From: glogan
To: Latham Rice
Sent: Saturday, November 29, 2008 9:22:50 PM
Subject: Re: Rivers Updates
Bernie:... or do you go by Latham.... the group
picture is I believe a photo taken in your Air Supply course... I do
recognize many of the faces, and could probably help with the names as
I sent a photo to the CJATC web site of all the Airborne School instructors
during 1955-56, the reason I say it is Air Supply course is because
of a few things, one we started our jump course with 58 people and when
it was all finished we were cut down to around 40.... the other thing
is on the jump course we didn't wear battledress tunics, web belts, or
ties, and didn't have a name tag, as I remember we wore coveralls, boots
and putties and always a harness.., our course began on a Tuesday
morning after the Thanksgiving day long weekend as Rivers was lucky enough
to have a freak snowstorm the day before, we had about 6 or 7 inches
of snow on the ground, however when we did the 5 mile run on the
Friday morning the snow was gone and the temp was up around 80 degrees,
we had reasonably good weather right up until the last day that we were
at the high tower in Shilo, it snowed a bit through the day and they
were trying to get us finished at night but a storm was coming up fast
and the winds were pretty high for the tower, especially doing a night
drop, I know when it came to my turn they called it off so we went
back to Rivers, you and I were living in quarters so we didn't travel
with the rest of the course and you drove us back to Rivers that night,
we managed to get our first 2 jumps in, then the weather turned bad and
we spent a good 2 weeks trying to finish up with the required jumps, our
course took about 6 weeks when it should have been over and done
with in 4..
The fellow that you took the photo of landing at the High Tower was
Pte Cottnam, he was with the RCRs, however most of the infantry on
our course was a bunch of PPCLI Germans, I remembered when we did the 5
mile run they all ran together and did everything in cadance...
Here are a couple of names for your memory bank, if you can remember
these guys, Alex Clark, former apprentice soldier, came
to Rivers in the fall of 1956 and was with Air Supply school,
another former apprentice solder, Ken Dillen came with Alex Clark
the same time, and Norm VanTassel, Norm was a tall thin Cpl from
the QOR of C, he was in the beginning a runner at GTW, then got his Gp
I Clerk Adm, and was sent to Airborne School, he was
not a jumper... Norm was in Rivers from 1956 to 1962... Alex
was in Rivers for a good period of time, he passed away about 10 years
ago that I know of, Ken Dillen got out of the Army around 1960 as
I ran into him at a militia unit in Brandon around 1961, he went
on to become a MLA for the Saskatchewan Government, I believe he
was a representative for the natives, as Ken was an Indian, he is
now living somewhere out in Saskatchewan in a retirement home but I can
never get in touch with him. As for Norm VanTassel, he took
his discharge from the Army around 1963 but always kept himself active
with the Legion and was at one time the President of the Korean Veteran's
Association, he was living in Winnipeg, unfortunately Norm
died on the operating table last Dec 3, when he was having a tumour removed
from his Pancreas.... I tried to talk him into leaving the operation until
at least after Christmas just for his family's sake but he went ahead and
they ran into a problem with keeping his heart going, they tried
to implant a pacemaker but they couldn't get his heart restarted...
Here is the email address for Bill
and Sue-On Hillman <hillmans@westman.wave.ca>
when you and I were in Rivers Bill was a young Sgt in the Airforce Cadets,
and hung around with the sons of one of your old officers Col Saul.
Bill was into music and had or has a small
band, but I believe he did some of the dances in Rivers as well but
I'm not sure if it was as early as the mid 50s. [Editor's Note: the
1960s] If you want to have him add some photos to his CJATC web
site you could either send them to him, or to me, try to be as descriptive
as you can.... if you have had the opportunity to check out all of the
photos you may recognize some of the guys that were in the Signal group
in Rivers, the one picture that I told you about a buddy of mine
from the Apprentice soldiers, Rheal Cote on the left and myself standing
with one foot on the fender... notice in the background they were building
a new hanger at the time to house C119s... great time, this photo was taken
in August 1956 I still had the stickers in my windshield waiting for my
Manitoba plates....
for now,
Gerry Logan
