Generosity of Others Boosted Morale

When the action or the activity was low or when we were able to we’d have a barbeque on the flight, well we didn’t have a flight deck, on the quarter deck and before hostilities started we had Wacky Wheatley and entertainers come out from Canada and visited the ships and put on a show for us on the ships and we had, I don’t know if you ever heard of General John Cabot Trail, he’s a comedian. He came out with the program and it boosted morale considerably. And also we had tons and tons and tons of mail. We had school kids from across Canada writing letters and cards to the sailors and the helicopter; back then we didn’t have the internet, we didn’t have email, we got our letters by mail drop and, you know, it was flown over. Surprisingly the mail arrived fairly quickly. If it timed right it would have sometimes we got letters within 24 to 36 hours but other times it could be a week or two weeks. So we would actually have our letters numbered so that you knew if you got a letter out of sequence, you know, when you wife is writing you a story or something and you’re missing some of the details, it was because you hadn’t received the letter before that so you knew whether you were missing a letter or not. But there was bags and bags and so many bags of mail that arrived that we ended up getting everybody in the ship taking a handful of cards and letters and responding to the school kids back home and it was a very, sort of, moving experience for the sailors to do that.