Your Navy Today - Volume 3 Issue 8

Your Navy Today is a monthly newsletter highlighting your Royal Canadian Navy’s current Operations, stories about our sailors and historic naval heroes, new equipment and technology and the top photos and videos. Click here to subscribe to the monthly email.

After completing its participation in Exercise Rim of the Pacific on September 1, Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship (HMCS) Winnipeg is in the Asia-Pacific region supporting Operation PROJECTION Asia-Pacific and Operation NEON.

Op PROJECTION aims to make the world more secure and enhance relationships with Canada’s allies and partners. The deployment of Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) assets internationally demonstrates that the RCN is ready to defend Canada’s interests around the world and reinforces Canada’s ongoing commitment to world peace.

Op NEON is Canada’s contribution to a coordinated multinational effort to support United Nations Security Council sanctions imposed on North Korea. Winnipeg is performing surveillance operations to identify suspected evasion activities, in particular ship-to-ship transfers of fuel and other commodities currently banned under the sanctions. This work is conducted alongside countries including Australia, France, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Winnipeg will be in the Asia-Pacific region until December 2020.

HMCS Toronto is deployed in the Baltic region of Northern Europe with Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 (SNMG1) while on Op REASSURANCE. The ship and its embarked Cyclone helicopter have been conducting maritime security patrols to support NATO assurance and deterrence measures in the region.

Toronto made a port call in Turku, Finland, from September 10 to 14. The port visit program was scaled down to ensure the safety of crews and personnel of both NATO and Finland in response to COVID-19.

After departing, Toronto and SNMG1 Portuguese flagship Corte-Real conducted above-water warfare serials with Finnish Navy Ships Raahe, Porvoo and Pansio: one Super Puma helicopter, one Learjet from the Finnish Air Force and one fast craft from the Finnish Coast Guard.

This was a valuable opportunity to work with allies and partners to build interoperability and exchange best practices.

HMC Ships Ville de Québec and Halifax departed from Halifax on September 20 to join HMCS Toronto, SNMG1 and the Royal Navy off the coast of Scotland to participate in in JOINT WARRIOR, a major bi-annual multinational cooperative deployment led by the United Kingdom.

The ships were required to return to port on September 22 in order to avoid extreme weather caused by Hurricane Teddy. After the storm passed, the ships resumed their passage.

Beginning on October 3, JOINT WARRIOR is designed to provide a complex environment in which participants can hone tactics and specialist skills within a war-style setting and to prepare for deployment as a Joint Task Force.

Able Seaman John Francis Wall sailed with His Majesty’s Ship (HMS) Illustrious during the Battle of the Atlantic and served until 1945 when he was wounded in action.

“My father was born in 1939 and did not see his father (my grandfather) until he came home after the war. My father was brought up by his grandparents. My grandmother worked on the switchboard for the fire department during the war,” said Major (Maj) Geoff Wall.

Maj Wall was motivated to share his grandfather’s story to help us all remember the price of the freedoms we enjoy today.

The Landings at Incheon changed the course of the Korean War, allowing United Nations forces to push North Korean troops out of South Korea and preventing a North Korean victory.

The three Canadian ships that took part – HMC Ships Cayuga, Sioux and Athabaskan – were together under their own commander for the first time since entering the Korean theatre.

Over the next five years, eight RCN ships would see service in Korean waters and would distinguish themselves by becoming part of the Trainbusters’ Club, having destroyed eight of the 28 trains destroyed throughout the war. HMCS Crusader alone accounted for four trains, three of them in a 24-hour period. The Trainbusters’ Club was a morale-boosting idea developed by the U.S. Navy to foster competition among ships targeting trains that were transporting supplies and materiel to North Korean forces.

With the completion of a new naval training facility at Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Halifax, the RCN’s next generation of sailors had more to look forward to than class work when they returned to training this summer.

CFB Halifax’s newest building is a modern, functional and green 9,500 m² training facility designed to meet the educational requirements of a 21^st century navy.

The facility’s main tenant, Naval Fleet School (Atlantic), welcomed the first sailors for training in June. The building features a large shared training space, auditorium and classrooms for formal learning, as well as hands-on learning with naval equipment, including a small arms simulator. To provide sailors with realistic training while ashore, the inside of the building also features a three-storey training area that mimics the interior of a ship.

By modernizing and greening our defence infrastructure, we are reducing our greenhouse gas emissions and saving on energy costs while supporting the needs of a modern navy. The Department of National Defence’s recent investments in CFB Halifax infrastructure have helped create economic opportunities for the community and provided a more cohesive, modern and functional campus for personnel stationed at the base.

Meet Sailor 3rd Class (S3) Erin Marsden. She is one of the sailors selected to participate in the National Sentry Program for 2020.

“[I joined] the RCN because it has been my career goal since I was 12 years old. Everything about the military interests me and I knew the navy is where I wanted to head towards for a full-time career,” says S3 Marsden.

Meet Master Sailor (MS) Diyako Salehi. He is a Weapons Engineering Maintainer – Fire Control aboard HMCS Regina.

“As an immigrant to Canada from Iran, I always wanted to give back and serve the country that has given me the opportunity to flourish and achieve what I put effort in,” says MS Salehi.

“It also gave me the opportunity to work as an electronic technician, something that has always been an interest of mine.”