Arctic/Offshore Patrol Ship AOPS

[Swampbuggy]

I not only had a tour, I spend nearly three months sailing in one.

VAN was outboard of us for about a week alongside in Pearl Harbor. It was interesting looking down on her hangar top from the bridge of MAX. Our flight deck was higher than VAN'S bridge.

The two man cabins were also a nice upgrade from a 6-12 man mess deck.

The overall height of the vessel was one of the most striking features. I was trying to gauge how far above the waterline the bridge was, by looking at the RHIB ferrying passengers around her. I’m guessing over 40 feet, but that’s kind of rough given how far away I was.

 

[GR66]

It'd be interesting to have any of the AOPS visit Churchill or Moosonee or any of the other ports in Hudson Bay or James Bay.

Does anyone have a schedule for the Great Lakes Deployment? The Kingston article mentions the cities being visited but no dates and a quick Google search didn't find anything.

 

[Swampbuggy]

Does anyone have a schedule for the Great Lakes Deployment? The Kingston article mentions the cities being visited but no dates and a quick Google search didn't find anything.

 

[Swampbuggy]

View attachment 88414View attachment 88413

Sorry GR, I got them inverted.

 

[GR66]

Sorry GR, I got them inverted.

Thank you!

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

WTF! Five days to sail from Toronto to Hamilton, and then 12 days from Hamilton to Windsor?

And there's no ice yet!

I thought they were faster than MCDV's.

 

[Swampbuggy]

WTF! Five days to sail from Toronto to Hamilton, and then 12 days from Hamilton to Windsor?

And there's no ice yet!

I thought they were faster than MCDV's.

Maybe it has something to do with the “harsh Arctic environment in Kingston” as the caption says…

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

Coma and semi-colon are your friends, Whig-Standard. And drop the "the" before "his".

 

[lenaitch]

Coma and semi-colon are your friends, Whig-Standard. And drop the "the" before "his".

Punctuation matters.

A woman without her man is nothing.
A woman; without her, man is nothing.

Let's eat, Granma.
Let's eat Granma.

 

[Ostrozac]

I think the only place the UN tripwire worked was in the Golan (prior to the civil war) the Sinai and Cypress .

It didn’t work in the Sinai. UNEF couldn’t prevent the 1967 war, and the Camp David accords intentionally didn’t even bother with the UN, MFO instead being a bit of a home brew solution that mostly works better than actual UN peacekeeping.

 

[PrairieFella]

It didn’t work in the Sinai. UNEF couldn’t prevent the 1967 war, and the Camp David accords intentionally didn’t even bother with the UN, MFO instead being a bit of a home brew solution that mostly works better than actual UN peacekeeping.

Man Ive wanted that tour for years. Got fucked out of it once and have never had a sniff since haha. Working in Sharm seems nice haha!

 

[GR66]

Had a chance to visit HMCS Harry deWolf yesterday. Arrived around 11am (the AllEvents website incorrectly said tours were from 10am-5pm but sign on site said public tours started at 11:30am). There were quite a few people there when we arrived, including a Navy League Corps. By the time we boarded (after about 1-/2hr wait) the line was probably triple in size, so a pretty good level of interest.

Visitors were boarded in groups of 20 and were toured around the Quarter Deck, the Flight Deck, Wardroom and Officer's Quarters, and the Bridge. Tours were led and stations represented by NCM's (Leading Seamen for the most part) and I thought they did a pretty good job answering questions from the visitors. Had a chat with one member about progress on Cyclone certification and another on how the NEP program is going.

The ship itself was certainly much more spacious and comfortable than from what I remember of my previous visit to a Halifax-Class. You certainly get a sense of how tall a ship it is when you're on the Bridge and Flight Deck but unfortunately it was docked alongside a row of trees so you couldn't really appreciate its size from the quay. My wife (who has zero military knowledge) enjoyed the tour and was quite interested in they things I told her about the ship and its role.

