Chosen as Part of the Persian Gulf Contingent

Heroes Remember - Gulf War

Chosen as Part of the Persian Gulf Contingent

Transcript

I had just recently been posted to the ship that I eventually went to the Gulf on, HMCS Athabaskan, and I was newly trained naval electronics technician and when I got there it was about four or five months before the Persian Gulf exploded and I was in the process of, you know, learning the ship and learning the new equipment that I was going to be working on. I was a little older than a lot of the other people that were on board so when the government announced that they were sending ships somebody sat down and decided that I would make a good member of the crew. I was sent down to a place in New York State to try to garner information on a new piece of electronic warfare equipment that was going to be placed on the ship. I spent about a week down there and then when I got back I had a couple of days with my family and then the ship went out off the coast there to do a mini workups to try to work out any of the bumps with all of the new equipment that had been put on board. The ships were outfitted very quickly with a lot of new equipment that was designated for the new ships that were supposed to be coming out of line in the next few years. And in less than three weeks probably, a little bit more than two weeks, the military combined with the civilian DND dockyard workers accomplished what can only be described as a small miracle. They put, in that time frame, they did enough work normally to have taken a year, maybe a year and a quarter and they did it in about two, maybe a little more than two weeks.

Description

Mr. Snell explains the process he went through in becoming part of the crew on the HMCS Athabaskan and the work required in a short period of time before embarkment.

Bartley Snell

Mr. Bartley Snell was born February 2, 1956 in Regina, Saskatchewan. In 1977, he decided to join the military and with some encouragement about joining trades within the navy, Mr. Snell made the choice of naval electronic technician (tactical) holding rank of master seaman. During his time in the navy Mr. Snell sailed on the HMCS Athabaskan in active support of the Persian Gulf War. After almost 26 years of naval service, Mr. Snell retired from the military and now resides in Halifax, Nova Scotia with his family.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Recorded:: February 27, 2016
Duration:: 3:02
Person Interviewed:: Bartley Snell
War, Conflict or Mission:: Canadian Armed Forces
Location/Theatre:: Canada
Battle/Campaign:: Gulf War
Branch:: Navy
Units/Ship:: HMCS Athabascan
Occupation:: Electronics Technician

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Chosen as Part of the Persian Gulf Contingent

Heroes Remember - Gulf War