Veterans Corner

Archana Cini, Lookout Newspaper, with Michael Erwin RCN veteran Michael Erwin finds purpose after retirement through art. At 63, he returns to school at VISA to develop his creative skills. Now pursuing a BFA, Erwin encourages others to embrace art. - For more than 40 years, the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) gave Michael Erwin a sense of purpose. After retiring in 2021 with no shortage of stories or skills, Erwin found himself facing a question other veterans may know well: who are you when the job that shaped you is gone?  Erwin first began service in 1981, joining as a reservist before transferring to the Regular Force in 1987. By the time Erwin reached retirement, the navy wasn’t simply a career.   “That long in the service leaves a mark,” he said. “The navy became a big part of who I was.”  When retirement approached alongside Erwin’s 60th birthday, he found himself apprehensive rather than excited, unsure what life after what sailors call swallowing the anchor might feel like.  “I thoroughly enjoyed the freedom that came with having no taskings or deadlines; the ability to do as I chose; and the satisfaction of not having to answer to chain of command,” Erwin said, though he added that his wife might disagree on the final part. However, the novelty of unstructured time only went so far.   “One can only drift productively for so long,” he said. “Though my days were filled with activity, there was something missing.” The navy, Erwin realized, hadn’t just given him skills, friendships, and stories over four decades — it had given him purpose.   Erwin had always doodled, on and off, for as long as he could remember, though he’d never taken any formal instruction and considered his artistic ability limited. When people asked what he planned to do in retirement, he’d often say he might “do something with art,” without much of a plan behind...

Archana Cini, Lookout Newspaper “This is Rescue 315. We have found the airplane — it’s crashed, and three people are injured. I repeat, we have found the airplane.”   - Ed Vishek in the summer of 1981, speaking on the intercom after locating a downed aircraft near Baker Lake, NWT  - Ed Vishek was a young boy watching the Avro CF-105 Arrow streak overhead when he first decided he wanted to fly.   “It was probably the hottest plane in the world at the time,” Ed said. “I wanted to fly that Arrow.” When the program was later cancelled by the Government of Canada, Ed settled on another hope for his adulthood.   “I couldn’t fly the Arrow anymore, so I decided on the next best thing — to fly for the navy.”  Ed Vishek was born in Sudbury, Ont., where his father worked in the mines before the family later settled in St. Catharines, 13 miles from Niagara Falls. His father, a veteran himself, had first immigrated to Canada at 19 after leaving a small country later absorbed into Yugoslavia.   “The way my dad tells it, we got here, we were given a package of cigarettes, a package of tobacco, a package of papers, and then got told, ‘Go.’ That was it.”  What followed was a string of odd jobs across the country, cutting wood in Quebec, mining coal in Alberta, and working a fishing boat off the coast.  Ed was an active sea cadet through childhood. During this time, he remembers sailing aboard His Majesty’s Canadian Ship (HMCS) Haida, a Second World War destroyer, and being shown the notches carved into the ship’s railing for each enemy ship it had sunk. Ed went on to graduate from the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) Wings Course in 1962, moving onto flying the Grumman S-2 Tracker (CS2F Tracker) out of Shearwater, NS....

Archana Cini, Lookout Newspaper “We have a really good team here. We’re not in any significant danger.”  - Ross Fetterly, on a phone call he made to his superior hours before the Second Intifada began  At 66-years-old, Ross Fetterly has a story for almost everything — a smelter tunnel in Kitimat; a night in a Kabul-bound convoy; a tour with a Ukrainian colleague who traded a Jesuit seminary for a career in Defence. Through 34 years of service in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), Ross has built a distinguished career in logistics and finance, alongside a repertoire of stories that have only gotten better with time. Today, Ross attends the Veterans Health Centre day program at the Veterans Memorial Lodge, a Broadmead Care Home.  Ross was born in northern Quebec, where his father worked as a chemical engineer. Here, Ross attended the town’s only English school.   “When I went outside, it was all French, and I learned French very quickly because of this,” said Ross. The family later moved to Kitimat, B.C., where his father then began work at an aluminum smelter fed by water piped 17 kilometres through a mountain. To him, this time of his life was “heaven for a young boy.”  As a young adult, Ross attended McGill University to complete a Bachelor of Commerce undergraduate degree, after which he landed a banking job. However, interest rates soon climbed to 17 per cent and Ross was left without a job after a mass layoff.    “I remember asking myself, ‘Do I really want to work in a bank? I’m a young guy. I want to be,’” said Ross. The next day, he sat down with a military recruiter and began his career with the CAF.  Ross was halfway through basic officer training in Chilliwack, B.C., when instructors pulled him aside to tell him that he’d already passed. His new job, they said, was...