Unfortunately, while I think the crew did a good job with the tour itself, the CAF again missed an excellent opportunity to connect with the Canadian public. There was a captive audience waiting in line for a couple of hours who already obviously have at least a passing interest in the RCN. No booth from the CF Recruiting Centre. Nothing on the NEP Program. No CAF members moving up and down the line engaging with the visitors and telling them about the ship, the RCN and the CAF (other than a single PO from HMCS York at the front of the line releasing the groups). There could have been maps and pictures of the Arctic deployments giving visitors a sense of what the Canadian North is really like and what our role is up there, etc.

Overall it was great to get to see an AOPS in person and BZ to the crew for the tour but again the CAF doesn't seem to take the opportunity to help itself when given the chance to engage with the Canadian public.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

The Pacific Fleet were overwhelmed by the response the first time they showed up in North Van after Covid. They pulled it together and have "Fleet week" in combination with the Battle of Atlantic ceremony. they do a great job and attendance is very good.

 

[Swampbuggy]

Had a chance to visit HMCS Harry deWolf yesterday. Arrived around 11am (the AllEvents website incorrectly said tours were from 10am-5pm but sign on site said public tours started at 11:30am). There were quite a few people there when we arrived, including a Navy League Corps. By the time we boarded (after about 1-/2hr wait) the line was probably triple in size, so a pretty good level of interest.

Visitors were boarded in groups of 20 and were toured around the Quarter Deck, the Flight Deck, Wardroom and Officer's Quarters, and the Bridge. Tours were led and stations represented by NCM's (Leading Seamen for the most part) and I thought they did a pretty good job answering questions from the visitors. Had a chat with one member about progress on Cyclone certification and another on how the NEP program is going.

The ship itself was certainly much more spacious and comfortable than from what I remember of my previous visit to a Halifax-Class. You certainly get a sense of how tall a ship it is when you're on the Bridge and Flight Deck but unfortunately it was docked alongside a row of trees so you couldn't really appreciate its size from the quay. My wife (who has zero military knowledge) enjoyed the tour and was quite interested in they things I told her about the ship and its role.

Unfortunately, while I think the crew did a good job with the tour itself, the CAF again missed an excellent opportunity to connect with the Canadian public. There was a captive audience waiting in line for a couple of hours who already obviously have at least a passing interest in the RCN. No booth from the CF Recruiting Centre. Nothing on the NEP Program. No CAF members moving up and down the line engaging with the visitors and telling them about the ship, the RCN and the CAF (other than a single PO from HMCS York at the front of the line releasing the groups). There could have been maps and pictures of the Arctic deployments giving visitors a sense of what the Canadian North is really like and what our role is up there, etc.

Overall it was great to get to see an AOPS in person and BZ to the crew for the tour but again the CAF doesn't seem to take the opportunity to help itself when given the chance to engage with the Canadian public.

I remember the first time I took my kids to see an RCN ship at Queen’s Quay. There were 2 MCDV’s there, KINGSTON and GOOSE BAY. Like your experience, there was a considerable line that formed to take the tour. Luckily, we were pretty close to the front and as such didn’t have to wait as long. We had a chance to kind of take it all in and saw they had booths set up with diver’s stations, a pretty flashy looking bus and some folk from recruiting. The big surprise was when Admiral Lloyd and CPO Tom Riefesel came right over to my kids. The CRCN squatted down and stuck out his hand, “Hi guys! My name is Ron and I’m a sailor!”. He then pointed out a bunch of stuff on the ships and really interacted with the kids. He then continued down the line and did the same for everyone I could see. I can tell you that left a lasting impression on both of my kids and my son is still very interested in a military career.

So, I think you’re right. These events are a golden opportunity to plant a seed in people about the value of the CAF, but they need to be done properly with a lot of interactive content and personnel.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

I have noticed at the Fleet Week there are RCN types that do great at interacting with the public (the majority of them) and those who do it grudgingly. If you are going to run one of these event, make sure the pointy end is staffed by people that enjoy it and put the grumpy non-interactive ones behind the scenes doing some sort of support role.

