And now for something completely different
- Thread starter sunray
- Start date
If you had been in the Militia 50 years go you could have..... and even gotten PAID for doing it.
$220 a year, IIRC.
Less deductions.
You generally took home about $75 a year, but it was a barrel of fun anyway!
I qualified as Driver AND Gunner on the 76.2mmHV Shermans in 1963.
$220 a year, IIRC.
Less deductions.
You generally took home about $75 a year, but it was a barrel of fun anyway!
I qualified as Driver AND Gunner on the 76.2mmHV Shermans in 1963.
That was a few years to early for me, besides being the stupid sh!t I was when I was young I would have passed up the opportunity just like I passed up the opportunity for Air Cadets in Neepawa.
Kids, sheesh!
During the late 50s and early 60s, the Militia Units were allowed to carry a certain number of people on strength. The pay was allotted on unit strength.
If the unit was under strength the extra pay was divided up among the unit based on parade or exercise days.
I got paid for parading on Saturdays, to start, Wednesday and Thursday nights and weekend exercises.
The money was good enough to quite a drugstore delivery job at $0.50 per hour.
Summer call out to Vernon to train cadets was $219.00 per month for a Bombardier, if I remember correctly.
If the unit was under strength the extra pay was divided up among the unit based on parade or exercise days.
I got paid for parading on Saturdays, to start, Wednesday and Thursday nights and weekend exercises.
The money was good enough to quite a drugstore delivery job at $0.50 per hour.
Summer call out to Vernon to train cadets was $219.00 per month for a Bombardier, if I remember correctly.
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Multiple nights: advantage you guys had in the Big City.
Out in the small towns in the rural areas, it was one night a week, then 2 weeks at Shilo in the Summer for SMC.
Other times, usually get a range day on the new MTR with the C-1s, later C1A1s.
Problem, of course, was transportation and communication. Plus, in an agricultural district, most of the guys were farmers and on the land a lot longer than they are now. A John Deere D was no faster then than it is today! A-ruck-tuck-tuck-tuck-tuck...... You know the rest.
We never did get to throw bombs around, not even the old Mills type. Guess they figured that Armoured could do enough damage just driving over something.
Did you know that a Sherman can go straight through a 40-year solid forest growth in Second gear without even slowing down? True fact.
Out in the small towns in the rural areas, it was one night a week, then 2 weeks at Shilo in the Summer for SMC.
Other times, usually get a range day on the new MTR with the C-1s, later C1A1s.
Problem, of course, was transportation and communication. Plus, in an agricultural district, most of the guys were farmers and on the land a lot longer than they are now. A John Deere D was no faster then than it is today! A-ruck-tuck-tuck-tuck-tuck...... You know the rest.
We never did get to throw bombs around, not even the old Mills type. Guess they figured that Armoured could do enough damage just driving over something.
Did you know that a Sherman can go straight through a 40-year solid forest growth in Second gear without even slowing down? True fact.
Yup... we're cut from the same cloth smellie ...
Trained on Sherman (M4A2E8) & Centurion
Group 3 Gunner (RCAC)
Group 2 Driver Mechanic Tracked (RCAC)
Group 2 Signaler (RCAC)
CC and Troop Leader Instructor
Regards,
Doug
- Location
- West Quebec
That would be cool...for a gift
