3rd CAV YPres Unit Calgary
Jim Welsh

I was born and raised in Scarborough, Ontario, some Fifty plus years ago. I have always had an interest in mechanical things, and an
urge to travel (sand in my shoes my Mom said). To this end by the time I was seventeen, I had hitched to Kelowna and back to Toronto
twice.
It was during the second trip back as I was standing at the side of the highway, dripping wet in the pouring rain, that I noticed a
billboard “There’s no life like it”. Well this sign fired my imagination as it was a picture HMCS Iroquois heeled over and firing a missile,
way cool I thought.
Upon arrival back at Mom’s place in Ontario, I announced my intention of joining the Navy. “You’ll have to cut your hair” was dear old
Mom’s response, my hair at that point being long enough to sit on.
It was my intention to join as a sonar man or gunnery type or some other maritime type trade, as marching and sleeping in the dirt, was
to say the least not remotely interesting to me. At the recruiting centre they gave me the usual battery of aptitude tests and it was decided
that I would be a Hull Technician (shitter fitter).
Then I was off to CFB Cornwallis for basic, where I indeed learned to march and sleep in the dirt, after a bout of “Cornwallis Hack”
came graduation and it was unanimously agreed by the instructors that with my rifle scores it was a good thing that I was headed to the
Navy. Halifax was next for Seamanship training, then to the left coast and Esquimalt for my trade coarse. CFB Naden was fun and
Victoria a wonderful city.
Back to Halifax for my one and only posting, HMCS Iroquois, (yes of billboard fame) and I spent almost 3 years aboard, with lots of
travelling and excitement, a NATO cruise, Springboard in the Caribbean, and OPSAIL in NYC for their Bicentennial 4th of July week-
end 1976, being the high-lites. I’m sure that no one wants to hear about the fisheries patrols that we did.
After my time in the Navy, I went back to college to refine the skills that the military had started, eventually becoming a Draftsman. I
pursued this career through a long list of staff and contract positions all over the province of Ontario, while raising a family of three
wonderful kids and losing an ex-wife whom shall remain nameless.
During the summer of 2005 being under employed yet again, I packed what I could fit on the back of my 1980 650 Maxim, and headed
for Calgary. Arriving in this amazing town, and landing the best gig of my career, as a senior mechanical designer with a pipeline
inspection firm, I feel that the sand has finally left my shoes.
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