Thursday, December 16, 2010

LITTLE KNOWN TIDBIT OF NAVAL HISTORY
The U. S. S... Constitution (Old Ironsides), as a combat vessel, carried 48,600 gallons of fresh water  for her crew of 475 officers and men. This was sufficient to last six months of sustained operations at sea. She carried no evaporators (i.e. fresh water distillers).  
However, let it be noted that according to her ship's log, "On July 27, 1798, the U.S.S. Constitution sailed from Boston with a full complement of 475 officers and men, 48,600 gallons of fresh water, 7,400 cannon shot, 11,600 pounds of black powder and 
79,400 gallons of rum ."
Her mission: "To destroy and harass English shipping."
  
Making Jamaica on 6 October, she took on 826 pounds of flour and 
68,300 gallons of rum.  
Then she headed for the Azores , arriving there 12 November.. She provisioned with 550 pounds of beef and 
64,300 gallons of Portuguese wine .  
On 18 November, she set sail for England . In the ensuing days she defeated five British men-of-war and captured and scuttled 12 English merchant ships,
salvaging only the rum aboard each.  
By 26 January, her powder and shot were exhausted. Nevertheless, although unarmed she made a night raid up the Firth of Clyde in Scotland . Her landing party captured a whisky distillery and transferred 
40,000 gallons of single malt Scotch aboard by dawn. Then she headed home.  
The U. S. S. Constitution arrived in Boston on 20 February 1799, with no cannon shot, no food, no powder, 
no rum , no wine , no whisky , and 38,600 gallons of water .
                GO NAVY!




Monday, December 13, 2010

VETERANS WHO SERVED ON KOJE ISLAND WOULD BE AMAZED AT MANY CHANGES

President Lee Myung-bak meets with workers
The Royal Canadian Regiment’s “Koje Commandos” will be amazed by what Korea has done with island that once housed prisoners or war
In May, 1952, B Company of the 1st Battalion of The Royal Canadian Regiment received mysterious secret orders to entrain for points south. They got onto a rattler on the famous Pusan Express line, where they joined up with a British unit, B Company of the King’s Own Shropshire Light Infantry. There were rumours of a secret commando strike.
They would soon learn they had been assigned to the rioting prisoner of war camp on Koje Island where North Korean prisoners had recently captured the American general commandant, murdered several of the prisoners thought to be disloyal to the communist cause, and were generally playing havoc.
The deployment of Commonwealth forces to Koje would – by a stretch – perhaps save my life many months later.
One night on the Hook position in November, I was whispering to my friend Vern Lacy. We had been doing a lot of night patrolling, things were hot and we were both nodding off on our feet.
There was a quick rustle right overhead. A mortar bomb was coming in on us. Neither of us had a chance to even duck.
There was a solid thud about 50 feet behind us. Where we stood the reverse slope was virtually flat, so if the large caliber bomb had exploded we would have been raked with blast and shrapnel.
Lacy forced a chuckle. “Heh, heh… Dud.”
But it wasn’t. We watched white, ghostly things start to creep toward us.
“Leaflet bomb,” Lacy whispered, correcting himself.
The next morning I picked up several of the leaflets that had drifted into the trench. They depicted a British soldier at Koje with bayonet fixed on his rifle. The caption said something like, “Uh, er, yes I had to bayonet a few of the prisoners of war.” It was very unimpressive, except that if it had dropped on us in place of a high explosive bomb, the propaganda had probably saved our lives.
It’s not such a stretch. You would have to be there to appreciate it. Neither of us saved any of the leaflets.
Regardless of the ham handed propaganda leaflet – when you are under attack from the enemy you are not much concerned about any of them being bayoneted – The Royal Canadian Regiment committed no atrocities. In fact, they brought order to their sector of the compounds by meeting the prisoners as soldiers, not roughing them up, doing the policing job with the military decorum for which the RCR are famous, and going about lightly armed and in very small numbers.
Their move to Koje caused a great deal of consternation, as American commanders at the Corps level had actually sent an order that resulted in breaking up a Canadian battalion to detach one of its best rifle companies for duty as prison guards. The Canadians were not in Korea to guard prisoners of war, nor was anyone other than Canadians permitted to deploy the rifle companies. The UN Command and the British Commonwealth Division commander could ask, but not independently issue such orders. It was never done again.
"Koje Commandos" was the term given to B Company in good nature by their RCR comrades.
Anyhow, that out of the way, now read below how Korea has developed an amazing subocean and over ocean route to directly connect Koje Island (now spelled Geoje) with Pusan (now spelled Busan), Korea’s second largest city, where our Fallen Comrades are buried in the United Nations Memorial Cemetery.
Incidentally, B Company of the RCR returned to the front to participate in the defence of Hill 355, “Little Gibraltar or Dagmar” as it was sometimes called. The company had very heavy casualties, both on fighting patrols, also during a prolonged heavy shelling that went on for weeks and when Hill 355 was attacked by large enemy forces on October 23.
Today the old prisoner of war camp is an indoor-outdoor museum and two of the world’s leading shipyards flourish on the island. Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering is located near the small city of Okpo and Samsung Heavy Industries is located at Koje City (Geoje City). Koje City has a population of roughly 200,000.
Koje Island is the second largest in South Korea, second only to Cheju Island (Jeju Island). Cheju-do is 60 miles to sea and is a beautiful semi-tropical island sometimes called “the Korean Hawaii.” The island has been long famous for its diving women who harvest marine life and seaweeds from the ocean floor. It is said to be rich in three things: beautiful women, stones and wind. However, it is also cloaked in beautiful flowers. The dialect is quite different from the mainland language.
Vince Courtenay