 

[RangerRay]

I have noticed at the Fleet Week there are RCN types that do great at interacting with the public (the majority of them) and those who do it grudgingly. If you are going to run one of these event, make sure the pointy end is staffed by people that enjoy it and put the grumpy non-interactive ones behind the scenes doing some sort of support role.

As a grumpy non-interactive one, I agree!

 

[Underway]

Had a chance to visit HMCS Harry deWolf yesterday. Arrived around 11am (the AllEvents website incorrectly said tours were from 10am-5pm but sign on site said public tours started at 11:30am). There were quite a few people there when we arrived, including a Navy League Corps. By the time we boarded (after about 1-/2hr wait) the line was probably triple in size, so a pretty good level of interest.

Visitors were boarded in groups of 20 and were toured around the Quarter Deck, the Flight Deck, Wardroom and Officer's Quarters, and the Bridge. Tours were led and stations represented by NCM's (Leading Seamen for the most part) and I thought they did a pretty good job answering questions from the visitors. Had a chat with one member about progress on Cyclone certification and another on how the NEP program is going.

The ship itself was certainly much more spacious and comfortable than from what I remember of my previous visit to a Halifax-Class. You certainly get a sense of how tall a ship it is when you're on the Bridge and Flight Deck but unfortunately it was docked alongside a row of trees so you couldn't really appreciate its size from the quay. My wife (who has zero military knowledge) enjoyed the tour and was quite interested in they things I told her about the ship and its role.

Unfortunately, while I think the crew did a good job with the tour itself, the CAF again missed an excellent opportunity to connect with the Canadian public. There was a captive audience waiting in line for a couple of hours who already obviously have at least a passing interest in the RCN. No booth from the CF Recruiting Centre. Nothing on the NEP Program. No CAF members moving up and down the line engaging with the visitors and telling them about the ship, the RCN and the CAF (other than a single PO from HMCS York at the front of the line releasing the groups). There could have been maps and pictures of the Arctic deployments giving visitors a sense of what the Canadian North is really like and what our role is up there, etc.

Overall it was great to get to see an AOPS in person and BZ to the crew for the tour but again the CAF doesn't seem to take the opportunity to help itself when given the chance to engage with the Canadian public.

I will be entertaining the lineup when the ship pulls into Hamilton next weekend. It's my favourite part of these open houses, engaging with those on the jettyand pointing out things you can only see from the side of the ship.

Recruiting will be there as well.

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

I think a lot of what you get depends on the supporting reserve unit hosting the ship. It's up to them to provide shore side animation and to advise the local recruiting center of the opportunity. When they do it right, as Underway indicates STAR will (and, this being STAR, I am not surprised), then the opportunity is seized. Otherwise, the local unit that does "the least they can do" misses the mark for the whole navy.

On the other hand, as regards maps of where the ship went and its mission in the Arctic, my understanding is that this deployment for Great Lake cruise was a last minute replacement, so they may not have had the time to do all they would normally do for such deployment. We don't usually carry such promotional placards and educational material on all deployments.

 

[GR66]

I think a lot of what you get depends on the supporting reserve unit hosting the ship. It's up to them to provide shore side animation and to advise the local recruiting center of the opportunity. When they do it right, as Underway indicates STAR will (and, this being STAR, I am not surprised), then the opportunity is seized. Otherwise, the local unit that does "the least they can do" misses the mark for the whole navy.

On the other hand, as regards maps of where the ship went and its mission in the Arctic, my understanding is that this deployment for Great Lake cruise was a last minute replacement, so they may not have had the time to do all they would normally do for such deployment. We don't usually carry such promotional placards and educational material on all deployments.

As a note I did see a fair number of pers with HMCS York ballcaps milling around on the ship and taking pictures. Wasn't aware that they would typically be lead unit on the shore side of the visit (although the one PO at the boarding area was quite friendly and did a good job).

I wouldn't expect the ship to carry promotional materials onboard...I assumed that would fall under the Recruiting Center or CAF Public Affairs. You'd like to think that these kinds of things would be standard at events where the CAF has a presence and that a last minute change of ship being deployed wouldn't completely throw off their plans.

 

[dapaterson]

The rules on promotional materials are remarkably restrictive.