The Black Watch Regiment

Heroes Remember

The Black Watch Regiment

Transcript

It was my first regiment, Black Watch Royal Highland Regiment of Canada, in Gagetown, New Brunswick. Highland Battalion is always unqiue unique not only in dress but in sort of habits and policies and that sort of thing. We wore kilts, of course, we wore bonnets with the red hackle and we knew that we have come from a famous regiment, Black Watch is one of the famous wartime regiments, First World War, Second World War and Korea. So it was a great regiment to be born in. Well we had a lot of fun, we had a lot of characters in the battalion and we had the bagpipes, of course, and we celebrated the Highland days, the Highland birthdays, like Robert Burns and all that stuff. We had a lot of fun and the battalion was... I think had they been tested in battle would have done well. We did a lot of exercises but there wasn't any battle to go to in those days.

Description

Mr. Leavey speaks about being part of the Black Watch and his pride for the regiment.

Bill Leavey

Mr. Bill Leavey was born in Belleville, Ontario in 1948. He was the second oldest of 8 children. After obtaining his education, Mr. Leavey was very anxious to find employment and had a great sense of adventure for the Canadian Forces. He was very involved in sports and hunting and felt the army would be a good fit. After joining, Mr. Leavey received his basic training in Camp Borden, Ontario and became part of the Black Watch Regiment - a regiment he holds great respect for. As well as service in Canada, Mr. Leavey travelled to Germany and continued training for combat with greater focus on exercise and weapons training. In 1997, a highlight of Mr. Leavey’s career was when he joined the team in the recovery of the C-47 in Burma. After his retirement from the military, Mr. Leavey joined Veterans Affairs Canada and presently works with the Occupational Stress Injury Social Support (OSISS) network assisting military personnel and families after discharge from the forces. Mr. Leavey and his family reside in Belleville, Ontario.

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