A2 - Wednesday, May 19, 1982 - North Shore News strictly personal by Bob Hunter I NEVER served in the Canadian Navy. A brief stint in the air force was the extent of my military experience. (AC276790 — that was me.) But I have had the thrill of putting to sea in a decom- missioned Canadian mine- sweeper. And so, ahem, I can probably speak with at least as much personal authority as Pierre Trudeau, who, after all, has only spent one week out on the chuck witha Canadian warship under his Deck Paws. Of course, he came away saying the navy was in great shape. All the complaints about the fact that the country is left with only four war-ready destroyers to defend both the East and West coasts are “jokes,” quoth he. Yet events in the Falklands have sharply reminded us that wars can spring up overnight and that nobody has yet learned how to predict the future, not even the pnme minister. The price of unprepared- ness is helplessness when the crunch comes. The idea that we can tool up in time to meet the next global threat as we did in the Second World War is” entirely wrong. The swiftness with which HMS Sheffield was destroyed by a French-made Caulfeild road discussion delayed WEST VANCOUVER council decided to adjourn a reconvened pubhc meeting on a controversial access road in Caulfeild Plateau until May 25 in order to receive input from a general meeting of the Caulfeild Ratepayers Association. Karl Van Winckell, spokesman for the ratepayers group, asked for the adjournment so that a maximum of interested and affected residents could have their say Other residents of the area at the meeting had vaned reachions to the road One property owner said the pnce was too high, in cash and in destruction to the cavironment> He called the road “aggressive” and “destructive ~ Randall Simmons. whe Ss hiv A an Ave 3) - A eM ror ee cde ns ihe (legal ae rh pore her Nal UvVtON THEATRE 1565 MARINE BAIVE WEST VARCOSVER TH 822 46343 “ Meee Sot, aA \ awe ty al ,orf (>> > al ‘4 tlie Gr, said he knew his statement would make him unpopular with neighbors, said “I really believe the road should go through.” He said better fire protection and better access were important to the community. And one unhappy resident asked to have the road moved somewhere else. Penny Collett told council her realtor had categoncally demed that an access road would ever be built there when she bought her house in 1978 This provoked a pithy discussion on council of real estate agents and the mayor reminded the audience that municipal officials are better able fo answer such questions Chu roy. wee Coke (>> »\ No joke, Pierre Exocet missile is a good measure of the pace at which modern warfare occurs. With its 23-year-old ships, none of them equipped with state-of-the-art ant-missile equipment, the Canadian Navy could be sunk in a matter of hours by almost any tnpot South American dictatorship. My guess is that the New Zealand Navy could probably successfully invade the West Coast whenever it wanted, despite the for- midable supply-line problems. Despite all this, I’m sure that if we could find another mantime power as primitive as we are to fight with, our lads would do much better than you expect. $79: month 1 YEA MEMBERSHIP $228. I'm referring to the fail- safe margins that are built in to the rules that determine what a navy can theoretically do. What it can do in reality is quite another matter. Back in 1976, I was in- volved in an operation whereby a lot of people, mostly Bntish Columbians, got together to charter a 150 foot former minesweeper, the James Bay, which had been built by the Canadian government, only to be let go before ever being used in war. Although it was classified as a coastal vessel, we took the ship all the way to Hawau and travelled from there 1,000 miles due north, arriving at a point at the heart of the North Pacific. Even then, we still had the capacity to go as far as Midway. We opted to head back home -- arriving in Van- couver with only a couple of hundred gallons of fuel to spare. According to Navy rules, a crew wouldn't be allowed to let their supplies Enjoy: Baths, & Latest Exercise Supervised by Trained Plus: Aerobic = ercise get that low before returning to port. I heard later than an admiral in Victoria had been driven up the wall by our voyage. For one thing, it showed that the James Bay, at least, had been decom- missioned prematurely. Secondly, the admiral had officers standing around twiddling their thumbs when they could be in charge of a vessel as proud as that mine- sweeper. Under wartime’ con- ditions, I'm sure the Navy would find that its men could go further than the rules dictated. I know. they'd discover their ships were good ships, old or not. And I'm quite sure everyone would rise to the challenge. And be brave. And die like ducks in a_ shooting gallery. There was one incident which occurred on the James Bay voyage which is worth recalling in view of what happened to the General Belgrano. We were shadowed for a while by a nuclear sub- , shape-up tomeasure-up! Swimming Pools, Sauna Steam Rooms, Whirlpools, Equipment. marine, presumably either Amenican or Russian. Out there in the middle of the ocean, with one of those incredible death machines prowling the deeps, you wouldn't want to be on a little Canadian minesweeper in wartime, that's for sure. The Navy's not in great shape, Pierre. Instructors. — Done to Music.