Archana Cini, Lookout Newspaper. “There’s a lot of pride in doing your job properly. That was always the standard.”  – William (Bill) McIntyre  At 82 years old, William (Bill) McIntyre speaks about the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) with a clarity that suggests the sea never fully left him. Now attending the Veterans Health Centre day program at the Veterans Memorial Lodge, a Broadmead Care Home, McIntyre carries with him 32 years of service and an RCN career full of purpose.  Bill grew up on a farm in Prince Edward Island (P.E.I.) as one of seven siblings in a rural household. Life there was shaped by early mornings, physical work, and the rhythm of a large, busy family. His father both farmed and fished, as did his brothers, but Bill was looking for something different. That difference came early, in July 1965, when he enlisted in the RCN at 19 years old.  “I didn’t like farming very much,” said Bill plainly. “The navy was a good way of making a living, and I liked the work.”   What began as a decision to leave farm life behind as a young adult then slowly became a career that would span more than three decades. Almost immediately, Bill entered an apprenticeship program in marine engineering, a structured but demanding path that would define the rest of his working life.  “It wasn’t just a short course,” he recalled. “You went to school for years — machine shop, steam equipment, diesels — all of it.” From auxiliary machinery and boiler room certification to engine room qualifications and eventually charge tickets, Bill worked his way through each stage without pause. By the time he completed his training, which took him through both land and sea, he had built a technical foundation that made him a vital part of every vessel...

Archana Cini, Lookout Newspaper.   “A good soldier has to be understanding. It’s not just about his side of the story. He must understand all sides, and its context.”  - Alan (Jim) King  Meet Alan (Jim) King, Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) veteran and current resident at the Veterans Memorial Lodge, a Broadmead Care Home. From joining the cadets as a young boy to pursuing work in animal welfare following his retirement, Jim’s life is one defined by service and care for all those around him.  - When Jim speaks about life, it rarely unfolds in long statements. Instead, he often speaks in small, vivid moments — memories of meeting his wife with a fence between them, the first pair of pants he ever wore as a young boy. Together, these fragments build a full life, one shaped by duty and his enduring belief in understanding others.   Jim was born in the spring of 1936 in Uckfield, England. His father, a carpenter, died of tuberculosis when Jim was only eight weeks old. Not long after, Jim and his mother made the long journey to Canada, settling in Kelvington, Saskatchewan.   The transition was not simple. Jim still remembers the early days in Canada with striking clarity — not because of hardship alone, but because of what change felt like through a child’s eyes.  “The first few months I cried my eyes out,” he recalled, laughing softly.   But Jim was also excited to learn and explore. “I got long pants then, and I wore them to bed.”  In England, boys wore shorts well into childhood. To Jim, long pants meant something else entirely. “It was a big thing,” he said. “It meant I was grown up.” The symbolism of those pants stayed with him all his life, a powerful marker of belonging in a new country.   Soon after, Jim...

Consolidated with files by the CFB Esquimalt Naval Military Museum and Dignity Memorial  The Esquimalt and Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) community mourns the loss of Vice-Admiral (VAdm) (ret’d) Nigel David Brodeur, a leader and lifelong advocate for Canada’s military whose legacy spans generations of service. He was a member of the Brodeur family, with a long and distinguished history that stretches back to the creation of the RCN itself.  Brodeur passed away peacefully at the age of 93 on March 30, 2026, with family by his side.  Nigel Brodeur was born in Victoria on June 18, 1932, to Victor Gabriel Brodeur (d. 1976) and Doris Brodeur (nee Fages) (d. 1936).  Both Nigel Brodeur’s grandfather, Louis Philippe Brodeur, and father, Victor Gabriel Brodeur, held long and respected ties to the RCN. Louis Philippe was quite literally the ‘Father of the RCN,’ well-known for his service as Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier’s first Minister of the Naval Service; Victor Gabriel was in the very first cadre of naval cadets to join the service in 1909, and then served at sea and ashore through the two World Wars, rising to become the first Franco-Canadian to make flag rank. Nigel’s own service spanned the entirety of the Cold War, in addition to his influence helping set up the Canadian Patrol Frigate project that remains the backbone of the Canadian fleet today.  Nigel’s father was serving as Commanding Officer of His Majesty’s Canadian Ship (HMCS) Naden at the time of his birth. In 1950 Nigel entered the Canadian Services College Royal Roads, joining the RCN upon graduation as a midshipman in 1952. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Brodeur held a range of operational and leadership roles with the RCN, including service aboard HMCS Sussexvale, HMCS Beacon Hill, and as Weapons Officer aboard HMCS Kootenay during the Cuban Missile...

