portuguese). The Evertsen peppered us with beets, fruit, and bread, while also giving us a 21-gun salute. The Danish subtly reminded us that Hans Island belongs to them, and the Portuguese had demonstrated their masculinity by appropriately dressing the gun on their focsle.

Today we transited the Suez Canal. It was surreal to see civilization so closely after being away from it for so long. Palm trees lined the narrow channel and the temperature, thankfully, decreased. This marks the end of Operation Sextant, and the beginning of Operation Sirius (our Canadian name for NATO’s Operation Active Endeavour). The next half of the trip will see us conducting NATO’s business in the Mediterranean – a result of 9/11. We’ll be conducting approach ops, boardings, hailings, in addition to visiting numerous ports most notably Turkey and Algeria.
In a few days we’ll be in Souda Bay, and although it will be a working port, it will still be a good chance to recharge our batteries before we begin the next phase of the deployment.