My 1999 Persian Gulf Deployment #15: Sydney, Australia - drunk in public and touring a submarine

These videos are from my first deployment to the Persian Gulf, June-Dec, 1999. I was aboard HMCS Regina which was a part of a US Battlegroup headed by the USS Constellation aircraft carrier.

Starring: Gary - Bearded Canadian friend who was living in Brisbane for a year, and
Steve - Australian friend, met him when I was in the 1st Canadian Signals Regiment in Kingston (1990-1993) and he was here on exchange. We were supposed to send one of our guys over there at the same time but that never happened.

I did a pretty good impression of him and I used to phone his guys and send them places. I re-used this accent in 1998 when I was in Halifax on a course and one of the instructors was from New Zealand, here on exchange. We went downtown one night and I pretended to be from NZ as well. Let me tell you, "Andrew from Auckland" got a hell of a lot more attention than "Doug from Ottawa" would have gotten. I didn't use my powers for evil though, which is more than I can say for Mike, the real NZ'er :) His wife told him before he left, "you're a single man while you're gone. Don't bring anything or anybody back". Wow, what a great wife! Problem is, she was probably doing the same thing at home. But I digress....

Steve foolishly let his teenaged son have his car for the weekend so the three of us walked around Sydney all day. I have no idea why there is no video of this. Here we are at Harry's Cafe de Wheels, right by the harbour where our ship was docked. As you might be able to tell, we're all a wee bit drunk. I bit into my sausage on a bun and the sausage shot out the other end, onto the ground.

The next day we took a tour of an Oberon-class submarine that was on display. The Aussies had long since retired them but Canada still had them in use. Wow, was that thing cramped. I'd go nuts if I was cooped up in one of those for 6 months. I'm not even all that tall, 6' or 183 cm. I heard the tallest guy to serve on one of those was 6' 5". He must have walked around like a hunchback for the entire time. How'd he fit into one of those tiny bunks?

I loved Australia, I stopped in Melbourne and Sydney this trip and when I went back to the Gulf in 2001/02, I visited Townsville and Brisbane. Great place, great people, great beer!!

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• HMCS Regina
• USS Constellation
• deployment
• persian gulf
• Sydney Australia
• Cafe de Wheels
• oberon submarine
• Doug FM.

[jandtcummins]

brings back a few memories, I served on O boats 1974-1976, and i'm 6ft 3in, learned to duck and weave in a hurry, concussion was frowned upon

[gabed13]

What a staggeringly attractive and manly fellow that bearded guy is!!