No-badge Killick tells the story of life in the Navy
I was 17 years old in the summer of 1962. I had no summer job, my high school suggested we were both wasting our time and they thought I should pursue other options. There weren’t many choices available for me but, ready for change, I jumped into the deep end and joined the Royal Canadian Navy.
No-badge Killick is about those years. It was a journey that began as a young naive recruit and ended eight years later as a seasoned leading seaman, a submariner in Canada’s Cold War Navy.
I joined the Navy just before what was arguably the peak of the Cold War. That time brought us closer to war on our doorstep than any period between the Second World War and now. It is a period in history mostly ignored by our government and forgotten by the general public.
The federal government erected warning sirens in every community across Canada, and families built fallout shelters in their back yards. School kids were taught to seek shelter under their desks and to stay away from flying glass in the event of a nuclear attack. Tensions were very high.
There hasn’t been very much written about the Cold War Navy. Most of what I have found are either academic studies — almost all unreadable examinations of the Navy by and about former senior members of the Naval hierarchy.
I like to think my story takes another look at those days. From monitoring Soviet spy ships to sailing in a NATO Squadron showing Canada’s new flag, it looks at the day to day life of the regular seaman — the fun, the challenges, the camaraderie, the tragedies and frustrations — from the perspective of someone living and working in the lower decks.
No-badge Killick follows the modernization of the Royal Canadian Navy as the older World War fleet was replaced with ships designed and built in Canadian shipyards with technologies developed to be effective in the unforgiving North Atlantic. It looks at the tension with the Pearson government and the Navy’s opposition to the integration of Canada’s Armed Forces.
The book begins with the Cuban Missile Crisis and ends as the Western world’s frosty relationship with the Soviet Union was beginning to thaw.
Born in Grand-mère, Quebec, Gord Hunter has lived in six different provinces; as a result, he stubbornly refuses to be classified as a regional Canadian. He has lived in Regina for almost 20 years. No-badge Killick is available for $20 at www.nobadgekillick@blogspot.ca Shipping is free.