Archana Cini, Lookout Newspaper Three former Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) sailors who served together as teens during the Korean War reunited unexpectedly in their 90s at the Veterans' Lodge, a Broadmead Care home. The men shared memories of life aboard His Majesty's Canadian Ship (HMCS) Athabaskan II, from demanding boiler room work to long months at sea. Their reunion offered a powerful reminder of service, sacrifice, and the lasting bonds formed at sea. - For Roy Mackay, Gil Russell, and Don Russell, life in the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) as teens meant hard work and discipline. Almost eight decades later, life would give them an unexpected gift — a sudden reunion of shipmates now in their nineties. Now 92, 95, and 94 respectively, (Gil and Don are unrelated, and Don passed away shortly before being interviewed) the three reunited at Victoria’s Broadmead Care Society for the first time in decades. The last time they saw each other was when they were only 16, 18, and 19, serving aboard His Majesty’s Canadian Ship (HMCS) Athabaskan during the Korean War, a vessel often nicknamed ‘Athabaskan II’ or ‘Athabee’. A Tribal-class destroyer, Athabaskan II deployed on three wartime tours starting in 1950 with duties ranging from antisubmarine patrols to troop transport, evacuations, and bombardments. The vessel was in service to Canada from 1948 to 1966. Gil, Roy, and Don all deployed together during its third wartime tour, working as stokers in the boiler room. “I was glad to get out of the army and into the navy, you know,” said Roy. “The navy actually helped me find a job during my return to civilian life, and that was really important to me.” Roy shared details of his work once aboard Athabaskan II for his first deployment with the RCN. “It was freezing down...

Archana Cini, Lookout Newspaper The 25th Annual Concert of Remembrance took place Nov. 8 at the Dave Dunnet Community Theatre, bringing together hundreds in honour of Canadian veterans. The event featured performances by the Band of the 5th (B.C.) Field Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery, and students from the Canadian College of Performing Arts (CCPA). Proceeds benefited the Esquimalt Military Family Resource Centre (EMFRC) and Canadian Heritage Arts Society (CHAS). - Hundreds of Vancouver Island residents recently gathered at the Dave Dunnet Community Theatre to remember Canadian veterans through music and movement. A night of respect and reflection, the annual Concert of Remembrance returned on Nov 8 to honour our Canadian veterans and service members. The concert was co-presented by the Canadian Heritage Arts Society (CHAS) and the District of Oak Bay, bringing together the Band of the 5th (British Columbia) Field Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery, and the Canadian College of Performing Arts (CCPA). An annual tradition since the CCPA’s founding in 1998, the Concert of Remembrance celebrated its 25th show this year. The event opened with remarks from Kevin Murdoch, mayor of Oak Bay, and Lieutenant-Colonel (retired) Philip Sherwin. The night then took audience members through the realities and vulnerabilities of service with the Band of the 5th performing over ten compositions introduced by Master of Ceremonies Lieutenant-Commander (LCdr) (retired) Gerald Pash. To Captain (Capt) Daniel Moses, Director of Music Band for the 5th (British Columbia) Field Regiment, music has often played the role of an ultimate morale booster. “Music and song are crucial to being human, and that is even more apparent during times of duress. Think about the military action in Ukraine and how music, dance and song bound the Ukrainian people together against their oppressors,” said Capt Moses. “It was the same during the Second World War,...

Archana Cini, Lookout Newspaper CFB Esquimalt Naval and Military Museum unveils a permanent display honouring the late Commander (Ret’d) Peter Godwin Chance. The exhibit features his medals, uniform, and artifacts, celebrating a career that spanned from the - Battle of the Atlantic to the Korean War. The ceremonial paddle passed to his grandson Damon symbolizes remembrance, legacy, and family pride through generations. - We remember Commander (Cdr) (retired) Peter Godwin Chance. The life, legacy, and service of the late Cdr Chance now have a permanent home at the Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Esquimalt Naval and Military Museum. On Oct 15, family members, friends, Defence team members and representative of the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) and Naval Association of Vancouver Island (NAVI) gathered at the museum for the unveiling of a new, permanent display dedicated to the celebrated naval officer that includes Cdr Chance’s medals, uniform, and other personal effects. The artifacts have now been added to the Peter Godwin Chance Gallery, first named in his honour on his 101st birthday in 2021. Cdr Chance, who passed away at the age of 103 on April 9, 2024, was one of the last surviving Canadian officers to have served in the Battle of the Atlantic, the longest campaign of the Second World War. He took part in the Dunkirk evacuations, D-Day landings, and the evacuation of Singapore, serving aboard 13 ships over the course of his naval military career. Cdr Chance also survived the 1944 sinking of His Majesty’s Canadian Ship (HMCS) Skeena in the North Atlantic and combat during the Korean War aboard HMCS Cayuga. Born in Ottawa, he served from 1938 to his retirement in 1969, when his sense of duty shifted into public life. After his retirement, Cdr Chance volunteered with the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Society, Saanich Peninsula...

The subject for the statue,"Veteran Sailor" by artist Nathan Scott, is Capt(N) Ret'd John Mason served in the North Atlantic for the duration of the Second World War, and is wearing the same "square rig" uniform that he wore as a non-commissioned member (NCM) of the Royal Canadian Navy in 1942. Battle of the Atlantic Sunday commemorates the sacrifices of sailors and merchant seamen who gave their lives in the North Atlantic between September 1939 and May 1945, during World War II. [caption id="attachment_279" align="aligncenter" width="630"] "Veteran Sailor" by artist Nathan Scott Photo credit: Cpl Charles A. Stephen, MARPAC Imaging[/caption]