Coat ofArms

Sunday 24 April 2011

Op CESAR(Canadian Expedition Study Alpha Ridge) 1983


Here's an Operation I did with 2CER, 2 Tp in the Airborne Engineers in 1983 we had to build a Runway for Energy Mines and Resources in Ottawa they wanted to study the Alpha Ridge near the North Pole and we parachuted in there with a D-4 Dozer, Champion Grader and snowmobiles plus equipment like WAJAX water pumps to flood the runway that we were going to build.  It takes 48" of salt water ice to land a fully loaded C-130 Hercules aircraft,  there is some places we had 12 feet of ice, not a problem,  we stayed on the ice for 30 Days and our washroom was an igloo.  48 hrs after we left CESAR a Large Crack developed where the CESAR main Camp was, so we left in time.  I was the only Sapper that had a camera with him,  This photo album made it all the way to the CDS(Chief Defence Staff) in NDHQ in Ottawa, On.  I was the one that carried and jumped with TAZ 2CER 2Tp Mascot the Tasmanian Devil, he was no trouble. UBIQUE
TAZ in all his glory



















Photo of a Grader being Parachuted in that I had shown singer Donny Osmond, that got him interested in Jumping out of the Parachute Mock Tower in Edmonton, Alberta

Entry on Donny Osmond on this BLOG




Artic Foxes in Thule Greenland where we stopped for refuel playing with Taz 2CER 2Tp mascot that I jumped in Op CESAR with


There's me flooding the runway with a WAJAX pump

Don Harper that re-mustered to SAR Tech in the CF

 Our Washroom, an Igloo, you didn't waste time in there.  Plus the Top photo shows 2 inches of ice formed inside the tents due to Condensation, you could say it was cold.
This is Sylvain Tellier who was my roommate in P-109 barracks in CFB Petawawa and also we were on the same Field Engineer TQ-3 in CFB Chilliwack Taught by Sgt Jean-Yves Vermette that was our course Sgt and was suppose to be my Basic EOD(Explosive Ordnance Disposal) HA course instructor in CFB Chilliwack, BC. But 2 CER never let me go for some weird reason, Jean-Yves had given me all his course notes in a big 4" Binder. He later became course instructor for the Advance EOD HC course in CFB Borden, On, where the RCMP, hired him in-house and he's now a Post Blast Consultant/Investigator at the Bomb Data Center in Ottawa, On.  I believe he was also an Investigator assisting the USA when the Arthur P. Murrah  Federal Building, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma  was destroyed by Timothy McVeigh in the Largest Domestic Terrorist  event in the US.   Timothy McVeigh has since been executed in the US for his role in the attack.  The Oklahoma blast claimed 168 lives, including 19 children under the age of 6,[1] and injured more than 680 people.[2] The blast destroyed or damaged 324 buildings within a sixteen-block radius, destroyed or burned 86 cars, and shattered glass in 258 nearby buildings.[3][4] The bomb was estimated to have caused at least $652 million worth of damage.[5  
I ran into Jean-Yves in Vancouver when he came for a G-7 Summit meeting in Vancouver when I was with Intercon Security, he also introduced me to Shaun Brozer from the North Vancouver RCMP that is a Dog Handler for explosive searches(EVD) that we later used them at a NAF(National Abortion Federation) Annual Conference meeting in Vancouver

Jean-Yves at the Sappers Reunion in Gatineau, Qc that he hosted and organized









A big Coincidence, My Friend Jean-Yves Vermette use to be married to Michele Duguay which was friends with My Godson Anthony Grandmother Jocelyne Simard and Jean-Yves use to do his Banking at Caisse Populaire de Val Cartier where Gisele Simard use to work.  Small World

Sylvain Tellier now lives in St-Amable, Qc and is a Businessman.  He uses to go out with Lyne Ouellette that lived behind the FOREST Shopping Centre in North Montreal, Qc. on Rue Hotel-de-Ville I never forgot that. I've lost track of her and her daughter Karine, she's probably married and has a different last name now  Both me and Sylvain bought a Black 1984 Pontiac Fiero  Those were the days,  My Brother Emile had my Fiero from time to time, when we were on the same Base in CFB Chilliwack, BC, I would take his Van because I had a set of keys and the Van was a Shagin Wagon I had a lot of fun in that Van and leave him my Fiero which was only a two seater.  Sometimes he would come out of the Mess  with his friends and would find my Fiero there, so some of his friends had to walk.  I had over 350,000kms on it when I finally got rid of it in Tracadie, NB, a lot of people had Lemons with Fiero, but mine was good.  I even had Enseignes Luminex Signs Fluorescent decals/signs on it on each door and on the hood and had a Flashing  Red LED electronic sign in the back window with the programable keyboard to change the messages in the front seat.  It's the only car that I know that the Body was entirely Plastic and made by Mattel Toys, nothing rusted on that car even the engine was aluminum.  One of these days I'll probably buy myself another one, it was a fun car, not practical, but fun.  They stopped making them in 1988, but finding an old one should be no problem as they don't rust and they always look good.












2 comments:

  1. JP, I was the Air Force Mission Commander for Op Cesar and the navigator on the C130 that brought up the replacement dozer. I wonder if you remember the flight meals we delivered with that dozer. Thank you for publishing this blog - I've always wanted to have something to show my family about that mission.

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