S. Korea's first bridge-undersea tunnel link opens in southern area
four lane Geoga Bridge that links Koje Island with Busan,
SEOUL, Dec. 13 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Myung-bak said Monday that the opening of a grand bridge-undersea tunnel link in southeastern South Korea is a milestone in the country's construction history and that it will serve as a catalyst for the development of regional economy.
Lee attended a ceremony to mark the end of the six-year construction of the fix link, which connects South Korea's second-largest city of Busan, 453 kilometers southeast of Seoul, and Geoje Island, home to two of the country's largest shipyards and many tourist attractions.
The 8.2-kilometer fixed link, dubbed "Geoga Bridge," will cut travel hours between Busan and Geoje Island to around 50 minutes from the current two hours and 10 minutes, enabling South Korea to save as much as 400 billion won (US$350 million) in fuel and other logistics costs a year.
The president described the fixed link as a "historic construction project," as it involves a 3.7km undersea tunnel, the first of its kind in South Korea.
"The project included an immersed tunnel under part of the wild open sea, which is a remarkable feat illustrating Korea's top-notch construction and engineering technology to people around the world," Lee said in his televised congratulatory speech during the ceremony held on Geoje Island.
"This route will now serve as a great new boulevard for tourism encompassing the scenic national marine park in the South Sea and connecting Busan, Geoje and Tongyeong with Yeosu and Mokpo," he added, numerating southern cities known for their picturesque landscapes.
He said it is also expected to become a "linchpin" in regional economic growth.
"Today's opening represents a historic milestone in that it heralds a new era for the southern coast of Korea," he said. "The connection between Busan and Geoje will finally be extended to Mokpo." Mokpo is a southwestern port city.
The fixed link built in a public-civilian project will be open to the public starting at 6 a.m. on Tuesday, free of charge until the end of this year. Its operator plans to levy a 10,000 won fee on passenger vehicles from next year.
By Lee Chi-dong
From: Koreavetnews@aol.com

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Notes of Interest by Ron McNulty

The above picture show the HMCS Haida a WWII tribal class destroyer that served during WWII and after for another period during NATO problems. There also are two aircraft carriers HMCS Magnificent favourably known as the Maggie and HMCS Bonaventure aka Bonnie. These 2 and the light cruiser HMCS Quebec served in watch during the cold war era and NATO tasks.

Ron McNulty and Peter Kanis both served on the aircraft carriers and the cruiser. They both were in Ireland for commissioning of the Bonaventure. They are members of Unit 5 Cambridge NATO Veteran's Organization.

There were many other ships as well after WWII that remained for a while. However the HMCS Haida is on permanent display in Hamilton Ontario and open to visitors.

The new ships of todays navy are frigates and coastal vessels. There are 12 new frigates that have been built, I believe they are much larger than the old destroyers or destroyer escorts. A few of them are HMCS Fredericton, HMCS Winnipeg, Ville de Quebec, Montreal, Calgary, Vancouver etc. Also fairly new are the coastal ships. I think there are six of these - two are named HMCS Moncton and HMCS Nanaimo. The above frigates and coastal patrol ships serve under United Nations or NATO as requested. Included is a picture of Admiral Landymore who was chief of staff and from Brantford. Admiral Nelles another Brantford admiral and chief of staff as well.

Both Brantford Sea Cadets and Navy League Cadets carry these Admirals names. The Sea Cadets [Nelles] the Navy League Cadets [Landymore] Infomation on these two admirals is included in the official writing below

Submitted by
Ron McNulty

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Canadian Post War Military & Dependants Graves in Europe

Yes, we the GENERAL NAVEREAU HIGH SCHOOL alma mater of Metz, France have recently discussed this issue with
other former dependants, Canadian and American....and some have recently travelled to those graves to honour our
former classmates/dependants and servicemen, including some who were later killed flying 104s......

One French cemetery dis-interred some graves and were "transplanting" them into nearby fields outside the cemeteries
when along came a former Canadian Dependant and his family and took photos of that.....and had them printed in a local
newspaper..........two days after those photos and article was printed, mysteriously, the bodies were REPLACED back into
their original graves, reburied and had their fresh graves COVERED in garlands of flowers......photos were taken and printed
in the same paper and a copy of that sent to the Canadian Dependant AND the Canadian Military Attache at the Canadian
Embassy in Paris....who sent the article back to Foreign Affairs in Ottawa..........where they turned up in the IN basket of
that mysterious Canadian who had taken the first set of photos.....turns out he is a member of our GENERAL NAVEREAU HIGH
SCHOOL alma mater, and whose father was the AIR OFFICER COMMANDING of all of #1 Air Division in Europe.....

I saw all the newspaper articles on this subject and the got the PARIS paper which covered the issue.......it seems that the
Minister of the Interior (also commands Frances federal police/Gendarmerie Nationale) got the county to cancel its "grave'
-recycling program and put the money for it into a mine clearing program which will allow WWI and WWII mines to
be cleared from several areas to all the allocation of a whole NEW Cemetery.....

DHH and the Chaplains General office assisted in the DND index of Military and Dependants Graves in Europe and now it is
on a searchable database....the URL I gave you should be put on our website under the title of Canadian Military and Dependants
Graves in Europe so our website visitors can LINK directly to that searchable database.......also note that there are several NATO dependant "associations"
each with their own website.....all live linked to the GENERAL NAVEREAU HIGH SCHOOL site.........

We need to do what we can to live up to our charter to ensure that we do not forget our NATO vets and their NOK.



by Scott Fuller