Desire to Engage in Combat

No hope private in battalion, working really hard. The warrant reads us a message and it says, “They are looking for privates untrained without tour experience for a door gunner.” It was a total mess up on the sheet. It was supposed to say, “Corporals, Mod 6, qualified tour experience.” So battalion, I jumped up I was just standing at attention. I jumped up and said, “Warrant, I would like to volunteer!” My self and three other no hope privates got to 408 for training. They told us they wanted to cut us because they messed up the letter of course. And I was heartbroken because this is my last chance and I knew for legitimate chance to engage in combat and seek and destroy the enemy. I knew it was my last chance. It was ending, the war. Everybody was talking about pulling out. So we, all three of us made the team and we all got to go over but we all knew that we had to prove that we were the best. So we studied our drills together. We were in the shacks. We PT’d. I hit the speed bag for sometimes thirty minutes and then played tennis and squash, anything fast paced. We did BJJ (Brazilian Jui Jitsu) and this was on our own time so my reflexes could go up because I wanted to make sure I didn’t mess up any movements. And during training it was really rigorous. We needed to know the GAU 21, the Dillon, the C6 aircraft safety, flight crew safety which was new for us. Tac Hel tactics, learning about Tac turns, plunging fire, even aiming the weapon on what side of the aircraft you are. It’s either top right of target or bottom left of target because of the rotor wash and pushing down or pulling up on the round after they come up at the end of the weapon. So we learned all that. Esprit de corps was beautiful. I became the batman which is a great honour. And Ash was my pilot. And it’s a British tradition to give their favourite private the title of batman so it was my job to polish his boots, to put his stuff up and I liked it, it was funny, I love the Queen, I love tradition so I was like right on! You’re a batman. So we did all the workup training. We immersed ourselves in the culture of Tac Hel and took great pride in being Patricia’s representing as door gunners. So the fact that I had the potential to protect troops on the ground I was very excited for. It drove me every day to work as hard as I possibly could.

Eager to serve overseas, Arthur shares his story of the preparation and training he underwent to be chosen for deployment.

Arthur Larimee

Mr. Arthur Larimee was born January 23, 1986 in Edmonton, Alberta. Growing up in Alberta and being involved in sports, Arthur always understood the importance of camaraderie and with this, was drawn to the idea of joining the military. With the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, Arthur trained as door gunner. He was a weapons technician and deployed twice to Afghanistan. After his second deployment Arthur left the military and together with his spouse Brittany, a fellow PPCLI, fulfilled his aspirations of opening a gym with the desire to have a place for countless service men and women to come together for support both mentally and physically, maintaining that bond of friendship experienced during service time. He and his wife have opened a clothing line and are proud entrepreneurs of the Iron King Gym Ltd in Kingston, Ontario.